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Human activities dramatically alter biodiversity, leading to the un-tangling and re-tangling of “Darwin's tangled bank.” Reassembled communities and altered interactions affect population, community, and ecosystem-level processes.

Our research group examines how anthropogenic change alters intra- and interspecific diversity and interactions of functionally important mutualistic and antagonistic relationships. We uncover how anthropogenic change alters diversity and interactions, the outcomes of altered interactions, and how to mitigate the impacts of altered interactions. 

Thanks for your interest! Check out our research page for more information about what we do.

Interested in joining the lab?

News!

August 2023: Excited to welcome two new graduate students - Chris DeAngelis and Catherine Farrell! 

August 2023: New paper out in Diversity & Distributions - with a lot of lab member authors! 

August 2023: Rosebelle and Aly presented at the Ecological Society of America conference!

May 2023: Undergraduate Hunter Akins won a McNair Scholarship! This summer he is barcoding and describing the parasitoid community of a range-expanding gall wasp.

May 2023: ​Welcome to NSF REU student Lexie Greiber! Lexie is working with Aly Milks, using molecular tools to uncover how range expansions altered interactions between host competitors and their shared parasitoids.

April 2023: Undergraduate Julian Marshall won a Summer Scholar Research Fellowship - he is uncovering how handling by different ants and ant nest conditions affects germination and establishment of understory plants. 

April 2023: ​Congratulations to Rosebelle Ines for winning a Shepherd Research Award, and a Harpur Graduate Student Research award, which will fund her summer research on how colony structure and task partitioning affect seed dispersal!

March 2023: Congratulations to Dylan Jones for defending his thesis, for winning a University award for Excellence in Graduate Student research, and for landing a job as a Research Scientist at the EPA! 

December 2022: Congratulations to Carmela, her dissertation chapter on historical land use impacts on seed dispersal was accepted in Ecology!! Previous undergraduates Jesse, Will, Carly and John are co-authors on the manuscript!

September 2022: Undergraduate researcher, Kristy Tan, presented at the Summer Scholar Research poster session!

August 2022: ​Dylan, Rachel, Rosebelle, Carmela and Kirsten all presented at ESA in Montreal!

August 2022: Dylan's dissertation chapter on latitudinal diversity gradients and range expansions has been published in the Journal of Animal Ecology!

June 2022: Congratulations to Rachel Chen for winning an Invasion Ecology section ESA travel award!

June 2022: ​New paper out in Insectes Sociaux by Carmela, Will Smisko, and Allie Radin!

June 2022: Congrats to Kirsten for receiving the Provost's Excellence Award in Undergraduate mentoring. 

May 2022: Congratulations to Rosey Ines for winning a Clark Travel award for the upcoming ESA conference!

April 2022: Congratulations to undergraduate Allie Radin for winning a Provost's Excellence Award in Undergraduate Research!

​April 2022: Congratulations to undergraduate Kristy Tan for winning a Summer Scholars Fellowship to study phenology of ants, plants and invasive slugs! 

January 2022: Congratulations to Rosey for winning a CIWS small grant for her research on seed dispersal in deciduous forests!

October 2022: Dylan and Kirsten are heading to Denver to present at the Entomological Society of America conference.

August 2022: Carmela, Rachel, Will, Carley, Kelly, and Kirsten are presenting at the Ecological Society of America conference! 

July 2022: Field crews are having awesome field seasons - Carmela, Rosey and Will have been busy collecting ant colonies and setting up mesocosms. Aly, Dylan, NSF REU Kyle, and Nick and Bryn have been searching for galls and setting up experiments out west!