I am an ecologist with interests in both the ecosystem implications of physiological processes and the evolutionary underpinnings of these processes. My research centers around fundamental questions of biological diversity and ecosystem processes and touches upon such topics as biological invasions, pests & pathogens, extinctions, atmospheric chemistry & air quality, and controls over element cycling.

I combine experimental and observational research with process-based ecosystem models.  My current projects involve: 1) the responses of trees to drought in terms of behaviour, physiology, and ecology; 2) the effects of biodiversity on remotely sensed estimates of ecosystem states and processes; and 3) impacts of vegetation on human health in cities.      

In 2024 I added Research Director of the University of Virginia's Morven Sustainability Lab to my activities.  As part of the this work, we are studying effects of land use on both organisms (specifically birds) and ecosystems.  I am also supporting a variety of projects led by other researchers involving ecosystem construction, ecohydrology, and plant pathology.   

A bit about Manuel

    I grew up in suburban Maryland, outside of Washington DC. I was one of those naturenerd kids who spent more time with frogs, toads, and snakes than with schoolwork. In junior high I developed a fascination with birds. This led to a series of jobs in high school that involved surveying and banding. In college I had jobs in a fruit fly genetics lab, in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesian Borneo, and in an experimental plant ecology lab.  

    After college I worked for a few years as a technician for the USDA and the USFWS on fungal infections of wild wheat and population biology of elephant seals and western gulls. Eventually, I landed in an Ecosystem Ecology lab for grad school. That group focused on ecological and physiological mechanisms and on the biogeochemical implications of ecological processes, and I’m still asking those sorts of questions.