Chelsea Little

Chelsea Little is a community and landscape ecologist with research interests in the linked terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems that make up watersheds. The Little Ecology Group asks questions like, what drives ecosystems’ functioning? And how does landscape structure affect what plants and animals are found where, and what they’re doing there? 

Dr. Little and the Little Ecology Group use a combination of laboratory experiments, field experiments, observational data, and data synthesis/meta-analysis in their research. Using these approaches, they consider how communities of organisms assemble, the interactions between organisms of similar and different trophic groups, and how their traits contribute to ecosystem function. Dr. Little is also fascinated by the way that ecosystems are intrinsically connected: by organismal movement and dispersal, and by the flows of materials (for example, resource subsidies) across ecosystem boundaries. Research partnerships often consider how communities and ecosystem processes respond to anthropogenic pressure or can be used as indicators of human impacts.