Biology Education Research
My education research focuses on two main topics: (1) teaching and learning quantitative reasoning skills in ecology, and (2) how inclusive, research-based teaching practices can strengthen identity, belonging, and persistence in STEM. Grounded in my classroom experiences, this work informs the design of evidence-based curricula that make ecology more useful, accessible, relevant, and empowering.
How do ecology students learn modeling and how does modeling help them learn ecology?
As ecology becomes increasingly quantitative, students have new opportunities to build confidence and fluency with mathematical models, data analysis, and computational tools. In my current biology education research, I’m investigating how students’ attitudes toward ecological modeling shift over time and whether learning modeling supports a deeper understanding of ecology. To do this, I’m adapting the curriculum of EVE 101: Introduction to Ecology to center on modeling throughout the course, not just in traditionally model-based topics like predator-prey dynamics, but across a broad range of ecological concepts. I am assessing students’ interest, perceived utility, and perceived costs of learning mathematical modeling. The goal is to understand how curricular changes affect student learning and attitudes, and ultimately to support better preparation for ecology careers that increasingly require skills in quantitative reasoning.
Building community and cultural relevance through shared ecological research
Many biology students, especially those from underrepresented groups, first-generation college students, and transfer students, report feeling isolated in their academic journey. One research theme I am beginning to explore is how shared, place-based scientific projects can help create belonging, cultural relevance, and motivation in ecology coursework. I’m particularly interested in how student participation in collaborative field data collection projects can help students feel connected to each other and to the scientific process. Can contributing to a regional ecological field dataset help students feel like they belong in STEM and have a sense of purpose in science? Can participating in a shared scientific effort help students feel more connected to each other and to the broader scientific community? My goal is for this work to help inform inclusive teaching practices that support persistence, especially for students navigating non-traditional academic pathways.
Investigating how CUREs influence STEM identity and self-efficacy for students with disabilities
At Sacramento State, I began an ongoing collaboration with Drs. Kelly McDonald, Cathy Ishikawa, and Joya Mukerji in the Biologists Engaged in Education Research (BEER) group on a project exploring how Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) affect students with diverse physical, cognitive, and psychological disabilities. This work asks important questions about the accessibility of project-based learning and how course structures and policies may unintentionally create barriers for students with disabilities. I have contributed to the project by supporting statistical analyses of survey and outcome data, including current work modeling changes in STEM identity, self-efficacy, and belonging in CUREs-based STEM courses. This includes integrating Likert-scale survey responses with coded qualitative data to better understand how students with and without self-identified disabilities experience CUREs. I remain involved in this collaboration and I am excited to build on this work through future studies focused on equity and inclusion in ecology education.
Disciplinary Research
Global environmental changes are redistributing both native and exotic plant species ranges, and innovative management strategies that allow us to react quickly and optimally are necessary to confront these looming changes. Developing a framework for understanding plant population responses to environmental changes will require bringing ecological theory and data together to harness the power of logic. My disciplinary research integrates theoretical plant ecology and quantitative global change biology, with a focus on plants with changing ranges. I develop mathematical models, use simulations, conduct controlled field experiments, and incorporate ecological data to uncover the causes and consequences of the spatial spread of plants in a world with increasing anthropogenically-driven environmental change. My research is structured by the following overarching questions:
- How will plant distributions shift in response to climate change?
- How does climate change alter the mechanisms that affect invasive species spread and the response of native plant communities to invasive species?
- What mechanisms provide the opportunity for plant species to coexist, and how will changing environmental conditions alter patterns of plant coexistence?
- How can we use models and theory to understand how plant populations will respond to future unexpected and rapid environmental changes?
Past Projects
Stochastic forest gaps and competition for light can drive deterministic niche differentiation among species
Forest diversity is critical for ecosystem resilience in the face of environmental change. To understand the ecosystem resilience that is a result of diversity, we must be able to predict the evolution of differences among plant species that allow for their coexistence. Evolutionarily stable coexistence in forests may arise from simple physiological tradeoffs, such as the tradeoff between growth in the light and survival in the understory, which prevents a single species from dominating at all times when there are regular stand-clearing disturbances that modify access to light. Will early and late successional species not only coexist if present, but arise through niche differentiation in a forest metacommunity with stochastic disturbances and individual-based competition for light?
Using a metacommunity model of forest succession with realistic assumptions about how plants compete for light, I have found that ecologically stable coexistence is readily attainable. I found that early- and late- successional species together can exclude invasions by intermediate strategies, but I did not find an evolutionarily stable community of species, because these early- and late- successional species were repeatedly outcompeted by increasingly extreme strategies. Therefore, despite widespread ecologically stable coexistence in the model, in the face of evolutionary optimization, I found no evolutionarily stable coexistence. If successional dynamics are an important mechanism for generating niche diversification, that coexistence is likely highly dependent on the details of the trade-offs that produce the successional dynamics, as well as the spatial and temporal scales at which evolution operates.
Trailing-edge zombie forests can increase population persistence in the face of climate change
As ranges shift, individuals at the trailing range edge may be some of the oldest, most reproductive individuals, left behind in an environment that is no longer climatically optimal. These mature trees form “zombie forests”, which may persist for decades after the climate has shifted, still dispersing seeds, many of which will likely have limited recruitment success in the suboptimal environmental conditions of the trailing edge. Are these zombie forests simply the remnants of ecosystems past, or do they play an ecological role in supporting population persistence in the face of climate change? I developed a data-driven mathematical model that shows that populations with remnant individuals at the trailing range edge can withstand faster speeds of climate change than those without. These findings suggest that conservation strategies that preserve zombie forests could improve tree population persistence in the face of climate change.
Sea-level rise can reverse the conditions that promote the spread of ecosystem engineers
Plant-environment feedbacks can influence the spread of invasions. Some invasive plants are ecosystem engineers, capable of modifying their local environment. For example, salt marsh grasses accumulate sediment that raises the height of the population relative to sea-level. Low levels of sediment accumulation are optimal for population spread. I developed a spatial model that shows that sea-level rise can reverse the conditions that drive high rates of spatial spread. The model demonstrates that with sea-level rise, high rates of ecosystem engineering will be necessary for population persistence. This suggests that controlling invasive marsh populations may become more difficult with increasing sea-level rise. Moreover, ecosystem engineering can serve as a mechanism for adaptation to climate-driven changes in environmental gradients. Ecosystem engineering has the potential to rescue both exotic and native plant populations from climate-driven decreases in habitat suitability.
This work is published in Theoretical Ecology: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-022-00548-8 (or free to view version here rdcu.be/c0626)