Research Interests

Predicting the response of organisms to changing environmental conditions is fundamental to many fields of biology. Evolutionary biologists have long sought to predict phenotypic changes of populations to natural or artificial selection. I have worked on a variety of seabird species to understand how variable environments shape phenology and growth and more recently am working to understand how the conservation breeding environment might impact morphology of the loggerhead shrike in Ontario and how variable/changing environmental conditions might impact the phenology of shrike and their prey.  

My interest in quantitative genetics has led to a collaboration with Amy Chabot at African Lion Safari & Denis Reale at the Université du Québec à Montréal where we are studying phenotypic plasticity and evolution in zoos.  I'm particularly interested in phenotypic changes in conservation breeding and their impact on the wild populations they support. Lately, we are conducting a meta-analysis on the rates of adaptive genetic change in conservation and zoo populations and examining individual variation in Asian elephant susceptibility to herpes virus.

I have an interest in exploring how environmental conditions shape genetic diversity. I previously worked on population genetics in wild populations, but more recently have been helping with simulation work on group-managed species in conservation programs with Kathryn Rodriguez-Clark at the Smithsonian and Philippe Helsen at the Antwerp ZOO Centre for Research and Conservation.