Lauren C. Ponisio
The continued provision of services by nature supports our society --- services that are crucial, yet taken for granted. Growing up in California's Central Valley, I experienced first-hand an ecosystem which whose services were lost after being converted to intensively managed agriculture --- damaging both agricultural production and human health. To protect the beautiful evolutionary history of our planet and promote a healthy society, we must achieve stable coexistence of humans and other species through acknowledging our connection to nature. This is why I have dedicated my life to understanding biodiversity --- researching how to sustain and restore biodiversity, and elucidating its role in maintaining human prosperity.
In a variety of landscapes, I have examined the assembly of plant-pollinator communities through time and space to better understand the capacity of environmental, disturbance and interaction diversity to sustain diversity. To inform how we can restore the processes that maintain diversity where they are degraded, I have investigated community assembly in response to restoration. As communities assembled, network structure underwent multiple large-scale re-organizations as species continually changed their interaction partners. To uncover the mechanism underlying interaction switching, I am currently focusing on understanding the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape interactions and their ramifications for functional outcome of the interaction (i.e., pollination, nutrition acquisition) at the individual, population and species-level. I am also working to understand how and why the patterns of species and interaction diversity vary between human-modified and more natural landscapes. |
Contact:
lponisio_at_ucr.edu Office/address: Address: 282 Entomology Building, Riverside, CA 92521 Github Google scholar Orcid ID: 0000-0002-3838-7357 Impactstory CV Personal website |
Marília P. Gaiarsa
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Post-doctoral scholar
Marilia is a community ecologist from Brazil and interested in understanding the intrinsic organization of biological communities and the role of species interactions play in both the maintenance and persistence of biodiversity. During her PhD, at Universidade de Sao Paulo, she explored the ecological consequences of cascading effects in mutualistic networks, using computer simulations and empirical data to assess the relationship between the structure of ecological networks and their robustness to cascading effects. As a member of the Ponisio lab, she will focus specifically on plant-pollinator interactions at the individual scale, and how these patterns translate to the network scale and affect ecosystem function and community resilience. |
Magda Argueta
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PhD Student, UC Mexus
Magda is a Mexican biologist whose research is focused on understanding how interspecific interactions contribute to the develop and maintenance of complex systems. She did her bachelors and masters work at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM. Pollination is her favorite ecological process to asses this issue. Her goal is to contribute to the development of her country through the dissemination of useful research tools for the conservation of ecological interactions in Mexico. She really loves field work, especially in areas with a strong seasonality. |
Contact:
magda_argueta_at_hotmail.com |
Jess Mullins
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Field Technician
Jess grew up in northwestern Colorado and earned her Bachelor's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She was first introduced to the world of bees while working as a technician in CU's entomology museum collection where she curated thousands of native bees and she has been chasing bee research opportunities ever since. She is joining the Ponisio Lab from the USDA-ARS Bee Biology and Systematics Lab in Logan, Utah where she studied the effects of parasites on the ability of bumble bee queens to initiate nests. Jess will be leading the crew for the Madrean Sky Islands project this summer. |
Contact:
jessica.mullins_at_colorado.edu |
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Undergraduate Researchers |
Arielle Chang
Paul Markley
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Paul Markley is a 4th year undergraduate Plant Biology major with concentration in Plant Pathology, Nematology, and Pest Management interested in understanding how plants and pollinators spread spread diseases to each other and other individuals. He became interested in insects after taking a forensic entomology on a whim, and now assists the Ponisio lab in pinning and sorting their insect collection. Paul is currently employed with the George E. Brown USDA ARSSL assisting scientists in maintaining their projects and performing molecular analysis.
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Contact:
pmark002_at_ucr.edu |
Stephanie Soklim
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Stephanie is a 3rd year Biology major who joins the Ponisio lab through the RISE (Research In Science and Engineering) program. She has participated in pinning and sorting of the Sky Island insect collections since Spring 2018. Her goals within the lab are to understand how pesticides affect bees by participating in the FFAR-funded almond study during her summer RISE research. She loves how important bees are to ecosystems and cannot wait to understand more about them! After graduation, she hopes to go to pharmacy school.
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Contact:
ssokl001_at_ucr.edu |
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Collaborators |
Rob Straser
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Rob is a 2nd year Ph.D. student in the Dept. of Entomology at UCR working with Asst. Coop. Extension Specialist, Dr. Houston Wilson. Rob’s current research interests focus on understanding where and under what conditions alternative management strategies in agriculture, such as on-farm habitat diversification initiatives, have the potential to promote the long-term viability of natural enemy populations to benefit both crop yield and financial return on investment.
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Contact:
rstra005_at_ucr.edu |
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Lab alumni |
