How do belowground microbial communities assemble, change through time, and interact with aboveground vegetation? As key mediators of nutrient cycling and ecosystem dynamics the influence of belowground microbial communities is key to forest health and function. I am using a combination of approaches to identify how disturbances, tree neighborhoods, and time alter microbial communities and plant-soil feedbacks. 

I am actively researching the spatial patterns and processes underlying forest demography. Understanding patterns of facilitation, competition, and community assembly provide insights into my study systems and more broadly informs ecological theories. Previously, I have led research at a long-term forest demography plot in Alberta, Canada and acted as an Investigator at a Smithsonian ForestGeo plot. 

What pre-, active-, and post-fire forest characteristics drive wildfire behavior and post-fire forest recovery? To answer this and related questions, I am utilizing the globally unique, Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT) dataset to assess forest resilience and recovery in California mixed-conifer forests. 

How do microbial communities respond to direct and indirect effects from wildfire? Do altered microbial communities change post-fire forest resilience? These are some of the questions I am pursuing with collaborators at Michigan State University, the Fire Behavior Assessment Team, and Utah State University. Together, we hope to untangle the influence of wildfire behavior on the belowground microbes within western mixed conifer forests.

I use remotely sensed burn severity (delta and relative normalized burn ratio [dNBR, RdNBR]) in combination with long timeseries of climate, vegetation types, ignition locations, and topography to understand the impacts and drivers of wildfire frequency, severity, and area burned in the western USA.

I am passionate about the use of tree-ring science as a tool to support a wide variety of my research interests in forest health, belowground ecology, and responses to wildfire. My past work includes 21 published chronologies, discovering the oldest known blue spruce in the world (Ol' Blue), and I am presently working on finalizing several multi-millennial chronologies to understand long-term patterns of growth, climatic response, and disturbance history.