Environmental Studies Institute: Who We Are | Faculty and Staff


		Who We Are \| Faculty and Staff \| Virginia Matzek

	Virginia Matzek
	Director of Campus and Community Programs Office: Montgomery House 874 Lafayette Street Phone: (408) 551-6006 Email: vmatzek@scu.edu

	PhD in Biology, Stanford University, 2005
	Curriculum Vitae

My Research

I’m a plant physiological ecologist with research interests in restoration ecology, ecosystem ecology, and biogeochemistry. I’m particularly interested in how plant traits can alter ecosystem functioning through their effects on soils and nutrient cycling. Some invasive species have the capacity to affect biogeochemical cycling, and in many cases soil disturbance, or alterations to soil nutrient regimes, feed back to encourage invasion by exotics. Restoration ecology must therefore take into account not only the presence of invasive species, but the interactions between plants and soils, in order to suggest effective management tactics. I also maintain research interests in unique soil-plant interactions, such as the pygmy forest community along the Mendocino coast, and on tropical soils and nutrient cycles.

Currently, I have two ongoing restoration experiments—a star thistle eradication and monitoring experiment in Mendocino County, and a perennial grass restoration experiment at Ulistac Natural Area, just a few miles from the SCU campus. The latter project is testing whether mitigating the probable nitrogen saturation of the disturbed Ulistac soils can help favor native species over exotic thistles and annual grasses. In winter 2007, I will be recruiting biology or environmental science students to get research units—and potentially a publication—for work on this experiment. For more information on doing restoration ecology research, please contact me

My Teaching

By the time students are in college, they are ready to do more than just receive information; they are ready to generate information. I see my job as helping students become independent learners, and especially to learn from data and information that they produce themselves. I think the earlier that you take yourself seriously as a researcher—even if that research is just for a class assignment—the more you learn and the more you enjoy the process. Consequently, I ask nearly all my students—even non-science majors—to do research, and to become scientists, in class.

In addition to gathering and analyzing data, two skills that are vital to success (in school and beyond) are critical thinking and clear writing. The only way to develop these skills is by practicing. Therefore, in my classes I put a lot of emphasis on writing practice and on evaluating the evidence in support of competing ideas.

ENVS 10: The Joy of Garbage

ENVS 11: Introduction to Environmental Science

ENVS 133: California Plant Communities

ENVS 141: Environmental Biology of the Tropics

ENVS 144: Natural History of Baja

ENVS 151: Restoration Ecology

ENVS 156: General Ecology

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