Hurlbert Lab

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

How do ecological community structure and species interactions generate repeating patterns of diversity across space and time? The lab uses large-scale citizen science datasets to quantify phenological mismatch between birds and caterpillars to test timing-based ecological hypotheses. The group develops and analyzes simulation models to test hypotheses for the latitudinal diversity gradient and to explore mechanisms generating large-scale diversity patterns. Researchers run eco-evolutionary experiments with Drosophila in collaboration with the Matute lab to test thermal niche limits, competition, and niche conservatism. The lab conducts manipulative experiments and modeling across vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant communities to link processes to observed diversity, composition, turnover, and relative abundance.