I am broadly interested in the evolution of parental investment.  My research examines how the interplay between environment and reproductive mode affects reproductive success.  

    My dissertation work focuses on the evolution and maintenance of reproductive modes within viviparous, or livebearing species.  Timing of allocation in viviparous species ranges from strict lecithotrophy, or pre-fertilization provisioning, to extreme matrotrophy, where all or most nutrients are delivered to developing embryos after fertilization, often by means of a placenta. Matrotrophy has multiple independent origins in wide array of taxa (e.g. mammals, insects, bony fishes, cartilaginous fishes, reptiles, and nematodes), which is indicative of strong selection.  Despite this, the selective forces which have shaped its evolution have yet to be identified.

    Several unconfirmed ecological hypotheses for the evolution of matrotrophy have been proposed in the current literature.  I am examining the validity of these hypotheses with a series of comparative studies using livebearing fishes in the genus Poeciliopsis.   Within this group, there are three proposed independent origins of placental matrotrophy, making it possible to examine closely related sister species that differ in reproductive mode (matrotrophy vs. lecithotrophy).