We are broadly interested in understanding the ecological forces that shape both below- and above-ground biotic communities. One major goal of our group is to understand the ecological and evolutionary importance of interactions formed between plants and their soil-borne symbionts. Soil communities are incredibly diverse and contain a suite of taxa (e.g. pathogenic and mutualistic fungi, bacteria, viruses) that significantly influence plant growth, survival, and distribution. We are currently trying to understand how biotically mediated plant-soil feedbacks shape both soil and plant communities. Although much of our research has been done in tropical forests of Panama, none of our research questions are restricted to these systems. We encourage our members to ask interesting questions irrespective of study system
