The predicted effects of human impacts on ecological communities has been largely based on single habitat studies. But in nature, habitats are often ecologically connected through the exchange of energy, matter, nutrients, and organisms, therefore local community responses may not extend to broader responses at metacommunity level. My research is focused on how environmental changes driven by anthropogenic disturbances might affect the dynamics between communities from distinct seafloor habitats (e.g., intertidal sandbanks, seagrass, and shellfish beds). Some questions that motivate my work are:

• How increases in sedimentation (i.e., mainly mud content) and nutrient loads can affect the functional and taxonomic beta-diversity in the coastal ecosystem?
• Could the homogenization in functional traits among and within seafloor communities affect ecosystem function?
• Is the functional redundancy an important attribute for the resilience of ecological communities to human disturbances?
• What is the importance of keystone species and rare species to biodiversity stability and for the shifts in community structure?