My research interests focus on disturbance ecology and reproductive ecology, using a combination of field sampling and molecular ecology tools. I have studied the ecology of flooding in riparian woodlands, harvesting in conifer forests, disease in hardwood woodlands, and insect predation in grasslands. Much of my work explores clonal growth in plants in order to understand the interaction of disturbance regime with plant reproduction and growth structure at the population and community scale.
1. Disturbance Ecology Disturbance is a major determinant of ecosystem structure and function. I am interested in both human and natural disturbance as an ecological process in diverse ecosystems. Harvesting, insects, flood management, diseases, and species introductions are all examples of disturbances that can kill organisms, remove biomass, alter microclimate conditions, and affect energy flow and nutrient cycling. My research looks at the role these influences play in population and community ecology, particularly with regards to reproductive ecology.
2. Reproductive Ecology
Clonal plants are interesting model species for the study of reproduction and growth structure under varied disturbance regimes. In general clonal plants can both reproduce by seed or grow laterally and develop potentially independent ramets. There are significant ecological tradeoffs to either means of reproduction. I am interested in how varied disturbance regimes affect clonal growth and what this tells us about:
A large number of tree species have a significant but understudied clonal growth component. Yet, most ecological work has been developed with the assumption that each stem in a forest stand is a distinct genetic unit. My lab has shown that in Salix exigua and Sequoia sempervirens this results in an underestimate of genet size and an overestimate of the number of genotypes in a population by as much as 500%. In my work I revisit old and develop new ecological models incorporating an understanding of this clonal dimension. For the purposes of my research I have developed a methodology using molecular genetic techniques for the accurate identification of tree clones.
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