 Research
My research focuses on understanding the processes controlling
the structure and dynamics of temperate and tropical forest
communities and ecosystems. It is based on how species-specific
variation in growth, survival, reproduction, morphology,
and physiology, are influenced by the physical environment
and by interactions with other individuals. The research
requires a broad understanding of ecological processes such
as carbon, water and nutrient cycling, light use, above
and belowground productivity, biodiversity and their associated
feedback mechanisms. The approach I take in addressing research
questions is broadly comparative and I use experimental
and analytical methods for integrating physiological and
ecological processes across individuals, communities and
ecosystems.
The following are some of my current projects:
- Maintenance of Positive Carbon
Budget in Understory Seedlings with Long Leaf Life Span
(with Dr. Kaoru Kitajima, University of Florida, Gainesville
and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama)
- Stoichiometry of the soil-plant-atmosphere
continuum: a long-term ecological field research curriculum
for biology undergraduates (with members of Bio 36
Ecology 2002, 2003, 2004 and Bio 137 seminar 2004)
- Seasonal variation
in light availability and canopy structure of invasive
Norway maple and native sugar maple and American beech
(with Ryan Esquejo '05)
- Experimental approach to the removal of an invasive
species: the case of
Japanese knotweed (with Michael DeFillipo '04, Kirsten
Vannice '04 and Bradley String - Biology Teacher from
Ridley High School)
- Digital conversion of Samuel
Palmer's drawings of local flora and plant specimens of
the Biology department herbarium collection (with
Laura Carballo '05, Bpantamars Phadungchob '05 and Rachel
Wallace, Biology laboratory instructor)
- Intra and interspecific root competition: trade-offs
or game theory? (with Erik J. Elwood ‘04)
- Evaluation of geographical information system to study
growth and distribution of English Ivy in the Crum woods
of Swarthmore College (with Aja Peters-Mason '04 and Elisha
Gaston '03)
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