Research in the CaraDonna Lab aims to understand the structure and function of ecological communities and the species interactions operating within them. We tend to use plants and pollinators as our study system, but we like working with other organisms too. We are interested in exploring the interplay among biotic context, abiotic variation, and species’ phenologies, and we ask how these factors influence plant and animal populations, their interactions, and community structure, from a basic ecological perspective and under rapid anthropogenic change scenarios. We address our research questions using a variety of approaches including: observational field studies that use existing natural variation, field and laboratory experiments that build upon knowledge of this variation, and analytical tools like network analyses and simulation models. We very much value natural history and we love working as a collaborative team. Currently, most of our research takes place in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and The City of Chicago (but we've started exploring a couple other places too).
