Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
University of California Riverside
Species Diversity & Environmental Change
A central tent of ecological research is to understand the mechanisms that contribute to species coexistence and maintain the diversity that we observe. A key aspect to this research is understanding how processes that operate at different scales interact to structure communities. We use both experimental and observational approaches to identify both local scale and regional processes that drive diversity patterns and to evaluate how these processes help mediate recovery to environmental change.
Biodiversity patterns in California grassland
Dominated by annual species, California grasslands exhibit very striking biodiversity patterns over space and time and are an ideal system to tease apart the relative contribution of key community assembly mechanisms such as dispersal and species sorting processes in structuring grassland communities. Using long term data and experiments we are exploring the role of precipitation, biotic interactions and lag effects in regulating community diversity.
Incorporating small mammals into plant community theory
Community ecologists seek to understand the relative strength of local processes in determining the identity and number of species that establish in any given location. However, despite many studies illustrating that post-dispersal seed predators can contribute substantially to seed loss, contemporary assessments of how this influences the composition of local plant communities are lacking. We review the unique features of post-dispersal seed predation and describe how seed predator effects can be integrated into emerging theories explaining how competing species coexist, what species are likely to co-occur and the likelihood that communities will become invaded by exotic species.
Big Little Rodents and Blooms and Busts
We our expanding our research efforts from the foothills of the Sierras to the annual grasslands of the Central Valley at the Carrizo Plain National Monument. These grasslands are gem within the state for a variety of reasons including they are home to several endangered species including the charismatic Giant Kangaroo Rat. GKR has a profound impact on this system as an ecosystem engineer. As part of our ongoing research here we are interested in how its impacts influence the spatial and temporal stability of these grasslands. Secondly, we are exploring how aridification of these grasslands can affect these plant-herbivore interactions to influence the adaptive capacity of this system. Lastly, we are working with the managing partners at the Monument to create a decision framework to help improve the conservation grazing efforts at the Monument.