Carrion & Forensic Ecology

The lab conducts both laboratory and field research into interactions of organisms such as microbes and insects during the decomposition of animal carrion, including humans.  We ask basic ecological research questions  that  have direct application to forensic investigation. Recent efforts are focused on surveying the microbial communities of human cadavers, or the postmortem microbiome, and how they can be used to estimate a time since death, a manner of death and other aspects of a death investigation.  Other studies are directed at understanding how microbial communities of a carcass change in response to insects that colonize them.