Strauss Lab at UGA

Welcome to the Strauss lab in the Odum School of Ecology at UGA. We study the ways that environmental gradients and species interactions – like competition and predation – shape the dynamics of infectious disease. Reciprocally, we also strive to understand the impacts of parasites and pathogens on community dynamics and ecosystem processes. Research in the Strauss lab is conceptually motivated, and we often approach our questions through an iterative combination of field studies, experiments at both individual and mesocosm scales, and mathematical theory. We work in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, depending on our interests and the study system that best suits the question at hand. In lakes and ponds, we study communities of zooplankton and their parasites, competitors, predators, and resources. In grassland ecosystems, we study communities of plants and their pathogens, mutualists, and consumers.