My research lies at the intersection of population, community and disease ecology.

A particular focus is the importance of host ecology in determining disease dynamics in wildlife. I explore questions, such as:

• The importance of host population dynamics in determining disease dynamics.
• How interactions between hosts and their environment (climate, seasonality, habitat type, etc) affect disease dynamics.
• How do species diversity and community composition affect disease transmision?
• Can we predict when outbreaks will occur?
• What makes a good reservoir host for zoonotic disease (passed from animals to humans)?
  • Are certain taxa more likely to host zoonotic pathogens?
  • Are there certain host characteristics that correlate to hosting more pathogens?
• What leads to transmission of pathogens between species?

I am also more broadly interested in community ecology and how species interactions influence dynamics of populations, asking questions such as

• How are populations regulated?
• What's the importance of bottom-up (primary productivity) versus top-down (predators) influences?
• How do multiple predators and prey interact to determine community dynamics?
• How does harvest of one species affect management of other species in a community?