In the tropical mountains that are Earth’s most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems, climate change has set in motion an “escalator to extinction” as species move up to cooler elevations, occupy shrinking ranges, and then go extinct. Yet we do not know how many species are threatened, nor the mechanisms that explain why warming temperatures lead some … Continued
From our seas to our savannas, animals must now cope with dynamic environments that are undergoing unprecedented rates of change. How do animals make decisions in the face of such changes, and what are the consequences of those decisions for animal populations and humans alike? In an era of extraordinary environmental transformation, answering these questions … Continued
As humans change the climate at an unprecedented rate, how species adapt to these novel conditions will fundamentally reshape the world’s ecosystems. Shifts in geographic range and changes in the timing of life history events have long been considered the two major ways species adapt to warming temperatures. However, my work seeks to understand a … Continued
With the rapid pace of climate change, it is increasingly clear that evolution will play an important role in species persistence. Yet, our understanding of factors that influence rapid adaptation, especially in marine systems, remains limited. Prediction of future species ranges and forward-looking conservation decisions that account for future environments require an understanding of individual, … Continued
Global industrialization and climate change have threatened our oceans through man-made noise and rising temperatures, and these threats are worsening by the day. Identifying shifting ecological baselines is an urgent priority but requires a new instrument deployment system that is rapid, quiet, inexpensive, far-ranging, and can sample far below the ocean surface. Using migratory marine … Continued
I want to understand the genetic and neurobiological mechanisms that have enabled social living. My research takes advantage of naturally occurring behavioral variation in sweat bees, where some species live and reproduce alone while others reproduce as a social unit. Throughout evolution, these bees repeatedly gained and lost sociality, ultimately resulting in many closely related … Continued
The evolution of photosynthesis forever transformed our planet’s geochemical cycles and left a lasting impact on life for billions of years. Studying the role of early life and metabolism across geological timescales has proven challenging, as ancient biological events have traditionally only been accessible through the fossil and geological records which do not provide a … Continued
Humans rely on plants and algae to perform biological photosynthesis, providing us food, fuel, and commodities. However, plants and algae mainly use photosynthesis to power their own metabolism, only a small fraction is devoted to generate products for us to harvest, making our agriculture/industry inefficient. Some marine animals, such as corals and clams, have a … Continued
Engineering and manipulating microbial communities is a major aspiration of microbiome biology that remains out of reach because we lack quantitative, predictive laws for community ecology. Indeed, the very existence of such laws has long been questioned. Challenging this perspective, my lab has recently demonstrated that, under any defined conditions, highly reproducible assembly of microbial … Continued
Improving food security is a critical challenge for humanity, requiring solutions that increase the productivity of ecosystems in a sustainable way. I will develop an innovative program to increase fish production in coastal marine ecosystems by harnessing an unlikely fertilizer, fish excretion. My research has shown that fish excretion fuels the high productivity in coral … Continued