A5091060841- Plant and animal studies
- Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
- Diptera species taxonomy and behavior
- Archaeology and Natural History
- Plant Taxonomy and Phylogenetics
- Plant Pathogens and Resistance
- Archaeology and Historical Studies
- Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis
- Reproductive Health and Technologies
- Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Animal and Plant Science Education
- Soil erosion and sediment transport
- History of Science and Natural History
- Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics
- Animal Diversity and Health Studies
Royal Astronomical Society
2023-2024
University of Rochester
2009-2023
University of Utah
2001-2002
Auburn University
1999-2000
University of Kansas
1991-1995
American Museum of Natural History
1992
University of Arizona
1988
Specialized relationships with bacteria often allow animals to exploit a new diet by providing novel set of metabolic capabilities. Bees are monophyletic group Hymenoptera that transitioned completely herbivorous from the carnivorous their wasp ancestors. Recent culture-independent studies suggest distinctive bacterial species inhabits gut honey bee, Apis mellifera. Here we survey microbiotae diverse bee and test whether acquisition these was associated transition herbivory in bees...
Urbanization within the Tucson Basin of Arizona during past 50+ years has fragmented original desert scrub into patches different sizes and ages. These remnant surrounding are dominated by Larrea tridentata (creosote bush), a long-lived shrub whose flowers visited >120 native bee species across its range. Twenty-one these restrict their pollen foraging to L. tridentata. To evaluate response this fauna fragmentation, we compared incidence abundance patterns for guild visiting at 59 habitat...
Abstract Recently there has been considerable concern about declines in bee communities agricultural and natural habitats. The value of pollination to agriculture, provided primarily by bees, is >$200 billion/year worldwide, ecosystems it thought be even greater. However, no monitoring program exists accurately detect abundance insect pollinators; thus, difficult quantify the status or estimate extent declines. We used data from 11 multiyear studies devise a monitor pollinators at...
Williams, N. M., R. L. Minckley and F. A. Silveira 2001. Variation in native bee faunas its implications for detecting community changes. Conservation Ecology 5(1): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00259-050107
Abstract. 1. Bowl and pan traps are now commonly used to capture bees ( Hymenoptera: Apiformes ) for research surveys. 2. Studies of how arrangement spacing bowl affect captures needed increase the efficiency this technique. 3. We present results from seven studies placed in trapping webs, grids, transects four North American ecoregions (Mid‐Atlantic, Coastal California, Chihuahuan Desert, Columbia Plateau). 4. Over 6000 specimens 31 bee genera were captured analysed across studies. 5. Based...
Squash was first domesticated in Mexico and is now found throughout North America (NA) along with Peponapis pruinosa, a pollen specialist bee species of the squash genus Cucurbita The origin spread cultivation well-studied archaeologically phylogenetically; however, no study has documented how this or any other crop influenced mutualistic interactions. We used molecular markers to reconstruct demographic range expansion colonization routes P. pruinosa from its native into temperate NA....
Species occurrence data are foundational for research, conservation, and science communication, but the limited availability accessibility of reliable represents a major obstacle, particularly insects, which face mounting pressures. We present BeeBDC, new R package, global bee dataset to address this issue. combined >18.3 million records from multiple public repositories (GBIF, SCAN, iDigBio, USGS, ALA) smaller datasets, then standardised, flagged, deduplicated, cleaned using reproducible...
The phenological relationships between nesting behavior of a specialist, solitary bee, Dieunomia triangulifera, and the flowering its primary pollen source, Helianthus annuus, were studied for 3 yr at site in northeastern Kansas, which contained 50 000 >150 nests. Activity patterns D. triangulifera are closely synchronized with availability on nearby sunflower plants three ways: (1) each year, became active within days beginning local bloom, emergence schedule entire population nest was...
Abstract The mining bees (Andrenidae) are a major bee family of over 3000 described species with nearly global distribution. They particularly significant component northern temperate ecosystems and critical pollinators in natural agricultural settings. Despite their ecological evolutionary significance, our knowledge the history Andrenidae is sparse insufficient to characterize spatiotemporal origin phylogenetic relationships. This limits ability understand diversification dynamics that led...
Many short-lived desert organisms remain in diapause during drought. Theoretically, the cues species use to continue through drought should differ depending on availability of critical resources, but unpredictability and infrequent occurrence climate extremes reduced insect activity such events make empirical tests this prediction difficult. An intensive study a diverse bee-plant community event found that bee specialists drought-sensitive host plant were absent year contrast generalist bees...
Desert marshes, or cienegas, are extremely biodiverse habitats imperiled by anthropogenic demands for water and changing climates. Given their widespread loss increased recognition, remarkably little is known about restoration techniques. In this study, we examine the effects of gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks used as dams) on vegetation in Cienega San Bernardino, Arizona, Sonora portion US-Mexico border, using a remote-sensing analysis coupled field data. The Normalized Difference...
PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Polyploidy is widely recognized as a mechanism of diversification. Contributions polyploidy to specific pre‐ and postzygotic barriers—and classifications polyploid speciation “ecological” vs. “non‐ecological”—are more contentious. Evaluation these issues requires comprehensive studies that test ecological characteristics cytotypes well the coincidence genetic structure with cytotype distributions. METHODS: We investigated classical example autopolyploid speciation,...
For reciprocal specialization (coevolution) to occur among floral visitors and their host plants the interactions must be temporally spatially persistent. However, studies repeatedly have shown that species composition relative abundance of vary dramatically at all spatial temporal scales. We test hypothesis that, on average, pollen specialist bee more predictably hosts than generalist species. Taxonomic reaches its extreme solitary, pollen-collecting bees, yet few considered how by...
An understanding of the evolutionary origins insect foraging specialization is often hindered by a poor biogeographical and palaeoecological record. The historical biogeography (20000 years before present to present) desert–limited plant, creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), remarkably complete. This history coupled with distribution pattern its bee fauna suggests pollen for has evolved repeatedly among bees in Lower Sonoran Mojave deserts. In these highly xeric, floristically depauperate...
The North American creosote bush (Larrea tridentata, Zygophyllaceae) is a widespread and ecologically dominant taxon of warm deserts. species comprised diploid, tetraploid, hexaploid populations, touted as classical example an autopolyploid taxonomic complex. Here we use flow cytometry DNA sequence data (non-coding cpDNA nuclear ribosomal DNA) to evaluate spatial evolutionary relationships among cytotype races, well the origins from its South ancestors. We find geographic distribution...
Larrea tridentata is a dominant and widespread shrub of North American warm deserts. The species comprises three "chromosomal races," including diploids (Chihuahuan Desert), tetraploids (Sonoran hexaploids (Mojave western Sonoran Deserts), as well the geographically restricted tetraploid L. var. arenaria. Creosote bush recent arrival to continent, it hypothesized that its geographic dispersion reflects rapid ecological divergence mediated by polyploidization. Here we use distribution...
Despite the long intertwined evolutionary histories of bees and plants, bee diversity peaks in xeric areas eastern western hemispheres not tropics, where plant is greatest. Intensive sampling northeast Chihuahuan Desert Mexico United States provide first quantitative estimate species richness high had been predicted North America from museum records. We find that density a limited area 16 km 2 far exceeds any other site world amounts to approximately 14% described States. Long-term studies...
Abstract A field study of disputes over ownership mating territories by male tarbush grasshoppers (Ligurotettix planum) revealed that most contests were settled ritualistically via the antiphonal exchange acoustic signals. Males used a special aggressive signal, referred to as “shuck” call, in these encounters. Individuals never produced shuck calls invariably departed contested sites, and playback experiment showed elicited higher response levels from males than sexual advertisement calls....