Deron Burkepile's research focuses on questions that provide fundamental understanding about the ecology of communities and ecosystems while also informing the conservation and restoration of these systems. Four themes define his lab’s work: (1) how exploitation of consumers and loss of consumer biodiversity impacts ecosystem function, (2) how predation risk affects herbivore distribution and their impact on plant communities, (3) how anthropogenic and consumer-derived nutrients impacts community dynamics and disease, and (4) how global change alters consumer-prey interactions.