Historically, aquatic ecology focused below the waterline with an emphasis on local biotic and abiotic processes. In recent years, ecologists have also turned to regional processes to help understand local patterns: for example - how important is inter-site dispersal to populations and communities? Among diverse interests in our lab, questions of dispersal keep recurring, often requiring a regional perspective. Broader spatial perspective necessitates longer time scales than possible in short-term experiments, so we are combining biogeographical with experimental approaches.  Broad spatial scales also require multiple study sites with relatively easy access.

We often work on metapopulations & metacommunities in geographically isolated wetlands, once very numerous across the U.S. though many have been wiped out. Beyond obvious conservation questions, the remaining wetlands have attractive features for dispersal oriented research: they comprise discrete habitat "islands", can date back 1000's of years, can be quite accessible, and are often rich in fauna & flora. 

Contrary to the approach typically applied by many investigators, we select study organisms best suited to the research question at hand. This flexibility is challenging (we've been researching bacteria, seeds, microcrustaceans, insects, fish, and trees) but keeps us learning and means we do not always work in wetlands.

Collaborators 

Together with Patrick Bohlen, John Fauth and Pedro Quintana-Ascencio, we're conducting an experiment on the effects of cattle grazing, fire, and fertilizer in 40 wetlands at the MacArthur AgroEcology Research Center. The experiment is funded by the US Dept. of Agriculture and should be the basis for long-term study. In addition, we're conducting landscape genetics studies (one on bald cypress in an urbanizing landscape, the other on an invading mosquito) with Eric Hoffman.

We worked with Carlos Anderson to analyze the network structure of rivers, as a way to explore spatial habitat structure using a well-defined and theorized system. A paper is forthcoming, with time and luck.

We're also working with Andy Bohonak and Marie Simovich to analyze community composition among vernal pools in San Diego County, California. Again, a paper is forthcoming, with time and luck.

We worked with Michael Lemke on a multi-year comparison of nitrogen dynamics in two wetlands of the Illinois River floodplain. The Illinois River is a major source of nitrogen in the Mississippi watershed.  Several papers are forthcoming, depnding on that time and luck thing.

We've worked with Jurek Kolasa to complement his extensive work on coastal rock pool in Jamaica. We analyzed connectivity among rock pools and inter-pool dispersal of organisms after a disturbance. Time and luck are conspiring on that paper, too.

In the foreseeable future, our research will be directed to:

  1. Sampling populations and communities across varying spatial scales to analyze pattern, including landscape genetics.
  2. Conducting experiments and making observations of populations and assemblages under various conditions, including disturbances.  Beyond the cattle ranch experiment described above, we hope to add experimental tanks and ponds to our repertoire.
  3. Developing and testing models of connectivity among populations and assemblages. Our current models use complex networks or cellular automata. We hope to expand and enhance this work.
  4. Meta-analyses of existing data. For example, a recent paper was the result of such an effort with a class, and another is in review.
  5. Other projects that capture our imagination, including the potential survival of bacteria on Mars (yup, the rovers were not sterile). That paper is in review, too.