As we are currently facing the sixth mass extinction event, its imperative to understand the drivers of biodiversity over space and time and the ecosystem-wide consequences of biodiversity change across multiple levels of biological organization.
Most research on biodiversity change monitors one taxonomic group, so my recent work has expanded on this, studying changes in biodiversity across multiple taxonomic groups. Using regional scale data of coral reef benthic communities in the Bahamas, we found that beta diversity patterns, but not alpha diversity, are non-independent among taxonomic groups, demonstrating that changes in the composition of one taxonomic group can have cascading effects on overall composition (McDevitt-Irwin et al. 2021, Oecologia).
My current work evaluates how coral reef biodiversity- both alpha and beta diversity- is altered by anthropogenic stressors by working in Moorea, French Polynesia. I am evaluating how fishing pressure and nutrient pollution influence coral and macroalgae diversity using a four-year long field experiment. To complement this experimental work, I am leveraging new technologies- eDNA and bioacoustics- to determine how landscape scale patterns of coral reef fish diversity is correlated with metrics of coral reef health (e.g., coral cover, algae cover, nutrient pollution).
In addition, I am currently part of a working group evaluating how macroalgae diversity and stability are related over space and time in Moorea, French Polynesia.
Fieldwork in Moorea, French Polynesia