I am an Ecologist interested in both basic and applied population and community ecology of both marine and terrestrial organisms.  Along the population lines, I am interested in the effect that the spatial dynamics of populations have on population productivity and on limiting species geographic ranges.  My research approaches have included large-scale data synthesis from museum and lab specimens, and from publications as well as large-scale field sampling of bird populations in forests of western Mexico and marine intertidal invertebrates along the NE Pacific coast.  In collaboration with other scientists, I have used phylogeographic approaches to understand the dispersal of marine invertebrates across their geographic range.  In the near future, I am interested in expanding my research approaches to include both experiments and mathematical theory.

In relation to both my population and community ecology interests, I am currently examining the dynamics of targeted fisheries, their related ecosystems and their associated impacts on the socioeconomics of fishing communities along the Pacific coast of the Vizcaino Peninsula in Baja California Sur.  This research will involve intensive and extensive local and regional field sampling of benthic ecosystems, experimental and theoretical approaches in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of marine ecologists, fisheries ecologists, human ecologists and environmental economists.