What chemical elements make up a vertebrate and in what proportions? Working with theoretical, wildlife, and landscape ecologists, I studied the elemental composition of a small vertebrate and how it varies among individuals.
Food quality varies over space and time in natural systems. Animals respond to this variation by making space use decision. I work with data from a small terrestrial herbivore to test if it varies its home range size with variation in its preferred foods’ nutrient content
Animals are constantly on the move to find and exploit high quality food patches. These movement, which happen at small spatial scale and on a daily basis, hold the potential to link habitats with different productivities and nutrients availability. I am working to develop a mathematical model to describe these links and their implications for ecosystem dynamics and conservation policies.
Information is a fundamental, if understudied, currency of life and is everywhere in nature. I am co-leading a team of researchers from various ecological backgrounds to integrate biological information theory with metaecosystem theory. Our goal is to provide a research framework to help shed light on the role of this currency in shaping natural systems.
Nutrient transfer across ecosystem boundaries is a fundamental part of ecosystem functioning. Yet, it is quite challenging to study it in the field. I am collaborating with researchers from Yale University to develop a framework to help future studies of this phenomenon.