I am broadly interested in the impact that human activities have on wildlife and their ability to persist as we encroach further into their habitat. During graduate school my research primarily focused on the effects of ecosystem modification such as urbanization or agriculture on wildlife parasites and their gut microbiome and how it ultimately impacts their health. I have also worked on the role of the pet and food trade in facilitating the global spread of the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachocytrium dentrobatidis as well as how rodents modify their daily activity patterns and dietary preferences within urban environments. As a postdoctoral fellow in the ungulate ecology group, I’ll be working on the use of farmland by wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) and how it impacts their diet and parasites as part of the AgriDeer project.
I primarily work within the fields of community and parasite ecology, but synthesize it with various other disciplines such as basic ecology, disease ecology, animal behavior, and microbiome science. Through the use of classical parasitology laboratory techniques, stable isotopes, and modern DNA sequencing technologies such as next generation sequencing, I hope to better understand the consequences of human activities to help create a world where humans and wildlife can better coexist.