I am a Ph.D. candidate and NSF Fellow in the University of California-Davis Graduate Group in Ecology at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. My work in the lab of Dr. Edwin Grosholz focuses on species that form habitat, known as foundation species, which are crucial members of ecological communities. Their presence supports highly biodiverse communities and their removal often triggers a phase change to an entirely different ecosystem (think coral reefs to rubble fields, kelp forests to urchin barrens, or oyster reefs to mud flats). Changes in foundation species populations may be permanent or temporary, rapid or gradual, and wide-spread or spatially explicit, but the mechanisms that drive these different trajectories are largely unknown. My Ph.D. research addresses the hypothesis that adaptation to and refugia within environmental gradients can explain much of the variation observed in foundation species response to disturbance and global change. Using novel tools and diverse collaborations, I work around the world to understand resiliency of and threats to nearshore ecosystems.