Area(s) of Specialization:
- Climate Change; Comparative Phylogeography; Conservation Genetics; Emerging Infectious Disease; Host-parasite Coevolution; Hybrid Zones; Mammals; Natural History; Phylogenetic Systematics; Speciation.
Our research has global scope, although there is a strong emphasis on northern hemisphere small mammal and parasite assemblages, conservation of Arctic biodiversity, and the dynamics surrounding ecotones between major biomes such as the boreal forest-tundra suture zone at northern high-latitudes and the Great Plains-eastern forest suture that bisects North America from west to east.
My research is highly specimen-based, relying on museum resources that have been built by past generations of wildlife biologists to vouch for the existence of a given species or set of species, at a given time and place.
My research therefore incorporates field expeditions to sample study species from sometimes extremely remote areas, filling in knowledge gaps of species distributions and reducing "data deficiency" as a factor that still influences biodiversity management, even for mammals.
Broad Research Areas:
- Phylogenetic Systematics, Phylogeography, and Conservation Genetics
- Hybridization, Speciation, and Host-parasite Co-evolution
- Small mammal trophic dynamics and community evolutionary ecology.
My background is in mammalian biogeography and molecular ecology. These disciplines constitute an essential foundation for understanding biodiversity responses to contemporary environmental change. My research strongly emphasizes integration among major disciplines (ecology and evolution) and among interrelated taxonomic groups (mammalian hosts and their parasites) for better understanding the complexity of diversification, demographic change, and interactions among disparate groups of organisms through time. In particular, I investigate mammalian host interactions across zones of contact (locations where shifting ecotones are causing unprecedented species interactions).
Skills and Expertise:
- Ecology and Evolution
- Biodiversity
Subject areas:
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research Focus:
- Mammalian systematics and phylogenetics.
Research Specialty:
