All of my research encompasses the broader theme of early complex life in the marine realm from the Ediacaran to early Paleozoic periods. Understanding the ecologies and complex processes that make up the life modes of these organisms can help us understand how organisms today are impacted by unprecedented extreme conditions that may not have been so unfamiliar to our deep time friends.

Bioturbation, or the mixing of sediment by burrowing organisms, is a metabolically demanding mechanism that may have significant impacts on modern seafloor communities.

The strata of the Cambrian period are characterized by low and variable bioturbation intensities, although examples of high bioturbation intensities are observed in the sedimentological record. This phenomenon raises many questions for geobiologists on why bioturbation lagged behind other ecological phenomena of the early Paleozoic if intensive mixing was possible, and the role of the environment and lithofacies on the patterns we are able to observe in the rock record.

During the late Cambrian to Early Ordovician, the rock record represents a transition from microbially-dominated reef structures like stromatolites and thrombolites, to metazoan-dominated, skeletal-rich framework structures preceding the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE).

Scientists like myself are interested in uncovering the effects of this transition, and exactly what environmental conditions potentially triggered such a transition in the first place. Additionally, did these reef structures have the same influence on their ecosystems, or did they play different roles in the evolution of benthic communities prior to the GOBE?

My first real encounter with the Earth Sciences was in my first year of undergraduate. I had taken chemistry and physics courses before, but did not know how these subjects were fully applicable to the geosciences. Facilitating and creating geoscience-based workshops, especially for ESL students with museum resources, is an area I am passionate about and actively developing as an K-12 workshop educator at the Yale Peabody Museum.