I research community assembly in human-dominated landscapes with the ultimate goal of informing sustainable landscape design. My research focuses on understanding how human activities, specifically habitat development and introduced species, affect species dispersal, habitat selection and species interactions. In addition, I research how the composition of species in a community affects ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services. I use a combination of field surveys, experiments, genetic techniques, and modeling to address these research questions in a variety of taxonomic groups mainly in southeastern PA and the Caribbean region.