Expertise
General research areas: evolutionary ecology and applied salt marsh ecology
Starting with my Ph.D., I have been investigating the evolutionary significance of extreme sexual size dimorphism in orb-weaving spiders and associated phenomena, such as sexual cannibalism and male self-sacrifice. This is still a very active line of inquiry in my lab.
More recently, I have also become interested in the ecology of our local salt marshes on Long Island, especially in the light of pollution, habitat degradation, and the global climate crisis. We are currently investigating the transport of heavy metals through the terrestrial component of the salt marsh system, as well as non-target effects of pesticides (resmethrin and methoprene), which are applied as a means of mosquito control.