Karen Beard

Dr. Karen Beard is a Professor in the Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center. She has been at USU for 22 years, where her research focuses on species interactions and subsequent impacts on ecosystem processes, especially involving non-native species and climate change. She currently has research in Alaska, Hawaii, Brazil, and Utah. She has work with a wide range of taxa from amphibians to birds to plants to microbes, and is particularly known for her research on the invasive coqui frog in Hawaii. She is also an expert in climate change effects particularly in western Alaska, focused on changes to herbivory, flooding and warming effects. The ultimate goal of her research is to improve decisions about how to manage habitats and species in the face of global change. She has over 11,800 citations, an h-index of 43, and i10-index of 94. She has been awarded over $3 million in external funding from NSF over the past 3 years on 3 different projects. She receives over 1200 citations/year. She has published on average 7 manuscripts/year over the past 10 years. Dr. Beard involves students, from undergraduates to post-graduates, in every aspect of her research.