Battles Lab

mkh [at] berkeley [dot] edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research is focused on understanding the interactions between fluvial processes and riparian vegetation dynamics, and how alterations to these interactions may affect the long-term persistence of riparian forests. Broadly, my interests include riparian and plant ecology, floodplain restoration/conservation, water resources management, landscape ecology, effects of altered disturbance regimes on vegetation dynamics, and Mediterranean river systems.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Currently I am investigating threats to persistence of pioneer riparian forests in the Central Valley of California. I am interested in understanding the linkages between hydrogeomorphic processes and dynamics of pioneer tree species within abandoned channels, using the middle Sacramento River as my study system. Specifically, I am investigating whether these abandoned channels may provide an alternate recruitment pathway for the dominant riparian tree species, Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii), in this landscape. Field studies are focused on assessing the current pattern of stand structure and spatial distribution of cottonwoods at the site- and landscape-scale, using field-based mapping/surveys, GIS, analysis of historical aerial photographs, and dendrochronological techniques. Outdoor mesocosm studies will focus on the effects on cottonwood recruitment of varying substrate texture/water availability and competition with herbaceous vegetation.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Northern California Botanists Scholarship (2009)
Chancellor’s Fellowship (2007-2009)

PUBLICATIONS

Stella, J.C., M.K. Hayden, J.J. Battles, H. Piégay, and S. Dufour. (In prep) Riparian forest initiation in response to channel abandonment on meandering rivers. For submission to Freshwater Biology.

Dufour, S., M.K. Hayden, J.C. Stella, and J.J. Battles. (In prep) Pattern of understory terrestrial vegetation colonizing abandoned channels along meandering rivers.

Hayden, M.K. 1999. The effects of elevated carbon dioxide and nitrogen addition on seed quality of five California annual grassland plants. Master’s Thesis, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, California.

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

M.K. Hayden, J.C. Stella, J.J. Battles, S. Dufour, and H. Piégay. 2009. “Drivers of pioneer riparian forest dynamics in abandoned channels: an alternate recruitment pathway?”, 94th Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Abstract OOS 11-5. http://eco.confex.com/eco/2009/techprogram/P15125.HTM.

Stella J.C., M.K. Hayden, J.J. Battles, H. Piegay, S. Dufour, A.K. Fremier. 2008. A conceptual model of riparian forest response to channel abandonment on meandering rivers. EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Fall 2008 Meeting Supplement, Abstract H31H-07.

Fremier A.K., J.H. Viers, M.K. Hayden, J.C. Stella. 2008. Floodplain Heterogeneity Drives Riparian Vegetation Composition and Structure Through Channel Meander Migration and Channel Abandonment. EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Fall 2008 Meeting Supplement, Abstract H33B-1007.

M.K. Hayden, J.C. Stella, J.J. Battles, S. Dufour, and H. Piégay. 2008. Riparian forest patterns in abandoned channels on the middle Sacramento River: an alternative recruitment pathway for pioneer riparian vegetation in gravel-bed meandering rivers. Oral presentation at the 5th Biennial CALFED Science Conference (Global Perspectives and Regional Results: Science and Management in the Bay-Delta System), 22-24 October, 2008, Sacramento, California.

Dufour S., H. Piégay, M.K. Hayden, J. Stella, and J.J. Battles. 2008. Impacts de la dynamique sédimentaire sur la végétation terrestre en plaine alluviale, variabilité spatiale et interactions d'échelles (Impacts of sediment dynamics on terrestrial vegetation of alluvial plains, spatial variability and scaling). Séminaire "Interactions végétation et contraintes physiques" (Workshop on vegetation interactions and physical constraints), 28-29 January 2008, Grenoble, France.

Stella, J.C., M.K. Hayden, J.J. Battles, H. Piégay, and S. Dufour. 2007. A conceptual model of geomorphically-driven riparian forest dynamics along the middle Sacramento River, California. Poster presented at the 8th biennial State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference, Oakland, CA, October 16-18.

Hayden, M.K., W.M. Swaney, A.J. Keith, C.D. Jaquette, M.D. Reil, J.C. Stella, and B.K. Orr. 2008. Former agricultural fields restored to riparian floodplains along the lower Tuolumne River, California: inundation patterns, fish utilization, and revegetation results (updated vegetation results). Annual Meeting Abstracts (Fall 2007). Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America: Vol. 89, No. 1. Abstract PS 16-167. http://esameetings.allenpress.com/2007/P6529.HTM

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Graduate Student Instructor, Terrestrial Resource Ecology (ESPM 102A), Fall 2009