Community, historical and physiological ecology of tree species; global change biology.

The regulation of biological clocks in birds at the systems level.

Molecular ecology and evolution of reef invertebrates.

Population dynamics, spatial ecology, ecology of infectious disease, computational biology.

Animal cognition and behavior, development of behavior, behavioral ecology.

Avian ecology; human impacts on bird populations.

Ecology, management, and restoration of wetland and riparian ecosystems.

Functional ecology of biogeochemically important microbial populations.

Seed dispersal processes; bird behavior; plant invasions; tropical ecology; parasitic plants

immuno-epidemiology of co-infection, how host immunity modulates parasite interactions and transmission and how host molecular processes explain the dynamics of infection at the population level

Ecosystem ecology: wetlands, hydrology, restoration, seed banks, plant communities, historical ecology.

Management opportunities for herbaceous perennial and annual species; the effect of cover crops on weed emergence and herbicide efficacy.

Ecology. Chemical ecology. Tritrophic interactions. Biological control. Plant signaling. Plant-insect-interactions. Plant defenses.

Air pollution effects on plants and terrestrial ecosystems.

Wildlife ecology, estimation of population parameters, and harvest management of game populations.

Soil formation and biogeochemistry due to land use and ecosystem change; soil and water degradation, and the remediation of soil physical and chemical properties in urban environments.

Plant physiological ecology, ecosystem ecology, climate change biology, root and soil ecology.

Population/Community Ecology, Epidemiology, Statistical, Computational and Mathematical Biology

Ecosystem management on mixed ownerships; forest management; private forest owner issues and education; sustainable forestry; human dimensions of natural resources.

Physiological and community ecology of deep sea hydrothermal vent and cold seep fauna.

Tropical and temperate bat ecology; tropical animal ecology; mammal ecology.

Ecology of fungi and small mammals; fungal-animal interactions.

Evolutionary ecology. Molecular evolution and systematics of vertebrates; biogeography; connections between biological evolution and Earth history.

Population dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife and the dynamics of parasite community structure.

Parasite manipulation of host behavior

Climate change mitigation and adaptation in forested systems.

Aerobiology, movement and dispersal of organisms, meteorology, field measurement.

Ecosystem ecology; global change biology; biogeochemistry of nitrogen and carbon cycling in managed and unmanaged ecosystems.

Vegetation dynamics, dendrochronology, disturbance history, paleoclimatology, environmental change.

Microbial Ecology and Evolution

Population and community ecology: how the nature of interactions between species can shift over time, in response to changes in the environment and corresponding selection pressures.

Plant ecophysiology and agroecology; plant adaptation to nutrient stress; biogeochemistry of the Eastern deciduous forest; sustainable international development.

Microbial ecology; microbial role in weathering and soil processes; controls on microbial diversity; ecological interactions in microbially dominated systems (ancient earth analogs).

The study of biodiversity in threatened ecosystems; the effects of human-modified landscapes on wildlife; behavioral ecology of squirrels.

Physiological ecology, functional genomics, evolutionary ecology, and behavior.

The role of plant volatiles in mediating ecological and evolutionary interactions among plants, insects, and pathogens.

Climate change and its effects on life history traits and population and community dynamics.

Evolutionary ecology of host-parasite interactions, particularly virulence, infectiousness, vaccine-driven evolution, and drug and insecticide resistance.

Ecology and pest management of arthropods affecting vineyards; design and development of computer-based systems that capture, formalize, and represent qualitative and quantitative knowledge associated with managed and natural systems.

Biological invasions; theoretical applied ecology; life history theory.

Landscape and ecosystem ecology. Disturbance ecology & disturbance synergies. Ecosystem simulation models. Climate change and ecosystem carbon storage. Fire and soil nitrogen. Microbial community composition and function. Spatial statistics.

The ecology, genecology, and physiological ecology of forest regeneration following disturbance.

Ecology and evolution of plant reproduction. The role of inbreeding and genetic variation on the establishment and transmission of plant diseases.

Ecological restoration and design; ecosystems and landscape planning;

landscape/community co-resilience during climate change.

Vegetation dynamics; fire and climate variation on community development; environmental conservation.

Plant-insect interactions, tritrophic interactions, chemical ecology, plant defenses, population and community ecology, agroecosystems, natural-enemy ecology, ecology of gall-inducing insects

Insect chemical ecology; plant-insect interactions; insect attractants.

Impacts of human disturbance on wetlands; plant community dynamics; theoretical applied ecology; landscape analysis.

Ecology, management and regeneration of forest ecosystems; community ecology.

Biological aspects of soil quality in sustainable and organic agriculture systems; soil arthropod community ecology; ecology of entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi

Population ecology and management of insects in agroecosystems.

Landscape diversity in agricultural areas; Taxonomic and functional diversity and grassland management; Multivariate and spatial analysis for ecological data.

Microbial food webs; the ecology of mixotrophic protozoans.

Physiological ecology; community ecology; agroecology, grazing systems and cropping systems ecology.

Integrated pest management; impact of pesticides on non-target species; sampling strategies.

Wetland biogeochemistry. Riparian wetlands. Constructed wetlands for waste treatment. Pollutant impacts on aquatic systems.

Root Ecology - specifically, the ecology of root lifespan in North American temperate trees.

Impacts of disease on wildlife ecology and conservation, desert ecosystems, herpetology

Plant invasion drivers in forest understory plant communities; White-tailed deer browsing preferences for native and exotic plants; weedecology.psu.edu

Behavioral ecology, insect physiology, and plant-insect interactions.

Evolutionary ecology, behavioral ecology, predator-prey interactions, herpetology, arachnology

Weed ecology and functions of biodiversity in agricultural systems.

Fine root decomposition, belowground carbon and nutrient cycling of temperate forest ecosystems, soil dynamics, plant soil interaction

Behavioral ecology and bioacoustics of marine mammals.

The role of Native American land-use legacies and indicator species in assessing potential archaeological sensitivity and integrity of sites.

Carabid beetles in sustainable agriculture

Chemosynthetic communities at cold seeps (>1000 m) and deep coral sites (300-700m) in the Gulf of Mexico. Marine community ecology, especially how communities change over time and the environmental factors that affect this change.

Root and mycorrhizal ecology, global change biology, biogeochemistry, plant physiology, ecosystem and landscape ecology, ecological modeling, soil ecology.

The potential effects of climate change on early-successional and understory forest vegetation and especially invasive species.

My research focuses on the cascading effects of changes in the plant community composition, both in terms of its direct and indirect effects on other plants and on the insect community.

Ecology of freshwater systems including: fish and macroinvertebrate taxonomy; bioassessment; water quality; stream restoration processes.

Behavioral ecology, sexual selection, and the fitness consequences of reproductive decisions.

Dispersal traits, population growth and movement in heterogeneous environments

Behavioral & population ecology, bioacoustics and conservation biology; effects of novel sounds on the behavior and fitness of acoustically-dependent species, with case studies on baleen whales and treefrogs.

The use of geospatial technologies including GPS, GIS and 3d visualization to analyze large scale landscape patterns. Historic development patterns within a regulatory context and subsequent assessment of ecological impacts over time.

root system architecture; competition and facilitation; structural- functional modeling; nutrient acquisition efficiency