Val's area of research is desert soil algae. She identifies and quantifies cyanobacteria, chlorophytes, and xanthophytes from desert soil sites in the western U.S.A. She advises students working on bacterial and algal floras from desert soils. We have been collaborators for almost a decade.

Larry's area of research is lichen florisitcs and ecology. He has collaborated on studies of cryptogamic crusts, providing expertise on both lichen and bryophyte taxonomy. He is curator of the extensive Herbarium of Nonvascular Plants at the Monte L. Bean Museum at Brigham Young University. We have been collaborators for over 15 years.

Rex has considerable research experience in algal ecology and floristics, and has particular strength in diatom taxonomy.  We thus have considerable overlap in interest.  Lately we have been conducting studies together in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We are both involved in the All Taxon Biodiversity Inventory spearheaded by the park and Discover Life in America. 

Miles's area of research is fish development and ecology.   He has collaborated with me on projects in which we are examining fish stomach contents for diatoms, with the intent to do water quality assessment based on these fish-collected samples.  We have collaborated on several student projects in this field, and are also interested in research at the Woodlake Environmental Field Station in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Dave has studied the contribution of cryptogamic crusts to the nitrogen budgets of semiarid and arid lands. He specifically determines relative contributions of nitrogen fixing organisms to the desert nitrogen budgets through determination of nitrogen isotope ratios. We have been collaborators for several years.

Louise has extensive expertise in green algal systematics, and is interested in phylogenetics of the basal portion of the green plant clade.  She is a current collaborator on our NSF-funded BSIR survey of biotic diversity in microbiotic crusts of western North America.  She uses both morphological and molecular approaches to algal systematics.

Steve has collaborated in our cyanobacterial amendment research from its inception in 1992.  Since Steve left  USACERL we have also collaborated with his replacement at CERL, Gwyn Howard, as well as continuing to involve Steve in his new position at the University of Colorado.

Valerie Flechtner, John Carroll University
Larry St. Clair, Brigham Young University
Rex Lowe, Bowling Green State University
Miles Coburn, John Carroll University
Dave Evans, University of Arkansas
Louise Lewis, University of Connecticut
Steve Warren/Gwyn Howard, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory