I am interested in both basic and applied research in stream ecology. My lab seeks to increase our understanding of the processes and factors driving the spatial and temporal variation in community composition, and the ecology of native and invasive freshwater mussels. In my lab, we are addressing these issues with a variety of methods ranging from experiments in the lab and the field to modeling and statistical analysis.

Disturbance is a strong driver of metacommunity structure and dynamics, especially in rivers, where disturbance is largely caused by extreme hydrological changes such as flooding and dewatering. Greater disturbance rates due to an increase in droughts and intense precipitation events are expected with climatic changes. The responses of riverine organism to such disturbance events is the focus of several current research projects in my lab.