Quantitative Ecologist
RESEARCH
Understanding biodiversity across environments, scales, and ecological systems.
My research combines field ecology, large biodiversity datasets, spatial analysis, and predictive modelling to understand how habitat structure, environmental gradients, and environmental change shape species and ecological communities. Across dryland, wetland, and human-modified systems, I am particularly interested in research that connects ecological understanding with conservation, restoration, and environmental management.
DRYLAND ECOLOGY
How do habitat structure and environmental gradients shape biodiversity in drylands?
Dryland ecosystems provide a powerful setting for understanding how species and ecological communities respond to environmental constraints. My research asks how aridity, vegetation structure, water availability, and human modification shape where species occur and how communities are assembled across desert landscapes.
My work spans field-based studies of shrub-associated vertebrate communities in southern California and western Nevada to large-scale analyses of bird communities across dryland cities. By combining field observations, community-science data, and spatial and quantitative approaches, I aim to identify the habitat features and ecological processes that support biodiversity across increasingly modified and environmentally variable dryland systems.
Plant Ecology, Invasion & Vegetation Structure
How do plant communities, vegetation structure, and biological invasions reshape ecological systems?
Plants structure ecological communities by shaping habitat, resources, and environmental conditions across landscapes. I am interested in how vegetation structure, plant distributions, and biological invasions influence biodiversity, particularly in systems undergoing rapid environmental and land-use change.
My work ranges from examining how shrub density and vegetation structure influence vertebrate communities in desert ecosystems to large-scale analyses of non-native plant distributions and first detections across California. By integrating field observations with biodiversity occurrence data and spatial analyses, I aim to better understand how plant communities and invasions reshape ecological systems and how these patterns can inform monitoring, restoration, and early detection.
QUANTITATIVE & SPATIAL BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE
How can large biodiversity datasets reveal ecological patterns despite uneven observation?
Large biodiversity datasets offer powerful opportunities to study ecological patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales, but uneven sampling and observer behavior can obscure the underlying signal. I use quantitative and spatial approaches to separate ecological patterns from variation in where and how biodiversity is recorded.
My work uses community-science data, including iNaturalist and eBird, to study species richness, endemism, community composition, and habitat associations. By combining spatial analysis, statistical modelling, and bias correction, I aim to produce robust biodiversity insights that can support monitoring and conservation prioritization.
WETLAND ECOLOGY, HYDROLOGY & WILDLIFE
How do changing hydrologic conditions reshape wetland habitats and wildlife responses?
Wetland ecosystems are tightly linked to the timing, depth, and variability of water. I study how hydrologic conditions interact with water quality and habitat structure to influence ecological responses across large freshwater systems. I am particularly interested in understanding how changes in water regimes propagate through wetland ecosystems and shape habitat quality, resource availability, and wildlife responses.
My current work at Lake Okeechobee combines long-term ecological monitoring, hydrologic metrics, and predictive modelling to examine responses ranging from submerged aquatic vegetation and prey resources to wading bird foraging and nesting. By linking water-management conditions to multiple levels of the ecosystem, I aim to improve ecological forecasting and generate information that can support wetland restoration, conservation, and environmental management.
CONSERVATION, RESTORATION & PREDICTIVE ECOLOGY
How can experiments and ecological models help guide conservation and restoration under environmental change?
I am interested in using ecological data not only to describe patterns, but also to anticipate how species, communities, and habitats may respond to changing environmental conditions. My work examines how experimental, quantitative, and spatial approaches can support conservation prioritization, restoration planning, biodiversity monitoring, and the identification of conditions associated with resilient ecosystems.
Across projects, I combine field experiments, long-term monitoring, biodiversity data, environmental gradients, and predictive modelling to translate ecological relationships into decision-relevant information. This includes forecasting responses to changing hydrologic conditions, identifying biodiversity priorities, evaluating restoration and habitat-management questions, and exploring ecological outcomes under alternative future scenarios.