Building an energy web for the Everglades aquatic and aquatic-derived food-web using data from a literature review to identify important nodes, predator-prey relationships, importance of different energy pathways, and summarize trophic links to aid in conservation and restoration. Manuscript in prep.

Quantifying stoichiometric niches using carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous ratios to determine nutrient requirements of invasive species and asking if localized phosphorous enrichment that results from alligator-engineering of pond habitats facilitates meeting those nutrient requirements for introduced species.

Determining the relative importance of autotrophic (algal) versus heterotrophic (detrital) energy routes for native and invasive species to ask if invasive species disproportionately use one energy pathway in comparison to native fishes. We predict invasive species rely more on autotrophic energy routes than native species. 

Using stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon in tandem with stomach contents from both before and after African Jewelfish (Rubricatochromis [Hemichromis] letourneuxi) invasion to test the Trophic Disruption Hypothesis. Manuscript accepted at Ecosphere.

Examining how habitat alteration (digging and maintaining ponds) by American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) influences trophic dynamics (changes in diet, trophic position, trophic niche, and basal resource use) via stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen alongside stomach contents. We also test the Stress Gradient Hypothesis, which states that the intensity of facilitation and competition will be inversely related along environmental stress gradients, with facilitative interactions increasing under stressful conditions. 

A collaboration led by Dr. Bradley Strickland that demonstrated Alligator-engineering activities enhance food-web heterogeneity by increasing nutrient availability, manipulating physical structure, and altering algal, plant, and animal communities.

Examing temporal (seasonal) and spatial (habitat) effects on consumer's diet, trophic position, trophic niche, and food-web topology in a subtropical oligotrophic wetland to illustrate how consumers and food webs respond to hydrologic pulsing in a spatially complex ecosystem.