Why I Do What I Do

In order to curb accelerated losses of biological diversity and interruptions in the natural state of biological communities, scientists must understand the ecological factors that control the behavior and distribution of species over multiple spatial and temporal scales. This requires research on two complementary areas:

Science needs a baseline understanding of energy

flow among organisms and their environments,    

which is essential for determining how recent

changes in environmental conditions – natural or

otherwise – have shaped their ecology.   

Ecology and conservation require a historic

context to determine if current declines in animal

populations are part of natural cycles forced by

climatic factors, or are unique events driven by

human perturbations of global climate and/or

ecosystem function.

My use of biochemical proxies to study the flow of energy within and among ecological communities–which I often couple with a deep temporal perspective–provides unique insights into these topics.

CINCLODES FIELDWORK!! In January 2010, Carlos Martinez del Rio, Terry Chesser, Michael Tabak, and I traveled to Chile for our first season of fieldwork on the Cinclodes project; see my Niches webpage for more information.  Overall, a successful field season during which we drove ~4000 miles and collected 5 species of Cinclodes and numerous prey from Arica, near the Peruvian border, to Puerto Montt where the Pan-American Highway ends in the south.   

NEWS