KAITLIN KIMMEL
ECOLOGIST
I am postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder working with Laura Dee and the Grasslands Monitoring Team in Minnesota. I recently held a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University working with Meghan Avolio and Paul Ferraro.
As an ecologist, I am interested in how human actions change many aspects of biological diversity and the consequences of these changes. I use both empirical data and theoretical models to explore these topics.
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I am also interested in how ecologists do our research. I am probing into how we think about causality, how we conduct replicable research, and other common assumptions ecologists tend to make.
![IMG_4320%202_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d3f703_313fc231af6f45999890afc6fe19f19d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_122,h_119,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/d3f703_313fc231af6f45999890afc6fe19f19d~mv2.jpg)
RESEARCH
Below are some of my core research areas. Please look at my research page for more detailed information.
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![IMG_4627.JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d3f703_17304506e49d4d47b2545fa85b94d0ae~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_75,h_56,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/d3f703_17304506e49d4d47b2545fa85b94d0ae~mv2.jpg)
![IMG_3198.JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d3f703_a38c9e9432694b20918dfcee8fcb33f6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_75,h_75,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/d3f703_a38c9e9432694b20918dfcee8fcb33f6~mv2.jpg)
CORRE DATABASE
I currently manage the CoRRE (Community Responses to Resources Experiments) database. In 2020, I added over 30 new experiments. I am also working on making our data cleaning pipeline more reproducible.
HOW ECOLOGY IS DONE
I often find myself asking, "why do we assume that?", when thinking about how ecologists conduct their studies. I have recently began to probe at some of these assumptions to see how they impact the inferences ecologists are making.
BIODIVERSITY IN A CHANGING WORLD
I am interested in understanding the causes and consequences of changes in biodiversity. This has always been my main passion as an ecologist. I explore this topic using long-term experimental data and by developing theoretical models.