STORIES

Disease Ecology

We work on a variety of disease systems. In the past, the community ecology of Lyme disease and tick-borne pathogens was a major focus. Currently we work on how deforestation in the southern Amazon interacts with biodiversity (hosts), vectors, and pathogens to influence disease risk to humans. Our primary focus is Leishmaniasis, which is transmitted […]

Salmon, Humans, and Wildlife

Pacific salmon are fantastic (and tasty) animals. They are born in freshwater, migrate to sea, and return to their natal stream where they spawn and die. They provide an enormous pulse of marine derived nutrients to terrestrial systems. Predators, and particularly bears, rely heavily on salmon. Humans also rely on salmon for livelihoods and food. […]

Human Livelihoods and the Tropical Biodiversity Conservation

Subsistence hunting provides a crucial food source for rural populations in tropical forests but is often said to be unsustainable. However, previous methods treat sustainability as a binary ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, which is particularly problematic because the answer to that question depends entirely on the spatial scale being considered. To remedy this, my research […]

Wildlife Ecology, Trophic Cascades, and Indirect Effects

I am interested in the interactions of predator species and the causes and consequences of coexistence versus competitive exclusion. For example, my research explores the possiblity that wolves suppress coyotes, which allows fox populations to increase. This has implications for our understanding of how strongly top predators structure ecosysems. Our current research explores the role of bears in […]

Environmental Genetics

We operate an environmental genetics lab with separate spaces (on distinct floors) for high-DNA and low-DNA applications as well as a biosafety lab for working with pathogens. Major projects include DNA metabarcoding for animal diet analysis and food webs. We have now processed well over 10,000 carnivore scats from across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Environmental […]