I am a historical ecologist, and stable isotope biogeochemist. I seek to address fundamental questions about the flows of energy in food webs across space and through time. Over the course of my dissertation studies, I investigated the energetics of kelp forests ecosystems using stable isotope analysis of essential amino acids. My work spanned broad geographic, temporal, and ecological scales – from Alaska to northern Chile, from the mid-Holocene to the present day, from invertebrate consumers to keystone mammalian carnivores, and from the individual to the community-level.
I am currently an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, where I am working with archaeologist Dr. Torben Rick. My interdisciplinary postdoctoral studies are exploring the socio-ecological dynamics of Pacific coastal systems in the past. We are characterizing food web structure of nearshore habitats and how Indigenous peoples interacted with them prior to EuroAmerican contact. These works offer unique insights by identifying environmental and cultural contexts where human harvesting of marine resources has been sustainable over long time scales, as well as providing pre-industrial ecological baselines for conservation efforts.
I am currently an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, where I am working with archaeologist Dr. Torben Rick. My interdisciplinary postdoctoral studies are exploring the socio-ecological dynamics of Pacific coastal systems in the past. We are characterizing food web structure of nearshore habitats and how Indigenous peoples interacted with them prior to EuroAmerican contact. These works offer unique insights by identifying environmental and cultural contexts where human harvesting of marine resources has been sustainable over long time scales, as well as providing pre-industrial ecological baselines for conservation efforts.
