Ecological communities are distributed across a landscape and can be connected to one another by dispersal. Dispersal can influence dynamics at both local and regional spatial scales. A set of communities connected by dispersal is known as a metacommunity. Rates of dispersal influence many ecological properties, including patterns of diversity, community dynamics, and ecosystem functioning across scales. Much of the lab’s research addresses topics in metacommunity ecology using empirical, modeling, and synthesis research approaches.

Ecological communities vary through time due to endogenous fluctuations (e.g., due species interactions) and/or environmental fluctuations. Environmental variability may occur with regularity (e.g., seasonality) or it may be unpredictable (e.g., stochasticity and/or disturbances). Variability creates favorable and unfavorable conditions for growth that may affect species differently. To cope with variability, many species have evolved the ability to enter dormancy, a state of reduced metabolic activity, which can maintain diversity through temporarily stressful environments. The lab studies how communities change through time, with a focus on how dormancy influences ecological dynamics.

Microorganisms form the base of detrital food webs in aquatic ecosystems and exhibit wide variation in community structure through space and time. Our lab is focused on understanding how ecological processes operating at different spatial scales influence the structure of aquatic microbial communities and the key ecosystem functions they perform. Projects in the lab examine free-living and host-associated microbial communities. We conduct field work across a range of aquatic systems, including streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, coastal systems, and their surrounding terrestrial environments.