As an ecologist, I am interested in understanding the complex relationships between multiple biotic and abiotic factors and feedbacks in ecosystems. This is an important challenge to environmental science researchers – the integration of multiple factors influencing the patterning and processing of ecosystems, particularly under changing disturbance and climatic regimes. I have used a number of approaches to elucidate these relationships in northern temperate forests: I have studied how invasive insect pests (gypsy moths) influence forest nutrient cycling, how atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Catskill Mountains of New York can influence forest nutrient dynamics and how shifts in winter climate regimes will impact multiple levels of forest community structure and function (including trees, shrubs and moose).
