Overview: I am a community ecologist whose interests lie broadly in the fields of basic and applied ecology, particularly biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. I currently conduct research collaboratively with other faculty at UC-Irvine and do not run my own lab. Recently, my collaborative work seeks to understand how contemporary patterns of plant adaptation to environmental clines (e.g. across latitude and elevation) will mediate responses to predicted environmental change and subsequently influence plant-animal interactions. I then seek to determine the implications of my results for conservation and restoration of these communities in a changing environment. Within this framework I ask questions such as:
- Do populations across a species range vary in functional traits and plant performance?
- Is such variation due to local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity?
- Is such variation driven by the abiotic environment?
- Are plant traits and performance plastic in response to manipulations of environmental factors (e.g. precipitation, nitrogen deposition)?
- How do plant responses to the abiotic environment cascade up to influence whole communities of associated species (e.g. arthropods)?