In my work, I use observational and quantitative modeling approaches to investigate community assembly, species interactions, ecosystem processes and functions, and forest restoration practices across local and regional scales.
Hi everyone! I'm currently a PhD Candidate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in the Kwit Lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I am broadly interested in tropical ecology, restoration ecology and biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem functions, and functional traits. Specifically, I am interested in:
How communities reassemble in restored ecosystems
How ecosystem functions and species interactions recover after a disturbance
The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in restored systems
Currently, my research involves understanding how animal-mediated seed dispersal interactions reassemble through a restored chronosequence in the Chocó Rainforest of Northwest Ecuador at the Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales (FCAT, https://fcat-ecuador.org/). I am also using species traits and functional diversity metrics to gain a better understanding of how avian communities recover through successional stages in this system. FCAT is also undergoing a community-led, long term ecosystem recovery project with the goal of creating a 6000-ha wildlife corridor between three important habitats in the region. Read more about my work on my research page!
