Research
Past and current research projects.
In an era of global ecological change, national parks provide refugia for biodiversity where direct anthropogenic degradation from land-use change is limited. However, all ecosystems on Earth are affected by phenomena such as climate change, biological invasions, changes in nutrient inputs due to agricultural activity, or acidification. Understanding the effects of global change phenomena on ecological communities is an imperative step in conserving biodiversity. I am using environmental DNA surveying methods to assess whole community composition in Acadia National Park for freshwater, soil, and intertidal zone systems. These data comprise organisms across the tree of life - bacteria and eukaryotes - allowing me to assess how the local environment shapes whole community compositions.
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