I have recently joined the lab of Jonathan Losos in the Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow: My research is motivated by two simple questions: "Are there general patterns in nature?" and "Is there a single (or small number) of general processes underlying these patterns?" The answer to the first question is an enthusiastic "YES"!! The second is less clear. Of especial interest to me is how properties of communities - diversity, phylogenetic structure, and trait distributions - change along broad-environmental gradients and across spatial scales (local to regional). I am interested in which factors predict changes in these properties through space and time, and how ecological and evolutionary processes interact with abiotic conditions to produce these changes. I approach these questions using statistical analysis of large continental and global datasets. Much of my research uses treefrogs (Hylidae) in the New World as a study taxon, but I also have tested various hypotheses using data on mammals, birds, butterflies, trees, and beetles. |  |
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Research Interests |