Scientific Research
I am a conservation biologist and Ph.D. candidate at Washington State University Vancouver. I research how a changing environment impacts wildlife populations and how to mitigate those impacts to protect declining species. Much of my work has focused on reptiles and amphibians (I just think they’re neat), but I am broadly interested in foundational topics such as disease ecology and population biology as well as applied science like disease treatments and translocations. I use a combination of field observation, experimentation, and quantitative modeling to answer pressing conservation questions.
What drives disease outbreaks in wildlife populations?
I use time series data to test hypotheses about the relationships between climate conditions, disease outbreaks, and population size. A better understanding of these relationships will allow conservationists to predict when disease outbreaks are likely to occur and implement mitigation strategies.
How can we mitigate the impacts of environmental stressors like disease?
Field-based disease treatment experiments can expose the drivers of variation in disease impact and treatment effectiveness such as host resistance or tolerance, pathogen virulence, or environmental conditions. Identifying these drivers can inform when and where to implement disease treatments and inform other conservation strategies such as translocations.
How can we safeguard species from environmental change like climate change?
Translocations to climate refugia are essential for dispersal limited species threatened by climate change. Ensuring translocations are effective means testing management strategies such as which life stage(s) to move and what habitat type(s) to move to. Individual metrics such as body size and disease status/infection intensity can reveal the mechanisms contributing the translocation success or failure.
