I am a quantitative community ecologist and data scientist, currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota. I am co-advised by Drs. Eric Seabloom and Elizabeth Borer.
In my current position, I serve as Coordinating Scientist and Data Manager for the Nutrient Network (NutNet), a grassroots, globally-distributed experiment. This network broadly seeks to understand the consequences of global change for grassland biodiversity and ecosystem function. I am most interested in the impacts of global change on communities and ecosystems, and primarily focus on the problem of increased nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deposition. These phenomena are a direct consequence of human activities, including fossil fuel combustion and agriculture. In the Arctic, where I performed my dissertation research, humans are also increasing soil nutrient availability indirectly, via global warming. By altering the global resource landscape, humans are effectively changing food-webs from the bottom up, as producers, consumers and predators respond. My current research at the University of Minnesota focuses on ways to improve forecasts of plant species' responses to their rapidly-changing environment. I have used long-term monitoring data from the Nutrient Network to characterize species' extinction risk. My dissertation research, performed alongside arctic plant ecologist Dr. Laura Gough, characterized the responses of arctic insect communities and plant-insect food webs to increased plant productivity, a consequence of climate change in the Arctic. |
An energetic food-web model of the plant-insect community in arctic tundra (Asmus et al. in prep).
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