My research focuses on how land-cover and climate change affect water movement through soils, weathering, and erosion, and how these, in turn, affect the composition and dispersal of dissolved and solid phases in rivers and trace gases in the atmosphere. Some of my areas of expertise include...
Research in my lab focuses on change in marine ecosystems over time, from millions of years ago to the recent past and the present day. Environmental and ecological transformation of the Caribbean caused by formation of the Isthmus of Panama and global climate changes over the last 10 million...
I am interested in the evolution and the ecology of marine organisms, particularly sea urchins, but also fishes, crustaceans, and corals. I focus on the processes that give rise to new species, and I use molecular tools to reconstruct the history of populations and of genes. Typically, this...
In our lab, we investigate sensory and cognitive mechanisms underlying animal behavior. Animals use a wide array of cues and signals to glean information about their environment. An animal’s sensory and perceptual systems filter incoming stimuli and define an animal’s Umwelt, or the...
My research investigates ecological and evolutionary influences on variation in rainforest communities across the tropics. The overarching goal of my research is to understand broad-scale patterns in the diversity and dynamics of tropical rainforests. Understanding how the environment constrains...
My lab uses natural history observations, combined with experimental field and laboratory studies, to better understand the evolution of animal behavior in changing environments. Our research focuses primarily on weakly social bees and fungus-growing ants to understand how environmental,...
My research seeks to optimize the conservation of birds and biodiversity in tropical working landscapes, especially coffee and cocoa growing regions of Latin America. I lead the Smithsonian Bird Friendly® program, which offers a gold standard certification for coffee and cocoa farms that...
A species of tree fern found only in Panama uses ‘zombie leaves’ or reanimated dead leaf fronds, and turns them into root structures that feed the mother plant.
The smallest and possibly most ancient terrestrial plants, bryophytes are an important part of our environment, but in the tropics, there is still much to learn about them.
Ancient, fossilized grape seeds from Panama, Colombia and Peru, provide perspective on the evolution of plants after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
