Research

I aim to conduct research that satisfies my inherent curiosity about the natural world, is broadly informative to our understanding of how ecosystems operate, and can be applied to solve contemporary conservation problems. I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at WSU working with collaborators from WSU, University of Idaho, and University of Tasmania to evaluate the cascading effects of Tasmanian devil declines on carrion decomposition. Specifically, I am investigating if devil declines affect the structure and function of scavenging food webs and the foraging decisions of mesoscavengers.

For my graduate work in the Orrock Lab, I worked in the southeastern US to understand how human activities in both the past and present generate spatial variation in species interactions and their outcomes, with a focus on mammalian foraging behavior. I was specifically interested in the longleaf-pine woodland ecosystem, which is a critically endangered ecosystem and provides essential habitat to some endangered wildlife species. Longleaf-pine woodlands have the potential to be biodiversity hotspots because of their historically diverse understory plant communities. Since these woodlands host a suite of mammal species that play potentially important roles for the dispersal and persistence of plants, I studied a broad range of mammalian predators and prey to understand how their behavior shapes plant communities. I evaluated how the overlay of past agricultural land use and contemporary disturbances in longleaf pine woodlands affects seed-granivore, plant-herbivore, and predator-prey interactions. I also studied the unique role of mammalian predators as seed dispersal agents.