W2023 - BIOL 315 - Quantitative Biology I | ||||||||||
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The ultimate goal of my research is to understand how ecological communities are assembled. Community assembly provides a framework in which to consider how processes operating at a variety of temporal, spatial, and organizational scales affect, and are affected by, species distribution and abundance. Community assembly is of applied as well as fundamental interest. For instance, ecological restoration is a practical test of our understanding of community assembly. If we understand how communities are assembled, we should be able to re-assemble them (or explain why this is impossible).
I study community assembly using a combination of experiments and mathematical theory. My work is question-driven, which means I choose my questions first, and then choose a system appropriate for answering those questions. My experiments use tractable model systems (predominantly microbial systems) that facilitate collection of long-term population dynamic data, since community assembly is a long-term process.
Current or planned projects in my lab address questions such as: By what mechanisms does dispersal affect the outcome of competition in patchy habitats? How do enrichment and dispersal interact to generate spatial and temporal variation in community structure along enrichment gradients? How does the structure of the background community affect the kind of population dynamics exhibited a given species (e.g., stage-structured cycles vs. predator-prey cycles), and what are the community-level consequences of different kinds of population dynamics? .
Hausch, Stephen | PhD |
2007 - British Ecological society Early Career Project Award
2006 - Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty Award Holder
2005 - Alberta Ingenuity Fund New Faculty Award (2005-2007)