Research

Humans are impacting all aspects of their environments, including, but not limited to, the very pollinators we rely on to fertilize our food crops! Largely, pollinators will collect pollen debris from the flowers they visit, and transport this debris back to their nests (or to other flowers). They, like all animals, are a reflection of the food they consume, and therefore should be a chemical reflection of their most visited flowers. In collaboration with Dr. Sarah Lawson at Quinnipiac University, I am looking at how curating landscapes for pollination influences pollinator foraging habits (as compared to urban, state park, and college campus sites).  This takes an ecosystem-wide approach, sampling pollen and petals for all blooming flowers, pollen from bee's sleeves, pollen from nests, and bee tissues and examining the signatures of carbon and nitrogen throughout the foraging process.

I am interested at how the terrestrial biosphere interacts with the environment, and in particular, how different components of plants (and their subsequent organic matter) record climate change. Because elements of the atmosphere (i.e., carbon dioxide, oxygen and water vapor) and the environment (water availability, evapotranspiration and its controlling mechanism, temperature) are fundamental to photosynthesis, it is inevitable that plants are active records of their surroundings. Through carbon isotope ecology in leaves, clumped isotope signals in wood, and clumped isotope, carbon and water isotope signals in fruits, I have worked to dissect the factors controlling plant health and growth. Because of my coinciding interests in ancient climate and ancient biogeochemistry, I am equally interested in how these signals are modified during the formation of generalized organic matter in topsoil and throughout the soil profile. 

Many of the problems I have investigated thusfar center around trees and soils. My favorite book growing up was the Giving Tree, and since I can remember, I have been fascinated by and in awe of trees of all shapes and sizes. Many of the problems I have focused on relate to how trees and soils are responding to rapid anthropogenic warming and modification to water availability, in the hopes that I can understand and respect these plant functional types the way they deserve.

To learn about what to expect regionally in light of modern, human-driven climate change, we look to the past. Specifically, we look to ancient warm periods. I am especially interested in warm periods and periods of dynamic climate in the early Cenozoic (Paleogene), such as the early Eocene, which is known for its equable climate. To investigate ancient climates, I use a variety of geochemical and fossil-based tools on outcrops of floodplain, river, and lake sediments.  As a part of a larger effort to elucidate the fate of the great lake Gosiute (southwest Wyoming) in the early Eocene, I have conducted a range of field work in southwest Wyoming. My work has included looking at carbon isotope variability across a landscape (>2km of collected paleosols) as well as looking at changes in organic isotopes and bulk geochemistry within sediments, fossils and charcoal throughout a lengthy stratigraphic section.

My interests in understanding how the biosphere interacts with climate and what ancient climate regimes looked like have led to a desire to examine and expand on proxies. Thusfar, I have focused on isootope and bulk geochemical proxies that can be used to reconstruct precipitation and temperature. My toolkit is primarily isotopes: clumped isotopes (C-O, C-D) and stable isotopes (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen). I am continuing to work on proxies to reconstruct kinetic and equilibrium isotope processes, including examining how plants record photorespiration and plant "carbon starvation" during times of low atmospheric carbon dioxide and high oxygen in their biogeochemistry.