Research Focus
My research is broadly focused on the ecology and evolution of parasites and their hosts. I use a hypothesis-driven, observational ecology framework—formulated by drawing upon basic principles of biogeography, epidemiology, and ecological parasitology—to test basic ecological and biogeographical questions concerning the interplay between parasitism and host biogeography.
Current Research: Investigating the interplay between parasitism and host biogeography.
My PhD dissertation, working under the mentorship of Dr. Ryan Hechinger, involves documenting how parasite community structure varies throughout the entire or most of the known geographic ranges of over 20 invertebrate and fish host species from three coastal habitats (estuary, rocky shore, sandy beach) along the West coast of North America. I have executed two major two-month-long field expeditions, collecting hosts from replicate populations in each of three major portions of their geographic ranges (southern edge, center, northern edge), sampling at 50+ localities, in three US states (California, Oregon, Washington) and two MX states (both Pacific and Gulf of California sides of Baja California and Baja California Sur). In the lab, I process each host to quantify their animal and protozoan parasites. Parasite load is quantified using different currencies and diversity metrics. I also recognize distinct types of functional parasitic consumer strategies, which differ in basic ecological attributes, including how they impact host fitness. I integrate active mentorship throughout each phase of my research from literature review/discussions, field collection, laboratory and data analysis, presentation, and outreach.
Previous Research: Spatial and temporal examination of bivalve communities.
My Master’s work at USD—working under the mentorship of Dr. Drew Talley and Dr. Theresa Sinicrope-Talley—involved historical and contemporary sampling to investigate spatial and temporal changes in bivalve communities of southern California and northern Baja California. My findings demonstrate that bivalve community structure varied at all sites over time and introduced species and environmental disturbances contributed to some of these changes.