My research focuses on describing the structure and function of species-rich food webs, especially with respect to how these complex food webs are impacted by human activities. Important discoveries regarding food webs typically have emerged from work conducted in relatively isolated temperate systems (e.g. lakes), or in ecosystems where interactions can be experimentally manipulated at small spatial scales (e.g. the rocky intertidal). Yet much of the world’s species diversity is located in tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems, and a better understanding of the ecology of these systems is necessary to assess community- and ecosystem-level responses to anthropogenic impacts.

My research program is centered in two ecosystems: sub-tropical Caribbean estuaries and floodplain rivers of Venezuela. By describing human impacts within a food web context, I endeavor to provide predictive power regarding specific environmental problems, yet still allowing for generality that will broaden the theoretical foundations and applications of food web ecology.