The unifying theme of my research is to identify how alterations to trophic interactions and ecosystem productivity affect community structure and ecosystem function. My research program employs an interdisciplinary program of field and lab experiments, behavioral observations, synthetic statistical analyses, and natural products chemistry to address trophic interactions from a variety of perspectives from large-scale patterns to small-scale mechanisms. Although most of my work has been on consumer control of marine ecosystems (coral reefs, temperate reefs, and estuaries), I have also begun working in terrestrial ecosystems (South African savanna grasslands and North American tall grass prairie) on the role of herbivore size in driving community structure and on the interactions between herbivory and productivity in structuring plant communities
