Research
"So, what do you, like, do all day?"
PhD Research: Habitat Connectivity in Urban Bees
By the year 2050, 68% of the world’s population are projected to live in urban areas. The resultant loss of habitat could be catastrophic for the natural world around us, but even the maintenance of small habitat patches can be hugely beneficial for preserving ecosystem services and the species that provide them, such as pollinating insects. While we know that dozens of bee species populate New York City's greenspaces, the way that pollinators move across the urban matrix is not well understood.
Through my PhD research, I aim to quantify what drives habitat connectivity for urban pollinators. Are the bees where they are because of features of individual sites, or because those are the places they are able to access within the dangerous urban matrix? I hope to collaborate with a number of community gardens in Manhattan and the Bronx in order to collect bees at each site and compute how bees might be travelling across the urban landscape between sites. Through this work, I also aim to collaborate with the garden sites on education and outreach efforts, celebrating garden pollinators with the neighbors who patronize these gardens.
By the year 2050, 68% of the world’s population are projected to live in urban areas. The resultant loss of habitat could be catastrophic for the natural world around us, but even the maintenance of small habitat patches can be hugely beneficial for preserving ecosystem services and the species that provide them, such as pollinating insects. While we know that dozens of bee species populate New York City's greenspaces, the way that pollinators move across the urban matrix is not well understood.
Through my PhD research, I aim to quantify what drives habitat connectivity for urban pollinators. Are the bees where they are because of features of individual sites, or because those are the places they are able to access within the dangerous urban matrix? I hope to collaborate with a number of community gardens in Manhattan and the Bronx in order to collect bees at each site and compute how bees might be travelling across the urban landscape between sites. Through this work, I also aim to collaborate with the garden sites on education and outreach efforts, celebrating garden pollinators with the neighbors who patronize these gardens.
MS Research: Effect of Beech Leaf Disease on Soil and Skin Microbiomes
Beech leaf disease (BLD) is a deadly disease affecting beech trees, caused by the parasitic nematode Litylenchus crenatae mccannii. Because beech trees make up a huge percentage of the forest trees in the Northeastern US, the rampant spread of this disease has the potential to radically alter to tree assemblage across a massive stretch of the country. Perhaps less obvious is the potential impact the disease might have on the little guys of the woods-- namely, soil microbial communities.
While I worked toward my master's degree, I worked on a project with the goal of exploring how forest floor microbial communities are affecting by the presence of beech trees impacted by BLD. This involved collecting soil samples in proximity to infected and uninfected trees, as well as collecting skin microbiome samples from eastern red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). This work happened at Fordham's Louis Calder Center in Armonk, NY.
Thanks to technical issues in the lab, the time crunch of the master's program, and a personal decision to shift gears for my PhD work, I left this work unfinished (perhaps for another enthusiastic graduate student to continue one day?) Nonetheless, the work took me to new heights when it came to laboratory and field techniques. Running around the woods to play with little critters also brought me unrivaled joy.
Beech leaf disease (BLD) is a deadly disease affecting beech trees, caused by the parasitic nematode Litylenchus crenatae mccannii. Because beech trees make up a huge percentage of the forest trees in the Northeastern US, the rampant spread of this disease has the potential to radically alter to tree assemblage across a massive stretch of the country. Perhaps less obvious is the potential impact the disease might have on the little guys of the woods-- namely, soil microbial communities.
While I worked toward my master's degree, I worked on a project with the goal of exploring how forest floor microbial communities are affecting by the presence of beech trees impacted by BLD. This involved collecting soil samples in proximity to infected and uninfected trees, as well as collecting skin microbiome samples from eastern red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). This work happened at Fordham's Louis Calder Center in Armonk, NY.
Thanks to technical issues in the lab, the time crunch of the master's program, and a personal decision to shift gears for my PhD work, I left this work unfinished (perhaps for another enthusiastic graduate student to continue one day?) Nonetheless, the work took me to new heights when it came to laboratory and field techniques. Running around the woods to play with little critters also brought me unrivaled joy.
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One of the many little friends I collected a cutaneous bacterial sample from.
Post-Bacc Research: Aging in Canine Lung Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (LMSCs)
After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, I stuck around for one year to work as a lab technician in the lab of Dr. Julia Paxson. In the Paxson Lab, I led a team of undergraduate researchers as we grew cells from canine lung tissue and measured their proliferative capacities as they related to age.
This gap year experience was invaluable to me-- it showed me a new side of biological research and taught me how to work in a laboratory setting, manage a team of students, and roll with the punches when experiments don't go as planned. This work earned me my first co-authorship on a paper you can read here.
After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, I stuck around for one year to work as a lab technician in the lab of Dr. Julia Paxson. In the Paxson Lab, I led a team of undergraduate researchers as we grew cells from canine lung tissue and measured their proliferative capacities as they related to age.
This gap year experience was invaluable to me-- it showed me a new side of biological research and taught me how to work in a laboratory setting, manage a team of students, and roll with the punches when experiments don't go as planned. This work earned me my first co-authorship on a paper you can read here.
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We cleaned up nice in the Paxson Lab.
Undergraduate Research: Bending Mechanics of Sea Urchin Spines
During my junior and senior years as a student at College of the Holy Cross, I studied the bending mechanics of sea urchin spines under Dr. Stephanie Crofts. Here, I collected spines from purple (S. purpuratus), pale (S. pallidus), and green (S. droebachiensis) sea urchins and, using CT scans, measured their second moment of area-- a measure of how mass is distributed around a central axis. Higher second moment of area values indicate a higher flexural stiffness, and a greater resistance to bending.
This first foray into biological research taught me the basics of designing a study, collecting data, and interpreting scientific literature. It also gave me the opportunity to study for a summer at University of Washington's gorgeous Friday Harbor Labs, and to travel to Phoenix, AZ to present a poster at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology's 2022 conference.
During my junior and senior years as a student at College of the Holy Cross, I studied the bending mechanics of sea urchin spines under Dr. Stephanie Crofts. Here, I collected spines from purple (S. purpuratus), pale (S. pallidus), and green (S. droebachiensis) sea urchins and, using CT scans, measured their second moment of area-- a measure of how mass is distributed around a central axis. Higher second moment of area values indicate a higher flexural stiffness, and a greater resistance to bending.
This first foray into biological research taught me the basics of designing a study, collecting data, and interpreting scientific literature. It also gave me the opportunity to study for a summer at University of Washington's gorgeous Friday Harbor Labs, and to travel to Phoenix, AZ to present a poster at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology's 2022 conference.
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You learn to love 'em!