I am a mammalian ecologist who studies the regulating influence of bottom up and top down forces in boreal systems. I focus on dominant ecological phenomena that create wide variation in food resources (conifer mast seeding) and predation pressure (snowshoe hare-lynx cycle). I link fundamental research to contemporary issues like climate change and human land-use. My long-term objective is to make significant advances in our fundamental understanding of how ecological variation affects phenotypic plasticity, evolution and population dynamics. My applied research works to provide the information and tools necessary to make ecologically-informed landuse decisions.