Research

Current Projects

These are just a few examples of my current work. My postdoctoral projects mainly focus on examining individual-level pollinator niche dynamics and how genetics, physiology, and environmental pressures influence these individual niches. Much of my work involves examining pollen collected by bees, and toward that end, I have begun exploring novel ways to improve pollen identification and quantification. I also have interests in climate-driven shifts in pollinator ranges and interactions.

Bumble Bee Niche Dynamics

As an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Shalene Jha, I am examining how bumble bee niche dynamics are affected by genetics, temperature, body size, and phenology. In the summer of 2023, I collected pilot data at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and will continue data collection in the summers of 2024 and 2025. Stay tuned here to see what I find!

Distribution of Plant-Pollinator Interactions

In 2022, I received a Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center fellowship to examine how climate change is likely to influence the distribution of bumble bees, their host plants, and the interactions between these two guilds. For this fellowship, I built species distribution models for two bumble bees designated Species of Greatest Conservation Need by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife—Bombus morrisoni and Bombus occidentalis—using data collected for the Pacific…

Doctoral Projects

These projects form the three chapters of my dissertation. Links to publications are included where appropriate. A full copy of my dissertation can be found here.

Current Projects

Bumble Bee Niche Dynamics

Distribution of Plant-Pollinator Interactions

Doctoral Projects

Spatial Variation in Plant-Pollinator Interactions

Temperature and Interaction Occurrence

Effects of Community Context on Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function (BDEF)