Research
My research focuses on how ecological processes, such as environmental variability, dispersal, and disturbance; influence community structure, species distributions, and ecosystem-services. Additionally, I am interested in how changes in climate and habitat will alter these underlying ecological processes and impact community and population dynamics. I value research research that works to bridge the gap between ecological theory and real-world biological systems, with the goal of supporting effective management, restoration, and conservation.
Currently, my work focuses on disentangling the relative effects of a community’s environment, diversity, and spatial-distribution on ecosystem services using the host associated microbial communities of California pitcher plant, Darlingtonia californica. D. californica provides an ideal system for metacommunity research with well-defined communities (contained in each leaf), clear ecosystem functions (insect degradation), and environmental variability (leaf age and conditions).
Check out my blog for further updates and insights into this work.
Past Projects
The Ecological Impacts of Aerial Fire Retardants
Fire suppression and climate change are driving significant changes in wildfire patterns across the western United States. Historically, fire played a natural role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, reducing undergrowth and creating a mosaic of habitats that supported diverse species. However, a century of fire suppression practices has altered these ecosystems, leading to dense, fuel-rich forests highly susceptible to intense wildfires. Climate change compounds these risks, as rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and unpredictable weather patterns make fire seasons longer and more severe.
Current wildland firefighting efforts rely heavily on aerial fire retardants to quickly and effectively combat the spread of large fires,
especially in remote or difficult-to-access areas. These chemical fire retardants are deployed by planes and helicopters, creating containment lines that slow the fire’s progression and allow ground crews more time to establish control. While critical in combating forest forest, little is known about the long term impacts of aerial fire retardants on local ecosystems.
Aerial fire retardants are composed of 80-100% ammonium-phosphate. While effective at slowing fire progression, ammonia-phosphate is better known as a plant fertilizer, and has been shown to contribute to eutrophication in waterways near agricultural land. The limited research on the ecological impacts of ammonia-phosphate fire retardants has focused on their potential lethal effects on terrestrial and aquatic species, ignoring their potential to act as “nutrient pulses” in nutrient limited habitats. My past research focused on understanding the impacts of ammonia-phosphate fire retardants on cyanobacteria and algae growth in streams and lakes. My primary research objective was to investigate whether excess fire retardant could contribute to harmful algae blooms (HABs – cyanobacteria) in ecosystems after aerial fire retardant use.
Preliminary lab based results showed that the addition of fire retardant to mixed and single-isolate cyanobacteria communities dramatically increased growth compared with controls. I plan to further investigate these findings, and pair these lab based results with field data in the future to further understand the long-term effects of ammonium-phosphate fire retardants.