Research Interests and Expertise

She is a landscape and urban ecologist and her research focuses on understanding how spatial heterogeneity of an area or system controls system function and change. Her research spans scales and she employ GIS, field experiments and observations, and analytical chemistry of plants, soil, and water to investigate the relationship between landscape patterns and ecosystem processes. She works in many types of systems including the savannas of California and South Africa, Sierra alpine, and the metropolitan regions of Sacramento and Baltimore.