Research in our lab is at the intersection of plant population ecology and ethnobiology, where we are interested in understanding how plant populations respond to chronic human disturbances (e.g. harvest, fire, fragmentation) and changing biotic and abiotic environmental conditions (e.g., drought and flooding). We are also interested in hypothesis-driven research in ethnobiology, where we seek to understand how and why human societies select and manage natural resources, along with the conservation implications and biological responses of local ecosystem management practices.

Our work is interdisciplinary, often combining field studies, ethnographic and applied ecological methods, and mathematical modeling. We are currently working on harvest impact assessments and the restoration of culturally and economically important non-timber forest products (NTFP) in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. A greater understanding of these human-environmental interactions is essential for developing novel strategies to successfully engage with and help to responsibly manage biological organisms and ecosystems on which humanity relies for livelihoods, subsistence, and survival.