1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?
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My research is centered on reconstructing ancient greenhouse climates and terrestrial ecosystems. I study higher plants to help with these reconstructions. My research is attempting to answer the following climate and biodiversity related questions: What is the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) and global climate? What is the effect of fluctuating pCO2 on terrestrial biodiversity and evolutionary processes? Can we predict how pCO2 increases might affect future global climate, terrestrial ecosystems and evolutionary processes based on fossil greenhouse records?
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2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?
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My research involves collecting plant fossils across intervals of ancient greenhouse warming and cooling. Careful anatomical, morphological, and geochemical analyses of these fossils allows me to infer plant function and physiology and reconstruct ecosystem biodiversity and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels through these intervals. Specifically, the techniques I rely on most are stomatal indexing, cuticular morphotyping and stable carbon isotope geochemistry. My principal research tools are fluorescence microscopy and mass spectrometry.
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3. Where do you study biodiversity?
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My current field sites are located primarily in Colorado and Utah. Future field sites may extend north into Montana and Canada and south into Texas. These field sites represent 100 million year old Cretaceous shorelines and basins of the Western Interior Seaway where plant fossils and remains have been preserved.
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4. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?
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My research may yield important information on how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels affects terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem function. This type of information is vital for guiding future environmental regulation and conservation efforts.
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5. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?
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My interest in science stems from my profound respect and awe for the dynamic complexity of life on Earth through time. I am a scientist in part to fulfill my own curiosity on how the Earth functions as well as being able to provide important information which may help future generations better manage and protect Earth's delicate resources and biodiversity.
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6. Describe important collaborations for your scientific endeavors (describe your work with other researchers, organizations, or scientific groups, local or indigenous peoples, etc.)
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My work is part of a highly multidisciplinary collaboration between scientists working at the Field Museum, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Amherst University. Our research team includes geologists, botanists, geochemists, and computational global climate modelers.
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