Research in population ecology

Current research and vision

Population ecology is currently the primary focus of my work. Working largely through a lens of life history and demography, I study how the biotic and abiotic environments come together to shape population dynamics. with two projects focusing on plants and bees, respectively. To do so, I study multiple taxa (primarily plants and bees) using a combination of observational field studies, manipulative experiments, and modern quantitative tools.

Presently, I am leading two projects focused on demographic consequences of environmental change. Long term, I aim to have a research program that expands this work to consider the role of life history in mediating responses to the environment, the effect of environmental change on life history itself, and how demograhpic responses to the environment scale up in space to affect species distributions.

Population consequences of phenological shifts

I am working with Dr. Amy Iler to investigate the effects of phenological shifts (driven by climate change) on plant population growth. While the effects of climate change have been studied before, they are often studied in isolation—that is, on individual vital rates. By following cohorts of plants through time, we are integrating the environmental effects across the whole life cycle while accounting for trade-offs between vital rates. In doing so, we will be able to better understand whether, how, and why plant populations might respond to changing environments.

Effects of the biotic and abiotic environments on population viability

Together with Dr. Paul CaraDonna, I am co-PI on a recently funded NSF grant to study the effects climate change on solitary bees. Climate change can (potentially) affect bee populations in many ways, including direct effects of the abiotic environment (e.g., temperature), and indirect effects mediated by the biotic environment (i.e., food availability, predation rates). In this project, we are using experimental demography to assess the role of multiple biotic and abiotic factors affecting population dynamics of a solitary bee (Osmia ribifloris), how their responses are shaped by plasticity versus adaptation, and how these environmental factors come together to affect population viability under different climate scenarios.

Past projects

In my PhD work on wild bee populations, I used population genetics as a tool to better understand bumble bee populations. In one study, I used rates of genetic isolation-by-distance to jointly estimate effective population densities and dispersal distances of six bumble bee species. In another, I more closely examined the population genetics of Bombus impatiens, assessing colony densities and genetic diversity, and meausuring the effect of different habitats on rates of gene flow between subpopulations of Bombus impatiens (“isolation-by-resistance,” sensu McRae 2006).