My research program focuses on improving Florida agronomic and horticultural crop production systems, primarily through nematode management. This includes assessing and improving plant-parasitic nematode management strategies such as crop rotation, resistant cultivars, pesticides, biocontrol, and other practices. My lab also seeks to improve nematode management through better understanding of how different plant-parasitic nematodes interact with their environment including factors such as soil type, weather, nematode-feeding microbes, and crops/weeds among others. My research program also explores how crop production practices affect soil ecology by assessing the whole nematode community. Nematodes occupy a wide range of ecological niches—a relatively small percentage damage plants—so they are good indicators of the ecological activity in the soil.
