People

Research Interests:  In my research, I seek to determine how changing environments affect organisms’ abundances, traits and ecological interactions. Achieving this goal requires understanding how species respond to natural environmental variation, as well as understanding how they respond to human-caused disturbance such as habitat destruction and climate change. Understanding species’ responses will play a critical role in developing conservation strategies for imperiled species, and control strategies for harmful species. My main study organisms are amphibians, which are undergoing severe worldwide declines. It is important to determine why amphibians are declining and how we can stop those declines because amphibians provide important ecological services (e.g., insect control) and they can also serve as a sensitive indicator of environmental change that might directly harm humans (e.g., pollutants).

Research Interests: Brady is interested in studying how interactions between amphibian species influence their behavior at the tadpole and juvenile stages, and if such effects on behavior are contingent on climatic variables and experiences at earlier life stages. As different amphibian species come into increasing contact due to human influence (e.g., climate change), these interactions could have wide-reaching effects throughout wetland and forest communities in North America. Brady has conducted previous work on the predatory roles of wood frog (Rana sylvatica) tadpoles, and plans to continue to study them as a focal species. 

Research Interests: Haley is interested in studying how habitat degradation (e.g., artificial light at night; ALAN) influences amphibian behavior and interactions between different amphibian species.   

Haley recently published some of her undergraduate research in Oecologia:  Altadonna, H. R., & Beaty, L. E. (2025). Effects of selfing and outcrossing on transgenerational responses to predation risk. Oecologia, 207(6), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-025-05729-w