I am a global change ecologist. My overarching research objective is to improve our understanding of the ecological impacts of past global change and to predict how ecosystems will respond in the future. Specifically, I am particularly interested in the impacts from climate change on plant phenology and associated ecosystem processes. My research program applies a variety of statistical modeling to infer ecological mechanisms from observed patterns and make forecasts of plant phenology at multiple biological and spatial scales: from leaves to individuals to communities. My research integrates field observations with data from remote sensing ranging from time lapse cameras to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems (UAVs) and satellites.

Dramatic phenological shifts of plants and animals have been observed across the world reflecting rapid climate change in recent decades. Shifts in plant phenology can have direct impacts on community and ecosystem-level processes and substantial economic impacts such as declines in maple syrup production and alteration in fall foliage ecotourism. Understanding how plant phenology responds mechanistically to environmental variation is vital to assessing the effects of climate change on ecological processes and to making predictions about the future. However, our understanding of mechanism in regional phenology and fall phenological response is inadequate. We also face the challenge to integrate phenological information across multiple spatial scales.