Andrea's research interests include rare plant restoration and conservation, feedbacks between plants and the soil ecosystem, and invasion ecology.  Andrea received her PhD in Organismal Biology and Ecology from the University of Montana (2006), comparing the biochemical effects of the invasive forb, Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed) on soil nutrient cycling and plant communities in Centaurea’s native and invaded ranges.  Her MS (2001) research at San Diego State University looked at the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on the fitness and genetic diversity of a rare salt marsh daisy, Lasthenia glabrata ssp. coulteri.  As an undergraduate in Natural Resources at Oregon State University (1998), Andrea conducted research on the effects of cattle grazing on soil properties in riparian meadows in northeast Oregon.  She has also worked for the Coast Range Association, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and as a science educator at the elementary level through upper-division college courses.

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“All that is born, all that is created,
all the elements of nature
are interwoven and united with each other.
All that is composed shall be decomposed:
everything returns to its roots:
matter returns to the origins of matter.”

Gospel of Mary (translation by Jean-Yves Leloup),

~second century C.E.

Publications:

Thorpe, A.S., V. Archer, and T.H. DeLuca. 2006. The invasive forb, Centaurea maculosa, increases phosphorus availability in Montana grasslands. Applied Soil Ecology 32:118-122.

 Thorpe, A.S. and R.M. Callaway.  2006.  Plants and soil ecosystems:  positive feedbacks and their potential to persist.
Pages 323-342 in Cadotte, M.W., S.M. McMahon, and T. Fukami, eds. Conceptual ecology and invasion biology: reiprocal approaches to nature. Springer, The Netherlands.

Callaway, R.M., J.L. Hierro, and A.S. Thorpe. 2005. Evolutionary trajectories in plant and soil microbial communities. Centaurea invasions and the geographic mosaic of coevolution. Pages 341-364 in Sax, D.f., J.J. Stachowicz, and S.D.Gains, eds. Species invasions: insights into ecology, evolution, and biogeography. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, MA, USA.

Kauffman, J.B., A.S. Thorpe, and E.N.J. Brookshire. 2004. Livestock exclusion and belowground ecosystem responses in riparian meadows of eastern Oregon. Ecological Applications 14:1671-1679.