Background:
I am an integrative applied ecologist, broadly interested in how organisms respond to changing environments. Although much of my research aims to understand natural population drivers such as predator-prey interactions, density-dependence, and stochasticity, my questions are frequently couched within the context of relevant anthropogenic threats including habitat alteration, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. My primary taxonomic focus is on reptiles and amphibians for three important reasons: 1 Theyhave always fascinated me; 2 they are critical components of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems but are among the most imperiled vertebrates; and 3 their unique ecological and life-history characteristics lead to interesting, but poorly understood, emergent population, community, and ecosystem-level processes. My research uses descriptive, experimental, and theoretical approaches to understand mechanisms underlying population dynamics and landscape-scale patterns of distribution and abundance.