Research
Below are a list of the lab's ongoing research projects
Relative impacts of intraspecific diversity and abiotic conditions on species interactions
Diversity within species has been shown to be ecologically important, but less is known about how it impacts species interactions and how those impacts compare in magnitude to other variables known to be important. We are using a salt marsh plant, Solidago sempervirens (seaside goldenrod), to compare the relative impacts of intraspecific diversity in that plant to things like nutrient concentrations to see which changes the way that species interact more.
Spatial patterns of intraspecific diversity
Like species diversity, intraspecific diversity is higher in some places than in others. We are trying to detect patterns in intraspecific diversity to better understand what conditions are associated with high or low intraspecific diversity. Some of this research is taking places in salt marshes, but some is also branching out into terrestrial plant communities in urban and suburban areas.
Other some-time projects
I have a number of other interests that I haven't yet had time to work on much while at Goucher. Briefly, they are:
Modeling intraspecific diversity's impact in communities
Analyzing existing datasets to understand patterns in community function over large spatial scales