Wootton Lab

My research focuses on the ecological and evolutionary consequences of interactions among organisms. My work centers on how multi-species systems function and on evaluating methods that might predict how such systems will respond to environmental change, particularly in regard to the current epidemic of species extinctions and introductions occurring throughout the world. I have conducted research on a wide variety of related subjects and retain active research interests in most of them, including the role of ecological factors on the evolution of life history and mating systems, and population viability models of endangered species.  I work in several different systems, and study a range of taxa. My general approach develops and tests questions or models of broad theoretical interest, using field experiments, observations of large-scale species introductions, and between-system comparisons. Currently, my research focuses on rocky intertidal marine communities (particularly on Tatoosh Island, Washington) and rivers, which serve as model experimental systems for ecology. Specific research includes:
 

Indirect Effects of Environmental Impacts.  Studying indirect effects of environmental impacts, such as species extinctions and introductions, changes in productivity, and changes in disturbance regime, on complex ecosystems.
 
 

Interaction Strengths.  Identifying observational and experimental approaches that predict the strength of species interactions in natural communities.  Parameterizing dynamic models of food webs.
 
 

Transition-based Models of Multi-species Communities. Parameterizing and experimentally testing models such as extensions of the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity, Markov chain models and spatially-explicit cellular automata models.
 
 

Global Change Impacts on Ecological Networks. Documenting the dynamics of ocean pH (ocean acidification) in response to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and other physical and biological drivers, and predicting its effects on webs of interacting species in coastal ecosystems.  See movie clip of this research.

Extinction Risk.  Exploring experimentally the importance of genetic and demographic factors on extinction risk in small populations.  Population viability.
 
 

			PEOPLE IN THE LAB

I expect my students to develop a broad perspective on ecology and evolution, to engage in research rooted solidly in empiricism but with an eye toward its wider theoretical and practical implications, and to maintain a healthy knowledge of natural history. I particularly encourage applications from students with interests in marine or aquatic ecology.

 
Past and current students and post-docs in the lab have studied a variety of topics loosely related to my conceptual interests.  These include:

Aaron Kandur: Determinants of range limits at multiple scales.  Use of neural networks to characterize community interactions. 
 
Will Tyburczy:  Effects of discordant time-scales on ecological dynamics.
 
Kristen Jenkins Voorheis:  Palaeoecological perspectives on environmental change.

Sara Jackrel:  Effects of individual trait variation across ecosystem boundaries.

Amy Henry:  Disease, disturbance and alternative states.

Jon Chase:  Size structured interactions and alternative stable states in pond food webs along a productivity gradient. 
 
Jean Tsao:  Lyme disease dynamics and management in an ecological community context. 
 
Amy Downing:  Experimental studies of biodiversity and ecosystem function in multi-trophic pond ecosystems.
 
Kevin Britton-Simmons:  Population dynamics and community impacts of an invasive brown algae, Sargassum muticum, in Puget Sound.
 
Pamela Geddes:  Impacts and mechanisms of action of dissolved organic carbon derived from external leaf subsidies in pond ecosystems.
 
Doug Nutter:  Multi-trophic species-area relationships, and the effects of disturbance and stress in experimental tidepool communities.
 

Lis Nelis:  Food-web consequences of species invasions, particularly the synergistic interactions of multiple invaders on a remote Chilean island.
 
Mark Novak:  Interaction strength estimates and impacts of omnivory in New Zealand intertidal communities along a productivity gradient.

Michael Fitzsimons: Feedback and species coexistence of mycorrhizae and plants in prairies.

Handojo Kusumo:  Genetic structure and dynamics of experimental kelp populations.  Microsatellite and AFLP methods.
 
James Forester (post-doc in the Center for Integrating Statistics and the Environmental Sciences [CISES]):  Landscape ecology of elk-wolf-habitat interactions.  Methods for parameterizing multi-species models from community dynamics data.  Analysis of spatial association. Models of movent in juvenile salmon.

Dylan Maddox:  Ecological/evolutionary consequences of avian invasion.  Dynamic macroecology.

Matthew Helmus (NSF Bioinformatics post-doc):  Phylogenetic signals in interaction strength and food web structure.

	LINKS

My laboratory is strongly integrated with that of my colleague, Dr. Cathy Pfister and I am actively involved as a committee member or co-advisor with most of her students. 
 
See a MOVIE CLIP outlining some of our research projects! See another on our ocean acidification work.
 
We are also part of a larger community of Marine Scientists affiliated with the University of Chicago.
 
I am also part of the interdisciplinary Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Integrating Statistics and the Environmental Sciences (CISES) at the University of Chicago.