Research

Graduate students and other volunteers help install drift fences on the Cold Mountain Game Land in western North Carolina.

My research is focused on understanding the effects of global change on wildlife, with an emphasis on disturbance ecology.  The research typically is applied and often employs large-scale, replicated environmental manipulations.

Current research activities are:

  • Current Project: White-tailed deer ecology across an urban to rural gradient
  • Current Project: Weather and climate effects on wild turkey reproduction
  • Current Project: Using a long-term data set to assess climate change impacts on red-cockaded woodpecker reproduction

Although I historically have studied non-game species, my interests are rooted more in the particulars of specific land use practices than in the taxonomic groups studied.  For example, I am fascinated by fire ecology and study response by both game (e.g., bobwhite, turkey, deer) and non-game (e.g., salamanders, shrews, songbirds) taxa to prescribed burning.

I value my relationships with graduate students and I do all that I can to spend time with each in the field and schedule periodic meetings to discuss the challenges and opportunities of ongoing research.  My door always is open.