Check out our Research!
Urban Noise and Animal Communication
Investigating how birds adapt their songs to noisy urban environments
Cities are filled with human-generated noise, creating challenges for animals that rely on sound to communicate.
Our research examines how urban noise influences birdsong by combining field recordings, historical datasets, and bioacoustic analysis. By comparing recordings of species like Spotted Towhees across decades, we test whether long-term exposure to urban environments has driven measurable changes in vocal behavior.
These changes have important consequences for mate attraction, territory defense, and ultimately species persistence in cities.
Selected publications:
Inequality and Biodiversity
Studying how historical social inequalities shape urban ecosystems
Urban environments are shaped not only by ecology, but by history and policy. Our work investigates how historical processes such as redlining influence present-day patterns of biodiversity. Using spatial analysis, field surveys, and publicly available datasets, we examine how access to green space and environmental quality varies across neighborhoods and how this affects species distributions.
This research highlights how social and environmental inequalities are reflected in ecological systems, with implications for conservation and environmental justice.
Selected publications:
Check out our Whiskery Watch Project!
Behavior in the City
Exploring behaviors and how wildlife respond to urban challenges
Cities introduce novel conditions that can reshape how animals behave.
We study how species adjust their foraging, movement, and social behaviors in response to urban pressures such as human disturbance, artificial light, and habitat fragmentation. Our work combines field observations with experimental and comparative approaches to understand how behavior shifts across urban gradients.
Understanding these responses helps us predict how species will persist or decline in rapidly changing environments.
Selected publications:
Ecology and Science Education
Advancing inclusion and effective biological education
Science is not only about discovery—it is also about who gets to participate.
Our research explores how students engage with ecology and how educational practices can better support learners from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Using surveys, classroom interventions, and program assessment, we investigate strategies for improving inclusion, retention, and student success in STEM.
This work informs both our teaching and our mentorship, helping us build a more inclusive scientific community.
Selected publications:
-
Grit matters to biology doctoral students’ perception of barriers to degree completion
-
Social justice awareness in the undergraduate ecology classroom