Research

The broad goal of our research is to better understand how insects (and life more broadly) can respond to environmental changes through phenotypic plasticity and evolution. Studying anthropogenic change helps us understand plasticity and evolution because these changes represent accidental “experiments” with which we can test fundamental questions. Studying plasticity and evolution helps us understand anthropogenic change because they determine the limits of life’s ability to cope with these changes and thus the ecology of changing environments.

Much of the current research in the lab is in collaboration with the University of Helsinki, where I have a secondary appointment as PI for the Academy of Finland-funded project PLASTI-CITY: Urban evolution of seasonal plasticity across space and time.

Our current focus is on the urban evolution of seasonal plasticity, but lab members have in the past worked with a wide range of traits, species, and habitats (see past projects), and I am happy to revisit these themes with an interested students or collaborators.