research
Presently, my research blends wild pollinators and honey bee work together. I am involved in several projects in the Hopkins lab exploring honey bee overwintering, pollination in blueberries, and how honey bees and wild bees interact in agricultural settings.
The primary focus of my work is working on a three-year grant funded by the TASC program at the USDA, focusing on discovering correlations between pollination events, migratory beekeeping practices, pesticide residue exposure, and landscape variables on honey bee colony health. I am using new technologies and long-practiced sampling methods combined with remote sensing to develop tools that will allow beekeepers to make better informed decisions about hive placement and management timing.
The research done during my Ph.D. focused on pollinator communities in the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. I measured the environmental effects on a variety of floral traits that may be driving pollinator visitations. This work was done both in field and in greenhouse settings to derive a clear understanding of how the shifting landscape might play a role in the community of pollinators at a given location. This work was funded by the USDA Predoctoral Fellowship# 2017-05532.
Previous work has looked at the non-bee pollinating insects of small, diversified farming systems on an urban gradient. I found that flies were major contributors to the pollination of several crops. This work is currently in preparation for publication, and was funded by Western SARE Graduate Student Grant #GW16-033.
The primary focus of my work is working on a three-year grant funded by the TASC program at the USDA, focusing on discovering correlations between pollination events, migratory beekeeping practices, pesticide residue exposure, and landscape variables on honey bee colony health. I am using new technologies and long-practiced sampling methods combined with remote sensing to develop tools that will allow beekeepers to make better informed decisions about hive placement and management timing.
The research done during my Ph.D. focused on pollinator communities in the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. I measured the environmental effects on a variety of floral traits that may be driving pollinator visitations. This work was done both in field and in greenhouse settings to derive a clear understanding of how the shifting landscape might play a role in the community of pollinators at a given location. This work was funded by the USDA Predoctoral Fellowship# 2017-05532.
Previous work has looked at the non-bee pollinating insects of small, diversified farming systems on an urban gradient. I found that flies were major contributors to the pollination of several crops. This work is currently in preparation for publication, and was funded by Western SARE Graduate Student Grant #GW16-033.
