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We are plant ecologists interested in explaining population and community dynamics in space and time. We study coexistence, patterns of diversity, and plant-animal interactions. Much of our field work is in arid and semiarid ecosystems, but we also rely on statistical and simulation modeling techniques that apply to many ecosystems. Here are some research questions that people in the lab are excited about:

• Are plant populations regulated more by climate or competition?
• Does climate variability promote species diversity?
• How long will plant populations persist in their current locations under climate change?
• Why have domestic livestock had major impacts on some ecosystems, but only subtle impacts on others?
• Do native and domestic grazers create different kinds of habitat?
• How do species richness and turnover scale in space and time?