Ives Lab

My areas of research are community ecology, population biology, evolutionary ecology, and phylogenetics. Although I have research projects involving different questions and different experimental systems, almost all involve temporal dynamics, spatial dynamics, or spatio-temporal dynamics – how things vary through time and space. While some projects are purely mathematical, most combine theory and data.

I am interested in processes that drive variation in the structure and function of ecological communities, as well as the influence that abiotic and biotic conditions have on the outcomes of these processes. At Lake Mývatn, Iceland, I pair observational surveys and experiments to investigate the influence of acute disturbances such as cyanobacterial blooms and wind events on benthic algal communities, with a focus on their role in shaping nutrient availability and biogeochemical cycling.

I am interested in how benthic and pelagic communities are linked and the effects of disturbance on those linkages.

I’m interested in the dynamics of species interaction and how these are simultaneously determine by and drive ecological and evolutionary processes.

I am interested in understanding metapopulation dynamics in aquatic ecosystems, particularly how population fluctuations and species interactions are influenced by environmental factors and habitat connectivity. My research focuses on long-term population trends, source-sink dynamics, and species composition within freshwater systems, with a specific interest in midges as bioindicators of ecological health. I am currently a M.Sc. student at Hólar University in Iceland, and Bjarni Kristjánsson and Tony Ives serve as my advisors.

I am interested in the ecology of insect parasitoids in natural and agricultural systems. I use different sampling techniques and taxonomic tools to investigate the ways predation, competition and resource distribution affect parasitoid abundance, life history and community structure.