Julie Stromberg is a plant ecologist and botanist who specializes in riparian and wetland ecosystems. She researches how human activities in arid and semiarid regions influence riparian plant populations, communities, and landscapes. Most recently, she is investigating factors relating to endangerment and recovery of imperiled wetland plant species.
Professor Stromberg studies vegetation-hydrology interactions. She conducts some research at reference sites, where human influence is minimal. Other research takes place at sites altered by river damming, ground water pumping, effluent discharge, or urbanization. By revealing the links between patterns and processes, she provides resource managers with information that can help inform conservation and restoration efforts.
Some of the methods she and her students have used are greenhouse experiments, soil seed bank studies, seed dispersal tracking, dendrochronolgy, and field sampling of vegetation and flora along rivers and wetlands of the desert Southwest.