Research Program                                   

Plant ecology and conservation:  Our work is focused on how abiotic and biotic factors shape growth and patterns of vascular plant distribution and abundance, and how this scientific knowledge can be applied to preservation and restoration of plant species.  Of particularly interest are population biology, including long-term demographic monitoring, population viability analysis and plant reproductive ecology (variation in seed mass and germination, heterocarpy, breeding systems, pollination biology). Model systems include weedy as well as rare taxa of coastal systems, such as federally listed seabeach amaranth of beaches of the Atlantic coast and (Pitcher's thistle, Houghton's goldenrod, Lake Huron tansy, Asteraceae) along the freshwater dunes of the upper Great Lakes. Collaboration with other ECU Biology faculty asks how biodiversity of communities is structured by disturbance and nutrients, including the response of plants and their herbivores to mowing and fertilization at ECU West Research Campus. Past research includes GIS applications to rare species management, fatty acid analysis, nectar chemistry, nutrient analyses, seed germination ecology, resource allocation along elevational gradients and forest succession.

My other interests include teaching and STEM education reform as well as recruitment and retention in science, particularly of women and under-represented groups.

Courses Taught

BIOL 3100. Plant Biology.

BIOL 3230/3231. Field Botany

BIOL 4200/4201. Population and Community Ecology

BIOL 7920. Conservation Biology

Recent Publications

Sellars, J.D. and C. L. Jolls. 2007. Habitat modeling for Amaranthus pumilus: an application of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data. Journal of Coastal Resources 23: 1193-1202.

Jolls, C. L. 2006. Ethics in science: cardinal sins and heavenly virtues. Southeastern Biology: 383-389.

Jolls, C. L., J. D. Sellars, Sarah E. Johnson and C. A. Wigent. 2004. Restore Seabeach Amaranth; A Federally Threatened Species, Habitat Assessment and Restoration of Amaranthus pumilus, (Amaranthaceae) Using Remote Sensing Data. 2001 Natural Resource Presentation Program, RMP Project Statement CAHA-N-018.000, National Park Service, Final Report. 116 pp.

Jolls, C. L. 2003. Populations of and threats to rare plants of the herb layer: More challenges and opportunities for conservation biologists. pp. 105-151 in Gilliam, F. S. and M. R. Roberts. The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.

Hamze, S. I. and C. L. Jolls. 2000. Germination ecology of a federally threatened endemic thistle of the Great Lakes, Cirsium pitcheri. American Midland Naturalist 143: 141-153.

Laboratory Personnel: Past and Present