Welcome to the Levine Lab
Our Research Lab is located in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Research in our laboratory focuses on two main questions:
- What controls the success and impacts of biological invasions
- What maintains the diversity of species in ecological communities
In practice, and as can be seen below, our lab examines a continuum of questions ranging from pure invasions focused research to pure coexistence work, giving us a unique perspective on each of these problems. In addition, in all of our research, we use quantitative and manipulative experiments to bridge the gap between theory and field systems. We accomplish this through the development of mathematical models that incorporate empirical data as well as designing experiments and analyses that rigorously test theory.