Research in our lab sits at the intersection of plant population ecology and ethnobiology. We study how plant populations respond, demographically and evolutionarily, to chronic human disturbances (e.g., harvest, fire, and fragmentation) and to changing biotic and abiotic conditions (e.g., drought and flooding). Harvest is our central focus: a selective pressure applied repeatedly, at rates set by human demand rather than by the plant’s ecology. We also conduct hypothesis-driven research in ethnobiology. Here we seek to understand how and why human societies select and manage natural resources, and what local management practices mean for conservation and for the ecosystems themselves.

Our work is interdisciplinary, combining long-term field studies, ethnographic methods, population genomics, phylogenetic comparative methods, and mathematical modeling. Much of it is rooted in the Peruvian Amazon. There, in partnership with Shipibo-Konibo communities, we assess the impacts of harvest on culturally and economically important non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and work to restore them. We also take these questions to a global scale, asking which harvested species recover and why people use the plants they do. A greater understanding of these human–environmental interactions is essential for developing novel strategies to engage with and responsibly manage the organisms and ecosystems on which humanity relies for livelihoods, subsistence, and survival.