Community ecology
Community ecology is the study of how populations of organisms interact with their environment and with each other. My work is motivated by foundational questions in community ecology, including (but not limited to) those highlighted on the right!
My research uses novel, ground-breaking quantitative methods to answer these questions, both at local and continental scales. To do this, I make use of eBird data - the world's premier source of observational, citizen-science data on bird communities. These data have primarily been used to determine species-specific range boundaries, migration, abundance patterns, and population trends -- check out these cool data products by the Lab of Ornithology's eBird Science team! My work aims to expand these potential uses of eBird data to characterize community structure, function, or dynamics. While the ultimate goal of my research is to inform conservation decision-making, this work will also advance the field of basic community ecology.
A data product we are currently working on - richness of different species groups across the continental United States! We are using these and other types of model summaries to answer some of the key questions in community ecology.
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