Identifying and investigating how animals interact with, and contribute to, the ecosystems they inhabit
Identifying Animal-Vectorized Subsidies
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Animals are always on the move—and with them, they carry nutrients. Through feeding, excretion, reproduction, and death, they redistribute critical elements across ecosystems.
The role of animals as nutrient vectors that link ecosystems and influence function, is gaining traction. However, understanding where, when, and how much animals distribute nutrientsis challenging, as it relies on methods and concepts from a variety of scientific disciplines (Ellis-Soto, Ferraro et al. 2021). My work seeks to address this information gap, helping ecologists better understand the important role animals play in biogeochemical processes (Barbero-Palacios et al. 2023; Ferraro et al. 2023; Ferraro et al. 2024). |
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Zoogeochemical Effects and Feedbacks
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Animals alter nutrient distributions across ecosystems, yet analyzing these effects at a landscape scale is logistically challenging. To address this, I use individual-based models (Ferraro et al. 2022) and ecosystem budgets (Ferraro and Hirst 2024, Ferraro et al. 2024) to examine how ungulates impact nutrient distribution at the landscape scale. I also develope and test theory regarding the feedbacks between animals and the zoogeochemical legacies they leave (Ferraro et al. 2025).
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Predators as Drivers of Prey Behavior
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Predator-prey interactions are a fundamental part of community and ecosystem ecology, shaping the way animals move and interact with the environment they inhabit. Using agent-based models, I work closely with collaborators to simulate predator-prey interactions and how such dynamics cause prey individuals to shift in time and space (Orrick et al. 2024; Gadsden et al. 2024, Hawkinson et al. 2025).
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