Research

I've worked on projects covering a variety of topics, but my principal interests involve ecosystem services provided by terrestrial macroinvertebrates and the effects these have on ecosystem and community functioning in agricultural and natural settings.

Biogeochemical cycling driven by soil macroinvertebrates
associated projects:
  • Methane emissions of leaf-cutting ants in Costa Rica over seasonal transitions (on-going)
    • ​My current research at the University of Louisville involves quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from leaf-cutting ant (Atta cephalotes) colonies. The transition from the early 2023 dry season to the summer wet season in Central America takes place during an El Niño year, which has caused disproportionately long periods with little precipitation. This effects the timing and duration of activity for the ant colonies, as well as the microbes which exist within them. I am hoping to characterize the patterns of methane and carbon-dioxide flux from these nests throughout the transition from dry to wet seasons. By doing so, I aim to better understand how these disproportionately large sources of greenhouse gases function during variable and extreme climate scenarios.
  • Ecological impacts of invasive terrestrial flatworm predation on earthworms (undergraduate thesis)

Conservation biocontrol and natural enemy ecology in agroecosystems

associated publications:
  • Hudson, T. Blake, Thomas Kuhar, Adam Alford, Thomas Bilbo, Sean Boyle, Helene Doughty, Lorena Lopez, Allison Stawara, James Walgenbach, Carmen Blubaugh. “Living mulches do not buffer natural enemies from non-target effects of pesticides”. (In-press)

Fossorial and at-risk vertebrates affected by agricultural pollution