We are community ecologists who seek to understand the fundamental ecological processes at play in restored ecosystems. We believe in the interdependence of ecology and restoration: while a basic understanding of ecological processes can help us reconstruct degraded habitats, our failure to achieve restoration success can elucidate fundamental ecological relationships in need of further study. More specifically, we study relationships between plants and resource mutualists such as rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi, the ecology of restored prairies, and the causes and consequences of beta diversity.