I am interested in one of ecology's fundamental questions: what are the patterns of biodiversity? As well as in one of today's most pressing questions: how will biodiversity respond to a changing environment? Most of my work has focused specifically on tropical forest canopies where I use multiple ecological approaches to better understand the factors that control species richness and distribution. I have conducted studies on microclimate, large scale regional and local floristic inventories, and species, community, ecosystem and phylogenetic-level processes. I am also working in the temperate zone where I am beginning a project on the functional controls of the understory on overstory species composition and how these controls may change with soil warming and increased N-deposition.