Samantha Catella: Causes and consequences of spatial structure in plant communities

Samantha’s research is motivated by the observation that plant communities vary widely in their composition, richness, and arrangement in space – which she refers to collectively as spatial structure. Questions in her research program include 1) What drives spatial structure in plant communities, 2) What are the consequences of spatial structure, and 3) How does spatial structure affect restoration and conservation outcomes? Within this framework, she has used both theoretical and empirical approaches to explore different topics of broad interest to community, disease, and evolutionary ecologists, including the role of abiotic factors during community assembly, how generalist pathogens and mutualists change competitive outcomes among hosts, and the role spatial arrangement of native individuals plays in biotic resistance to non-native invasion.