Research Projects
Habitat loss is a major contributor to species extinction and biodiversity loss worldwide. Understanding the effects of habitat loss on communities is crucial for biodiversity conservation. While individual communities may at first appear discrete, they are often interconnected via the exchange of immigrants and emigrants.
This linkage of local communities results in a larger regional community, known as a metacommunity.
Microbial communities found within floral nectar constitute a metacommunity, as pollinators vector the microbes among flowers during visitation.
Working in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, I and collaborators determined the consequences of the removal of a floral species (i.e., microbial habitat loss) on the floral nectar microbial metacommunity. As microbes rely on pollinators to be introduced into the floral nectar, their presence (or rather absence) may reveal the effects of floral species loss on hummingbird pollinators.
This linkage of local communities results in a larger regional community, known as a metacommunity.
Microbial communities found within floral nectar constitute a metacommunity, as pollinators vector the microbes among flowers during visitation.
Working in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, I and collaborators determined the consequences of the removal of a floral species (i.e., microbial habitat loss) on the floral nectar microbial metacommunity. As microbes rely on pollinators to be introduced into the floral nectar, their presence (or rather absence) may reveal the effects of floral species loss on hummingbird pollinators.
This work is in collaboration with Dr. Adam Hadley and Kara Leimberger of Oregon State University and Dr. Tad Fukami of Stanford University and Dr. Manpreet Dhami of Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, New Zealand.