Our Research
We aim to understand the changes happening in alpine landscapes and what they mean for people, plants, & wildlife
We are facing serious environmental challenges that affect millions of people, including climate change, ecosystem degradation, and loss of natural resources. In our lab, we merge basic and applied research, seeking clear pathways for improving the environmental challenges we are facing.
Our goal is to incorporate social-ecological frameworks to solve pressing environmental challenges around the world.
In our research, we collaborate with indigenous and local communities, land managers, non-governmental organizations, and more.
Our Field Sites
Not all tropical ecosystems are rainforests!
Our lab specializes in studying cold, high-elevation ecosystems. While we have a long trajectory of working in the Andes Mountains, we also work in the alpine in Colorado. These ecosystems are so unique that some species only exist on certain mountains!
Themes in our work
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Biodiversity:
We explore how anthropogenic impacts affect species composition of these highly vulnerable and useful ecosystems.
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Functional Diversity:
We study how form and function of species affect the way species interact with each other and how this changes at different scales.
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Biogeography:
We study the global and regional patterns of major environmental problems, including climate change, and what they mean for communities
Check out some of our recent projects!
Featured Project
Does dominant vegetation mediate upward shifts in elevation?
In 2023, we implemented the first turf transplant experiment to be done in the highlands of Ecuador. Our goal is to test hypotheses surrounding vertical shifts in vegetation as a consequence of climate change.
To do that, we are testing whether communities are shaped heavily by biotic interactions and if functional traits can help predict how these interactions are going to play out and, in turn, shape plant communities.
For this project, we extracted pieces of sod from two elevations in the Yanacocha Reserve in Ecuador and moved them either upwards or downwards, about 200 m. Preliminary results are showing that the communities are already starting to shift towards specific growth forms, where basal rosettes could replace cushion plants.
Featured Project
Ecological Restoration in the Peruvian Highlands
Based in Huancavelica, Peru, we worked on monitoring and assessing the effects of a large-scale ecological restoration project.
In 2015, the non-governmental organization CONDESAN (Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion) was contracted to create a monitoring plan for restoration funded by the Belgian Development Agency and Peruvian governmental agencies.
This project was a collaborative effort, including Ecuadorian and Peruvian biologists. We found that exclusion of alpacas to restore the grasslands was crucial for the recovery of palatable grasses, but it significantly decreased diversity. Furthermore, treatments that included water provision recovered more quickly than those that were excluded.
Why This Work Matters
High-alpine ecosystems provide goods & services to millions of people
We aim to increase the visibility of the importance of these fragile ecosystems. Our main questions involve what these ecosystems will look like in 5, 10, and 20 years. And, how will these ecosystems continue to provide benefits to local, indigenous, and marginalized communities?
