Collections Manager, Vascular Plants
Kabaum@umich.edu
Office Information:
1048 Research Museums Center
phone: 734.764.2407
Herbarium;
Collections;
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology;
Collections Staff
Education/Degree:
Ph.D., Baylor University, 2020
M.S., East Tennessee State University, 2014
B.S. University of Michigan, 2012
About
Fields of study: Applied paleobotany, dicot leaf physiognomy
Research interests: I am an applied paleobotanist, meaning that I study modern plants to better understand fossil plants. Plants, by their nature, are closely tied to the environments they live in. Paleobotanists use patterns of leaf size and shape to estimate paleoclimate. My research is focused on testing the underlying assumptions of these paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction methods. To do this, I primarily use herbarium specimens to study patterns of leaf physiognomy across geographical regions as well as within groups of woody dicot angiosperms.
