Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensive Plants podcast, the official podcast of

Indefensiveplants.com. What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How's everyone

doing this week? I'm doing great because one of my biggest influences throughout my research

career is on the podcast today. I welcome Dr. Frank Gilliam, who does amazing work on plant

community dynamics, especially how they

relate to things like acid rain or nitrogen deposition.

Nitrogen, we think it's great in an agricultural setting.

More is usually better for plants, but in ecosystems like forests, it can throw a real wrench

in the gear and really change species dynamics.

And Dr. Gilliam has a fascinating career studying those things.

So I don't want to keep you from it any longer.

Let's just jump right into it.

Without further ado, here's my conversation with Dr. Frank Gilliam.

I hope you enjoy.

Thank you. with Dr. Frank Gilliam. I hope you enjoy. All right, Dr. Frank Gilliam, it is an honor to have you on the podcast. I have been a fan of your work

for years. You have highly influenced my own research, but for those that haven't read anything

that you've put out, how about we start off with an introduction? Tell everyone a little bit about

who you are and what it is you do. Okay. My name is Frank Gilliam. I grew up in Lexington,

Kentucky, and it's a good place to start because I really give my parents a lot of credit for how I came to be a plant ecologist. I was long interested in nature, just hiking around. Very fortunate to be to grow up in Lexington, Kentucky.

Lexington, not itself, but that part of Kentucky was surrounded by natural settings.

So state parks and nature preserves, these kinds of things, and they always indulge my interest in nature, even at a really young age.

Nice.

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