Tewksbury Lab- People

Principle Investigator

Dr. Joshua Tewksbury - Assistant Professor

My research interests span a variety of topics in ecology, evolution and conservation, including plant animal interactions, avian ecology and evolution, and chemical evolution in ripe fruit. I favor experimental investigations into ecology and evolution based on a balanced understanding of natural history and theory. For more information on my research, please see my current research programs or my CV

Josh's calendar

tewksjj@u.washington.edu (email)

Post Docs

Dr. Tomás A. Carlo - Postdoctoral Fellow

My research focuses on animal-plant interactions and community ecology. I am interested in how animals that disperse seeds actively create pattern in plant communities. For my postdoc in the Tewksbury lab I am studying the demography of wild chili peppers by dissecting the effects of directional dispersal, seed predation, and recruitment patterns under different nurse trees in the Sonoran grasslands of Tumacacori, AZ. I am also developing a new technique for the study of seed dispersal and recruitment using stable isotopes. For more information on my research, please see my current research interests or my CV

dendrophthora@gmail.com (email)

Dr. Lars Brudvig - Postdoctoral Fellow

My general research interests are in restoration ecology of plant communities, ranging from local scales to landscapes. Much of my work has focused on two aspects of restoration: (1) using restoration as a means for large-scale experimentation to investigate spatial processes and consequences for management and (2) placing restoration ecology into a landscape context by incorporating elements of reserve design. I enjoy working at the interface between science and management and collaborate with several government and private land management agencies. With the Corridor Research Group I work at Savannah River Site, SC. This university/U.S. Forest Service collaboration represents one of the largest and best replicated habitat fragmentation experiments in the world and is the largest experimental study of habitat corridors. Presently, we are studying the influences of habitat edges and corridors on population dynamics of longleaf pine savanna understory plants. Using experimental and observational approaches, we seek to translate findings from our experimental landscapes to the scale of operational forestry at the 80,000 ha Savannah River Site. For more information on my research, please see my current research interests or my CV

brudvig@biology2.wustl.edu (email)

Graduate Students

	David Haak- PhD Student Chemical ecology, plant physiology/biochemistry, evolutionary biology, plant-animal interactions haakd@u.washington.edu (email)
	Kimberly Sheldon- PhD Student I am interested in biogeography across latitude. My research integrates areas of ecology, physiology, and evolution, to better understand the processes governing biodiversity patterns in tropical and temperate areas. For more information on my research, please see my current research interests ksheldon@u.washington.edu (email)
	Andrew Van Eck- PhD Student The current focus of my research entails two principal elements, each of which aims to create a predictive framework for forecasting the impacts of human activity on wildlife. First to establish general trends from previous work, I conducted a meta-analysis that correlates specific life and natural history traits with species decline in fragmented habitats. Preliminary results confirm formerly observational annotations that specialist mammals are more likely to decline than generalists. The second element of my research concentrates on teasing apart the relative effects of fragmentation and hunting on mammalian populations in the tropical forests NE of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Results from the first field season revealed striking changes in populations across multiple trophic levels, and future studies will concentrate on testing specific mechanisms that explain the observed patterns. drewdogy@u.washington.edu (email)
	Haldre Rogers- PhD Student Trophic cascades, seed dispersal, pollination, invasive species haldre@u.washington.edu (email)
	Noelle Machnicki- PhD Student I am broadly interested in studying how coevolution, or reciprocal evolutionary change between interacting species, shapes the ecological dynamics of communities and maintains biodiversity. My research focuses on studying plant-fungal coevoluionary dynamics in a particularly charismatic plant system: chili peppers. The spiciness of chilies may serve as an adaptation to protect the fruits from microbial attack and places selective pressures on fruit-inhabiting microbes that can \destroy seeds. I�m working with fungal strains obtained from chili fruits across a broad geographic range in Bolivia to study fungal local adaptation and the potential for a �coevolutionary arms race� between chilies and fungus. noellejm@u.washington.edu (email)
	Karen Reagan- PhD Student I am currently involved with a grand scale collaborative project focused on examining the efficacy of common restoration techniques used in prairie restoration. With eleven field sites spanning from Vancouver Island to Corvallis, Oregon, I spend a good portion of my time outside checking out the plants. sphitz@u.washington.edu (email)
	Dan Evans- PhD Student We live in a fragmented world, and mitigating the effects of habitat fragmentation is one of our greatest conservation challenges. My PhD research is focused on the impact of fragmentation on plant gene flow�pollination and seed dispersal. Using molecular markers and a model species of annual herbaceous plant, Solanum americanum, I�m studying the movement of pollen and seeds within and between experimentally fragmented habitat patches at the Savannah River Site (SRS) National Environmental Research Park in South Carolina. I�m testing hypotheses designed to clarify how habitat edges and the presence or absence of habitat corridors affect plant gene flow. S. americanum can be pollinated by a variety of insects and dispersed by a variety of birds, so this study also reflects community-level responses to fragmentation. For more information on my research, please see my current research interests dmevans@u.washington.edu (email)

Undergraduate Researchers and Technicians

	Susan Taylor- Part time lab manager and Undergraduate Researcher My interests in evolutionary ecology center around adaptive landscapes, local adaptation, community ecology, and co-evolution. I'm particularly interested in how research in these areas can inform our approach to global climate change. My current work is with Tomas Carlo using stable isotope analysis to study the ecology of seed dispersal. Next year I'll start my proposed work exploring local adaptation and co-evolution in fungus and chili plants. The project is funded by the Frye-Hotson-Rigg Award for undergraduate research. This summer I'm finishing a year-long research project on adaptive landscapes using an E.coli model system. In this project I'm asking which evolves higher fitness: a population that reaches a selective environment by gradually increasing the intensity of selection pressure over many generations - or a population that goes directly into the intense selective environment and is allowed to spend the same number of generations there. susanmae@u.washignton.edu (email)
	Cat Adams- Undergraduate Researcher I am an ecology and evolution enthusiast working with chilies in the Tewksbury lab for the summer. My interests include co-evolution, tradeoffs, cooperation, adaptive landscapes, and constantly cleaning dirt out from under my nails. I have enjoyed learning about large scale field experiments, and the planning that goes into them. In the lab, I have been working on DNA extraction, sample prep for mass spectrometry, DNA distraction (look, over there!), and the long-lost art of data entry. My thumb grows greener by the day with all the seeds I have prepped for germination. Some even call me The Germinator ocarina9@u.washington.edu (email)
	Tara Kenny- Undergraduate Researcher kennyt33@hotmail.com (email)
	Lia Noges- Undergraduate Researcher lian2@u.washington.edu (email)
	Corinna Pinzari- Undergraduate Researcher cpinzari@u.washington.edu (email)
	Tara Smiley- Undergraduate Researcher tsmiley@u.washington.edu (email)
	Anna Kramer- Undergraduate Researcher annakae@u.washington.edu (email)
	Nash Turley- Undergraduate Researcher My interests include entomology, ecology, conservation biology, and casual birding. My research amazingly combines all those aspects! I am studying the effects of habitat fragmentation and connectivity on herbivory. Working with PhD student Dan Evans at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina I am investigating whether corridors and habitat shape influence levels of herbivory on a model plant species, Solanum americanum. I am also looking to see if these same factors effect distributions of insects, such as aphids, on S. americanum. nashuag@u.washington.edu (email)