I am a vegetation and mutualism ecologist, botanist, lichenologist, and mycologist who combines traditional, molecular, and isotope ratio abundance techniques to answer dynamic questions about plant community ecology, and plant-microbe interactions. 

​

My primary interests focus on understanding the processes and patterns of plant community succession following disturbance, and restoring soil health and function by leveraging nutrient exchange between rhizosphere microorganisms and plants.

 

I aim to develop a more complete understanding of the effects and broader ecological implications of human-driven disturbance on plant communities, and the role of relationships between soil microorganisms and plants in maintaining and restoring soil health, structure, and function.

​

My toolkit includes remote field logistics, vegetation inventory, monitoring, and community surveys, plant, fungal, and lichen field identification and herbarium curation, microbial isolation and cultivation, fungal and bacterial DNA sequence analysis, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), high performance liquid chromotography (HPLC), and RNA and DNA molecular techniques.