I am interested in what drives large scale patterns in species interactions and communities to inform conservation decisions. My work focuses on food webs as a glimpse into the health and biodiversity of an ecosystem, focused mainly in tropical systems. I am passionate about interdisciplinary science and work closely with computer engineers to use novel techniques examining food web structure. I also believe science is a space for everyone, and local knowledge is crucial for understanding study systems, and I seek this out through community engagement.
Current Projects
Influence of primary productivity and fragmentation on food web structure
I am examining the role of these metrics from remote sensing data in mammal food web structure across the continent of Africa. I compare the topology of these graphs using network theory. We hope to understand how land use change and habitat loss impact species interactions and ecosystem functioning. Preliminary results here! Using camera traps and acoustic recorders to examine food webs in various levels of disturbed forest
Pairing camera traps and acoustic recorders allows me to get occurrence data for various species in a forest. I can then model occupancy for species, weigh food webs with occupancies as a probability of the interaction, and model what would happen if species were removed from these food webs, comparing results across gradients of vegetation and fragmentation. You can read more about this in my blog! |
Past Projects
Examining interspecific aggression in Hetaerina damselflies Using citizen science data, field observations in Costa Rica, and chemical analyses of insects, I examined how pigmentation may have developed as a response to interspecific aggression. You can read more about this work here. Detection of simulated patterned echo packets by bottlenose dolphins
Through an internship with the Navy Marine Mammal Program I examined echolocation patterns in dolphins, particulary the use of rapid "packet" echolocation. We found that this pattern did not provide an advantage in passive listening for the dolphins. You can read about this study here. The effect of anthropogenic noise on bird vocalizations in a Western Amazon forest
During a field course in Peru, I used microphones and speakers to examine bird vocalizations in response to human conversation, predator signals, and cicada noise. |