I have broad interests across many fields of biology, but I specialize in two groups of soil-dwelling animals, earthworms and millipedes.
REU site program
K-State is host to a Research Experiences for Undergraduates site program. The theme for this 10 week summer program is ecology, evolution, and genomics of grassland organisms. I coordinate the program with Brett Sandercock and Ari Jumpponen. Please visit the REU program webpage for more details.
Invasive species
Few people, at least in the United States, realize that most of the earthworms they are familiar with are not native to North America. Many of these earthworm species are also invasive. Much of my research over the last 5 years has focused on Asian earthworm invasions, and I am planning to continue this line of research. In the future I'll be assembling information about this topic on the resources page.
Taxonomy
I am interested in descriptive taxonomy of both earthworms and millipedes. My work is primarily morphological, but I believe that an approach which combines both molecular and morphological information is best. I am currently working on describing new species of millipedes from Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas. As part of my taxonomic work I have identified millipedes from several All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventories, including those at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Boston Harbor Islands, and the recent Yellowstone National Park BioBlitz.
Millipede ecology
One of the main questions in my research is simply: How do millipedes affect soil properties? In collaboration with Richard Jeannotte, we are examining how Eurymerodesmus mundus collected from Konza Prairie affects microbial communities and soil properties.
Life history
Very little is known about the life history of most species of soil fauna. Of the great diversity of earthworms and millipedes, detailed life history characteristics are only know for a handful of species, mostly of European origin. I am currently monitoring cultures of the millipede Eurymerodesmus mundus to record basic life history characteristics.
I am also collaborating with Steven Rostkowski (MS student, K-State) and Jimmy Blackmon (MS University of Georgia 2009) to learn more about earthworm life history. As part of Jimmy's MS thesis, we raised cocoons of Asian Amynthas agrestis to determine the numbers of hatchlings per cocoon and hatching rates at different temperature. Steven and I are attempting to hatch cocoons collected from large soil cores from Konza and Fort Hays Agricultural Experiment Station as part of his MS research.
Other Interests
I also have interests in the following areas:
Conferences
Upcoming meetings I plan to attend: