about us

The Maerz Lab is located within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. The Warnell School is more than 100 years old, making it the oldest school of Natural Resources in the South.  Warnell's mission is to prepare leaders in the conservation and sustainability of nature and to discover ways to restore and better use tnatural resources.

 

Within our lab, we focus on the ecological and evolutionary processes that create and sustain biodiversity, and we work at the challenging interface between organismal and ecosystems ecology.  Working at this interface  gives us novel perspectives on how humans impact ecosystem processes and wildlife, and how the conservation of animals relates back to ecosystem function. We primarily [but not exclusively] use amphibians and reptiles as focal species to address many of our questions.  

 

In addition to research, our lab supports the  UGA and Warnell teaching mission, and we serve as home to the Herpetological Society at the University of Georgia.  We support a large public outreach program to promote wildlife sciences and the stewardship of our regional natural heritage.