Research in the lab reflects our broad training within ecology. We are particularly interested in questions pertaining to community ecology and conservation biology. We use a combination of field, laboratory, and computing methods to better understand how macro- and micro- organisms interact with fungal pathogens and anthropogenic disturbance and how these interactions change community assembly processes.
Current Project Themes
Ecological Modeling - The conservation of biodiversity has received increased attention due to trends of human-mediated species declines and extinctions. Drivers of these declines include habitat destruction and degradation, pollution, emerging pathogens, and climate change. The lab uses a combination of species distribution modeling, climate change modeling, and land use data, to better guide the conservation of rare and threatened species as well as working to understand and predict the threats of emerging wildlife pathogens such as Snake Fungal Disease and the Chytrid fungi.
Snake Fungal Disease - Wildlife fungal pathogens have become a major conservation concern over the past few decades. One of the more recently emerging fungal pathogens is Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (Oo) which is the causative agent of Snake Fungal Disease (SFD). The lab is interested in using a variety of methods to better understand this emerging pathogen as well as its effects on both snake host and snake microbiome.
Community Assembly - Elucidating how patterns of community structure relate to underlying structuring variables and processes of community assembly is a primary goal of community ecologists. Further, understanding how disturbances such as pathogens and anthropogenic disturbances influence these processes is vital for the conservation of biodiversity. We use a variety of field and molecular methods (including metabarcoding and high-throughput sequencing) to understand how processes that shape both macro and microbial communities change in the presence of pathogens and other disturbances.