Research in our lab focuses on the ecology and management of forest tree diseases, primarily in California. These diseases include those caused by introduced pathogens as well as native pathogens. Research in the lab takes a multiscale approach ranging from experimental studies on the basic biology of organisms to field studies at landscape scales. Active collaborations include projects with landscape ecologists, epidemiologists, molecular biologists, entomologists, and forest managers.

The primary research effort in the lab is currently Phytophthora species in California coastal forests, with an emphasis on Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of Sudden Oak Death (SOD). California forests have lost millions of trees to SOD since its introduction in the mid-1990s. Our study sites span the range of P. ramorum in California, from Big Sur to the Oregon border. The sites comprise a diversity of forest types, including: redwood-tanoak, Douglas-fir-tanoak, coast live oak and mixed oak forests. Across this range, we are monitoring the establishment, spread and ecological impacts of SOD.

In conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and other interior mountain ranges, we are studying a variety of diseases and their relationship to past and present forest management and conservation issues. White pine blister rust is an exotic pathogen that threatens white pine diversity in mixed-conifer and subalpine forests. Our research team is taking an ecological and genetic approach to better understand the interactions of disease pressure, environment, and evolutionary processes on the population dynamics of white pine species in California. Another project is looking at the spatial distribution of pathogens and insects and their impact on plant community development in mixed-conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada including Yosemite Valley and the Teakettle Experimental Forest in the southern Sierras. These projects are also linked to forest management including the role of fire and forest thinning.