"But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster." - David Hume  Welcome. I am a freshwater aquatic ecologist attempting to understand the patterns that drive our natural world. I am currently a postdoc in the STRIVE Lab at the Ohio State University studying how artificial light at night (ALAN) affects aquatic communities and ecosystems. I earned my PhD in the Resetarits Lab at the University of Mississippi, where I studied the ecophysiology of alternative phenotypes. I primarily studied how environmental stressors affect phenotype expression in facultatively paedomorphic salamanders. I also have a general interest in how aquatic communities assemble through processes of dispersal and colonization. In particular, I am interested in how aspects of patch quality affect oviposition and colonization dynamics of organisms with complex multi-stage life cycles like aquatic insects and amphibians. |