The theme of global change pervades my research interests, which seek to inform issues related to these questions: How do habitat factors affect migratory wildlife populations?, How can we predict the effects that climate change, and specifically a warming atmosphere, will have on wildlife?, and What trends exist in the population dynamics of exotic species, and can we use these trends to predict subsequent ecological patterns?

Elucidating the effects of human-induced global change on ecosystems requires consideration of spatial and temporal processes. Climate change and biological invasions are two of the most profound and (increasingly) irreversible examples of human-induced global change. Climate change has elicited rapid and often unexpected shifts in species distributions and phenological processes. Biological invasions, catalyzed by anthropogenic transportation, have dramatically reduced global biodiversity and have strained fragile ecosystems (and economies). The unifying element of climatological inquiries is a long-term (e.g., >30 year) interval, while for biological invasions the fundamental aspect is the translocation of organisms in space. These stressors therefore serve as archetypal study systems to examine the consequences of both the spatial and temporal components of global change.

From openflights.org

Additionally, I'm interested in invasion ecology and the dynamics of introduced populations. My past research has involved estimating and predicting lags in biological invasions, as well as spontaneous and inexplicable population collapses.