People

Jon Bennett (Associate Professor)

I am a plant ecologist with broad interests; however, most of my work these days focuses on plant-soil interactions in natural and seeded grasslands, with an additional focus on invasive species. Before starting at USask, I did my PhD at the University of Alberta on plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-pollinator interactions in grasslands. I followed up my PhD with two postdocs: one at the University of Tartu on trait based approaches to predicting invasion and one at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan on plant-soil interactions, focusing on mycorrhizas. When I  am not hanging out with my kids, I can be reached at jon.bennett@usask.ca

Martina Cardoni

Jack Royle

Jack joined the lab in June 2024 and will be working on soil microbiome assembly in Canadian grasslands.

Sheila Taillon (MSc)

I completed my BSc in Physical Geography with a minor in Biology at the University of Regina.  I am a professional agrologist (PAg) with several years of experience in the environmental field. I worked for four summers as a biological field technician for Nature Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan Watershed Security Agency monitoring the endangered piping plover (Charadrius melodus). I then worked for a summer with the University of Manitoba as an East Block Grazing Experiment Assistant in Grasslands National Park. This research work evaluated the effects of cattle grazing intensity on the nest survival of five songbird species.

Most recently I worked as an environmental consultant in SE Sask where my focus was primarily on vegetation monitoring and management in disturbed native prairie and tame grasslands. I love native grasslands and enjoy working hard to restore disturbed native grassland areas back to their original form.

I am returning to academia mid-career after recognizing that I wanted to learn more about the research process. Following graduation, I want to apply my research and analysis skills to improving methods and processes for native grassland restoration. In January 2022, I joined the Bennett Ecology lab as a MSc student where I am investigating the combined use of herbicides and fertilizers to enhance leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) control.

Suma Ghosh (PhD)

I came from Bangladesh and joined the Bennett Ecology Lab as a PhD student since January 2022. Before that, I completed my BSc degree majoring in Agriculture and MSc degree majoring in Environmental Sciences from Bangladesh. My MSc research was exploring the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on the biochemical parameters of arsenic treated field pea. With this research, I got a hand in mycorrhizal research techniques, and found my passion for mycorrhizal fungi. Following that I joined Bennett’s lab as a PhD student and here I am trying to optimize the benefits of AMF in forage crop species. To be more specific, my research attempts to identify plant and mycorrhizal traits responsible for mycorrhizal responsiveness to the varieties of Alfalfa and Sainfoin. Additionally, there has been research for identifying possible mycorrhizal inocula in salinity tolerance of forage crops. Hopefully, my research will bring interesting findings to bring sustainability in forage crop production.

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Yun Huang (MSc)

Yun joined the lab in May 2022 and will be working on how harvest affects plant-soil feedbacks in forage mixtures.

Runli Yuan (MSc)

Runli joined the lab from China in September 2022 and will be working on how management and community contexts influence the carbon storage capacity of native versus and non-native forage species.

Rebeca Teixeira (PhD)

I was born and raised in the Brazilian Amazon region. I completed a BSc in Environmental Engineering from Pará State University (Brazil) in 2018, with an undergraduate thesis about the Amhertieae tribe (Fabaceae) collection at the IAN Herbarium, where I was an intern. From this experience in the plant sciences, I went on to complete an MSc in Environmental Sciences, specialization Ecosystems and Biodiversity in 2021 from a double degree program between the University of Hohenheim (Germany) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). There I had the opportunity to participate in different projects related to invasive plant species, which became a special interest of mine, and wrote my master thesis on the role of botanical gardens in the introduction and spread of invasive plants in Europe. I joined the Bennett Lab in September 2022 where I am investigating how mycorrhizas influence invasion in grasslands, with a focus on leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula).

Zinat Akbarzadeh (MSc)

Itaii Applebaum (PhD)

Itaii joined our lab in January 2024 and is working on intraspecific variation in microbiome assembly in Canadian grasslands.

Leonardo Henning (MSc)

Leonardo joined the lab in September 2024 and will be working on grazing mediation of plant-soil feedbacks.

Soudeh Farzadfar

Soudeh completed her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan in December 2022 and joined our group at the start of 2023. She has been leading the establishment of our new absinth control and barley inoculation projects, but contributes to the lab in so many other ways!

Raiza de Almeida Mesquita

Raiza joined our group in May 2024 and manages our molecular biology lab.

Khoa Dinh

Khoa is a molecular lab technician that joined us in April 2024.

Bahati Chisala-Nyekanyeka

Bahati joined the lab in June 2023 as a Project Manager. She brings experience in lab and project management to the team.

Hanh Pham

Hanh joined us as a lab tech in August 2024 and does alot of glamorous sample processing and collection.

Janelle Card - Mycorrhizas and grassland succession

Undergraduate research thesis students

Erin Anderson - Leafy spurge effects on forage

Seth Lundell - Microbially mediated drought resistance

Carolynn Zdan - Competition and defoliation effects on leafy spurge

Matthew Trefiak - Control of common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)

John Paul Wasan - Absinthe invasion in the prairies

Emily Soveran - Temporal variation in plant-soil feedback

Obaida Elshamy - Multi-year effects of mycorrhizal suppression on common tansy

Graduate students

Stephen Awodele (MSc) - Plant-soil feedback in alfalfa

Aisa Kuper-Psenicnik (MSc) - Stress effects on mycorrhizas in alfalfa

Erin Malis (MSc) - Non-target effects of repeated herbicide application

Feng Zhang (visiting PhD student) - Plant diversity and mycorrhizal benefits

Mehran Ali (visiting PhD student) - Mycorrhizal ecology of grasslands

Jiahua Zheng (visiting PhD student) - Grazing effects on mycorrhizal fungi

Postdoctoral fellows

Dr. Lysandra Pyle - Mycorrhizas in native and tame grasslands 

Mitacs interns

Leonardo Henning - Plant-soil feedback in the Canadian prairies

Jeanne Riccardo - Ecosystem services in Canadian prairies

Eva Rojas - Plant-soil microbe interactions in grasslands

Undergraduate research assistants

Dawson Conlon

Danielle Dordu

Maia Pepler

Avriel Banks

Tue Nguyen

Katie Kennedy

Hannah Dyck

Minh Nguyen

Spencer Kutcher

Emily Wudrick

Lauren Whytock

Erin Anderson

Alicia Caplan

Jacqueline Gelineau

Anna Jacobsen

Amanda Mitchell

Lee Paulow

Chris Thorne

Nicole Wensman

Seth Lundell

Stuart Matthews

Catherine Liu

Terava Groff