Research
The overarching objective of the LEAFE Lab is to elucidate drivers of the spatiotemporal dynamics of insects and help impacted individuals and groups forecast, prevent, and/or mitigate pest impacts. We work in natural, managed, and landscaped ecosystems and across multiple levels of scale. Most projects are rooted in applied ecology and focus on forest insects or insect pests of woody ornamentals.
Lab projects fall under the broad umbrella of global environmental change and specific questions are motivated by a need to understand and address ecological problems.
Please see the People and Publications tabs for examples of past and ongoing work.
Invasion biology
Invasion by non-native species can be categorized into three phases: arrival, establishment, and spread. We investigate factors mediating each of these phases by compiling and analyzing large data sets comprising several species and through more targeted investigations of individual, high-impact invaders.
Global Climate change
Climate is a key determinant of the distribution and abundance of both plants and insects. The lab is interested in how environmental variation influences insect seasonality, phenological synchrony between trophic levels, and insect range dynamics.