Solitary bees, like many organisms, require an often specific microbiome for successful development. Unlike social bees (such as honeybees) solitary bees have no transmission of a microbiome from their mother or siblings, instead collecting a larval microbiome from pollen provisions, largely consisting of environmental microbes collected by the mother, and upon emergence as adults collecting a new microbiome during foraging, again largely consisting of environmental microbes. I am curious how and to what degree the application of antifungals and antibiotics frequently used in agricultural systems disrupt this process of microbiome acquisition and in turn how that resultant micrbiome (or disruption) impact bee development.
Previous work
Pesticide Residues Across Bees
Bees in agricultural systems are exposed to a wide variety of chemicals, many of which are highly toxic and linked to pollinator declines. Little work, however, has compared pesticide exposure and risk across managed and unmanaged bees. Here, we surveyed the main bee taxa in New York apple orchards and quantify them for 93 different pesticides to determine which pesticides are driving risk.
Floral Nectar Microbial communities
Floral nectar is frequently colonized by microbes however nectar microbial communities are often species poor and dominated by a few taxa. My worked looked at the drivers of species community formation and what processes were shaping community dynamics.
Early Season Citrus Pest IPM
California citrus management practices were written for oranges and have not been updated to the new, and more popular, mandarin cultivars. Using metadata analysis of thousands of crop years of farmer records coupled with several years of field experiments, I worked to update IPM guidelines and pest thresholds for the new, and sometimes more resistant, mandarin cultivars.
Disease induced Cannibalism
Geocoris pallens is a generalist predator and beneficial in many crop systems. However, a unknown contagious pathogen causing extreme levels of filial cannibalism, where a mother eats her offspring, has lead to widespread populations collapse and community shifts across California Alfalfa and Cotton systems.