Research

My work spans the gamut from local-scale trophic dynamics to global-scale patterns in landscape limnology. I am interested in the mechanisms that govern lake food web structure and function across heterogeneous landscapes and in understanding patterns in community dynamics occurring across scales. My early research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab sparked my interest in mountain freshwater ecosystems initially, and I have since been increasingly focused on freshwater ecosystems more broadly (including reservoirs) as a potential model for testing deeper ecological questions.

Currently, I am exploring the abundance, distribution, and vulnerability of lake ecosystems across the United States, as well as examining drivers of community and food web ecology across space and time. I am also studying the food web ecology of lake ecosystems in California’s Sierra Nevada and am investigating the effects of mega-wildfire on these lake communities and their food webs.