Justin Luong, PhD 🏳️‍🌈🌾

@justinluong.com

3933 Followers 703 Following

Working Lands Asst Professor - UC Berkeley, Board Member at California Native Grassland Association, Restoration Ecology & Madroño CE/AE - 🏳️‍🌈 Restoration/EcoPhys PhD, Biodiversity, Rangelands, Climate Change, Science-Practice Gap - justinluong.com

Title: Seed traits may predict species success in habitats dominated by thatch-producing annual grasses

Speaker: Katherine Brafford, PhD Candidate, UC Davis

September 9, 2025 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Abstract: Community assembly frameworks propose that the species at a site are filtered by their traits from the regional species pool. Thatch producing non-native annual grasses, such as medusahead (Elymus caput-medusae), are common in the western United States. They alter environmental conditions and impose filters that have a mixed, but usually negative, effect on native plant, animal, and insect populations. In this study, we explore the abiotic effects of living medusahead, medusahead thatch, native vegetation, and bare ground cover types. We also examine if traits commonly thought to lead to plant success in medusahead-dominated habitats correlate with plant emergence and growth in living medusahead, medusahead thatch, native vegetation, and bare ground cover types. We selected a grassland site with high medusahead cover and created plots of each cover type in a randomized incomplete block design. We installed sensors to measure soil moisture and temperature, relative humidity, light, and air temperature. We selected 27 species native to and/or growing at the site that varied in seed mass, seed shape, native status, growth form, and bloom time. We planted seeds of each species into miniplots within each plot. We measured seed emergence, growth stage, and above-ground biomass. In this talk, I will present our results on seed traits. As hypothesized, greater seed mass, narrower seeds, and longer awns were correlated with a greater number of plants in both living medusahead and thatch cover. This study will shed light on how traits relate to community assembly; clarify mechanisms underlying annual grass invasion and grassland restoration outcomes; and inform future restoration efforts.

Contact Justin Luong (jluong4@ucsc.edu) with any questions.

Illustrated summaries of "Lessons learned from an interdisciplinary evaluation of long-term restoration outcomes on 37 restored coastal grasslands in California" by Lesley Goren (lesleygoren.com). Page 1 of 2

https://justinluong.com/menu/artandscience.html

A flyer for "California Native Grassland Association 2025 GRASS Award Speaker Series"

Reads: Join us for the CNGA’s 4th annual virtual speaker series that will showcase the amazing work undertaken in California Grasslands by GRASS Award winners from 2022-2024. You can contact Justin Luong (jluong4@ucsc.edu) with any questions. Register at CNGA.org/events

With a schedule of speakers below
9/9 - Katherine Brafford
9/16 - Andrea Nebhut, Deborah Ayala
9/23 - Ernesto Chavez Velasco
10/14 - Jessica Solis
10/21- Sophie Noda
10/28 - Lauren Glevanik

#CaliforniaNativePlants

Sun in green conifer canopy with blue skies, Humboldt Co California

Peppy the cat on a leash

Illustrated Summary of Native and invasive bunchgrasses have different responses to trail disturbance on California coastal prairies Page 1 by Garret Urban with two California Native Plants or Grasses (Danthonia californica and Stipa pulchra) and two invasives (Holcus lanatus and Dactylis glomerata)

Scientific illustration of Nipomo Lupine (Lupinus nipomensis), an endangered California Native Plant and an associated Trigonoscuta weevil beetle.

Justin at the University of California (Berkeley) sign near the north entrance of campus.

Luong Lab Scanner Burial

A rock at Albany Bulb that says Fairies for Revolution

A close up of western lily with anthers exserted and beautiful crimson petals

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#Botany
#bloomsky
#CaliforniaRaw
#lily
#NativePlants
#crimson

A flyer of Plant community assembly across environmental gradients by Ernesto Chavez-Velasco at Cal Poly Humboldt

Luong Lab updating their LinkedIn pages during a Lab meeting.

Two drought structures in Kneeland CA

Macro photo of Bromus carinatus by Justin Luong at Russian Ridge in San Mateo County, California, USA

It has beautiful flowers with purple/yellow anthers exserted from the spike with purple glumes and fluffy white stigmas at the opening.

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#CaliforniaRaw
#BloomSky
#Grasseshaveflowerstoo
#Poaceae
#Agrostology
#Botany

Close up photo of Lilium kelloggii. Bright hot pink flowers curled up like a chandelier with leopard spotting and vibrant red anthers hanging below.

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#BloomSky
#FlowerFriday
#RawCalifornia

Peppy the cat

Photo of a beach morning glory (Calystegia soldanella) with large flowers with a white star center filled with purple between star points making a circular flower with small green succulent leaves behind the flower surrounded by bare sand

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#RawCalifornia
#BloomSky
#FlowerFriday

Justin with a progressive Pride Flag in his office

9 students working in the Luong Lab at Cal Poly Humboldt on various lab tasks

Pride Flag of California native Plants
Red/Brown = Deschampsia californica (Tufted hair grass)
Orange = Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy)
Yellow = Erysimum menziesii (coastal wallflower)
Green = Festuca californica (California Fescue)
Blue = Iris douglasiana (Common Iris)
Purple = Calochortus unifloris (Oakland Star Tulip)
Pink = Clarkia ungiculata (Elegant Clarkia)

#Pride
#PrideMonth
#PrideFlag

In the foreground, A hand lens with a queer on the range sticker, with a redwood in the background of the photo

Peppy and Carl in the window with a progressive Pride Flag

Photo of Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus) at Point St. George in Del Norte County, California by Justin Luong

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#Flowers
#Asteraceae

Justin with a taxidermied mountain lion and thr Jorgeous pose with a Rainbow raise fist CAL IPC Let's Pull Weeds Together

#Pride

Progressive Pride Flag made in 2022 by Dr. Justin Luong from photos taken by Justin Luong of California Native Plants.

#Pride
#Pride2025
##CaliforniaNativePlants

Infographic of Nonperiodic grassland restoration management can promote native woody shrub encroachment - a paper published in Restoration Ecology by Justin Luong and infographic illustrated by Mia Rassam.

PDF accessible version available at justinluong.com

Macro photo of Bromus sitchensis previously B. carinatus, California Brome with different parts of the grass flower (spike) labeled

#CaliforniaNativePlants #CaliforniaGrasslands #Agrostology #Poaceae #CaliforniaRaw #Wildflowers

Graphic illustration (page 1) of Justin's Dissertation project assessing the role of functional traits in structuring California Native Plants restoration survival outcomes with extreme drought under IDE Drought Net Plots. See full illustration at https://justinluong.com/assets/pdf/Luong%20Grasslands%20Vol%2030%20No%204%20Ch%201%20graphical%20summary%20(1).pdf

California Oat Grass (#Danthonia californica) #macro shot of the spikelets fully flowering with anthers exserted and stigmas fuzzy and fully in view 😍 Taken in Willits, CA in Mendocino County 5/22/25 by Justin Luong

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#Agrostology
#Poaceae
#CaliforniaRaw
#Wildflowers

A close up #macro photo of #Limnanthes bakeri with #dew on the petals making the meadow foam 🌊

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#Limnanthaceae
#RangelandEcology
#CaliforniaGrasslands

Justin in a field of Hosackia oblongifolia with other native forbs like Camassia, Ranuculus and Limnathes bakerii and Pleuropogon californicus and many nonnative perennial grasses

Rangeland Resource undergraduate Majors and two masters students and the range program faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt West Gym in preparation of graduation

Luong Lab Meeting and Potluck

Lab cabinet full of ziploc bags

A hillside of flowering Tritilea laxa in Winters, CA

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#NativePlants

A heart shaped vernal pool

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#VernalPools
#RawCalifornia

A close up photo of Castilleja ambigua var. humboldtiensis at Arcata Marsh with bright vibrant pink-purple flower tops and a bright yellow where the floral beak exserts the corolla. This #hemiparasitic plant in the #Orobanchaeae family also has darker color leaves because it makes a very minimal amount of chlorophyll

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#CaliforniaRaw

A field of gold created by goldfields (#Lastheniacalifornica) with small #Plagiobothyrs greenei scattered within at Dye Creek Preserve

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#Asteraceae
#CaliforniaGrasslands

A photo of a flowering Lupinus nipomensis by Justin Luong. The leaves are curling upward towards the light with succulent decumbent stems and bright flowers that are pink on the upper banner and wings on the lower portion of the whorl and darker purple as it ascends with a white banner spot. #CaliforniaNativePlants

Wendy and Angelina in the foreground taking plant functional traits with Tonia walking from the background in a short prairie grassland filled with native forbs

A close up of Gilia tricolor with light purple to pink petals and dark magenta towards the inner corolla and a bright yellow at the interior of the corolla and exserted blue tipped #anthers

#NativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#SpringFlowers

A close up of #Limnanthes douglasii ssp. rosea inflorescence with a native bee pollinating a flower in the center of the frame. Flowers are bright white with a rosy center and some gold fields (Lasthenia californica) dotted in the back

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#CaliforniaGrasslands
#RawCalifornia
#

If you aren't already, BB wishes you a truly & absolutely beautiful day filled with magic & whimsy of all sorts!

A field of Amsinkia menziesii

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants

Luong Lab Members after Field Work at Cypress Grove on a rainy day

Luong Lab members after field work

Justin at Russell Ranch in Davis, CA pulling Bromus hordeaceous. Beautiful green foreground with plot rebar and a cloudscape in the background

A screenshot of a testimonial page from the Loik Lab on LI-COR website when the LI-600 was first released featuring now graduated Loik PhD Alum Justin Luong and Daniel Hastings

ASS Net Sticker on a phone

Touching grass - Festuca californica a 6-8ft tall grass

#CaliforniaNativePlants
#NativePlants
#TouchGrass