Members

I am interested in the emergence, maintenance and loss of diversity at all levels of biological organization. My study organisms have ranged from bacteria, protozoans, fungi to plants and animals and in the majority of my work I have combined laboratory and/or field experiments with modeling to understand the mechanisms underlying species coexistence, succession, and the stability and fragility of natural ecological communities. Particularly, my research program has an emphasis on uncovering how plants, animals, and fungi interact with each other in forest ecosystems to shape macroscopic features such as the diversity and dynamics of ecological communities. In the Hakubi Project, I will conduct field experiments and modeling to explore how the nature of plantsoil microbe interactions can change in response to climate warming, and how such changes may translate into altered regional plant species composition and distribution.