Welcome to the Johnson Lab!
Our research focuses on two pervasive and inter-related forms of biological change: disease emergence and species invasions. Both have important consequences not only for individuals and populations, but for entire ecological communities and ecosystem processes. Invasions and disease can also have costly economic and health repercussions for human society. As such, addressing these problems demands an integrated approach capable of exploring complex interactions within an ecological community that is embedded in a dynamic, often highly disturbed environment. By combining experiments, large-scale spatial and temporal field data, molecular tools and ecological modeling, our group strives to bring a broad perspective to these questions. Current research within the Johnson Lab is directed toward three, inter-related focal questions: ( i ) What are the ecosystem drivers of disease emergence and species invasions in aquatic ecosystems? ( ii ) How do parasites and pathogens interact with (and modify) community (e.g., competition, predation) and ecosystem-level processes (e.g., food web structure, primary production)? and ( iii ) In what ways does human activity modify these relationships and the probability of disease emergence or biological invasion? All have immediate relevance to both fundamental questions in ecology and applied conservation issues. In pursuit of these questions, we work in a broad variety of aquatic ecosystems, including agricultural ponds, alpine lakes, and urban streams.