CURRENT RESEARCH
My current research examines how plant-pollinator networks change through spatio-temporal scales according to different land management strategies and landscape types. I will also be looking at how urbanization affects plant-pollinator community composition in the widely expanding urban areas of Austin and Dallas, TX.
PAST RESEARCH
In the summer of 2017, I conducted an independent research project advised by Dr. Clare Aslan of Northern Arizona University. I studied the pollinator community composition of the Ohia Lehua (Metrosideros Polymorpha) across an elevational and human land-use gradient. We found that while the native yellow faced bees (Hylaeus spp.) still greatly visit this keystone tree, the non native European honey bee has become the dominant flower visitor across most of the trees elevational range. Our study was published In Pacific Science and can be found here.
During my senior year at Northeastern University I worked in the Lotterhos Lab on an NSF funded project studying the effects of ocean acidification on oyster larvae development. For my senior honors thesis I analyzed how the pH of the maternal environment impacted the development and size of the eggs. With a relatively short exposure time of only a month there was no difference in the size of the eggs, however there was some observational evidence that the control oysters released their eggs earlier than the exposed oysters, indicating a higher pH was a more suitable environment.