understanding the mechanics behind COMMUNITY ECOLOGY & RESTORATION

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Here in the Pringle Lab, we study how small-scale interactions create large-scale patterns of species’ distributions, ecosystem function, and evolutionary change.

We combine old and new methodologies, and merge theory with experimental manipulations. Our questions are united by a single goal: understanding how wild ecosystems work by studying their components and emergent properties. We work to not only identify patterns in nature, but to understand how and why they happen.

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Two elephants standing in a grassy savanna

Featured project:

Rewilding Gorongosa

Prior to Mozambique’s devastating civil war, Gorongosa hosted some of the most spectacular wildlife populations in Africa; after the war, populations of the largest mammals decreased by 95% or more. We have been studying the ecological restoration of Gorongosa since 2012.

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News
African wild dogs reintroduced into Gorongosa National Park
African wild dogs reintroduced into Gorongosa National Park

As Gorongosa’s carnivores return, scientists hope to find out what happens when apex predators are unleashed in an environment that has adapted to life without them.

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Disturbances in drylands: interactions among herbivory, drought, and termite activity in savanna plant communities

HBM Wells, Kimuyu DM, Odadi WO, Charles GK, Veblen KE, Porensky LM, Riginos C, Ekadeli J, Namoni M, Ekeno J, Kimiti B, Kurukura B, Hassan AA, Hallett LM, Wolf AA, Pringle RM, and Young TP. 2025. Journal of Ecology 00:1–13.

Water economics of African savanna herbivores: how much does plant moisture matter?

JA Van Driessche, Chamaillé-Jammes S, Nutter CM, Potter AB, Pringle RM, and Long RA. 2025. Journal of Animal Ecology 94:670–681.

Spatiotemporal variation in the gut microbiomes of co-occurring wild rodent species

BRP Brown, Khasoha LM, Lokeny P, Jakopak RP, Reed CG, Dyck M, Wambua A, Newsome SD, Palmer TM, and Pringle RM. 2024. Ecosphere 15(5): e4854.

“Real progress in understanding nature is rarely incremental. All important advances are sudden intuitions, new principles, New ways of seeing.”

Dr. Marilyn Ferguson