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Clara Stuligross

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside

I am a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the University of California, Riverside with Nicole Rafferty. Currently, I study the effects of climate change on plant and pollinator interactions, phenology, and fitness.

I completed my Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of California, Davis in 2022, advised by Neal Williams. For my dissertation, I studied the effects of pesticide exposure and resource stress on wild bee fitness and behavior.

Interests

  • Bee biology
  • Agroecology
  • Population ecology
  • Conservation

Education

  • Ph.D. in Ecology, 2022

    University of California, Davis

  • B.A. in Environmental Studies, 2014

    Earlham College

Research

Monitoring Osmia lignaria nests

I am broadly interested in bee biology, population ecology, and understanding how bees interact with their environments in natural and managed ecosystems. I use a combination of landscape, field cage, and lab experiments to study these interactions at different scales.

For my Ph.D., I studied the individual and combined effects of resource and pesticide stressors on Osmia lignaria and Bombus vosnesenskii, as well as the potential for flower plantings to mitigate impacts.

Previously, I worked as a science educator at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and a research technician with Rufus Isaacs at Michigan State University studying bee communities in blueberry fields. I was also an undergraduate researcher with T’ai Roulston, Rosemary Malfi, and Wendy Tori studying bumble bee foraging, parasitism, and ecological niche modeling.

See my publications below, and check out this video to learn more about my study bees.

Publications

Google Scholar

Stuligross, C., Melone, G.G., Wang, L., and Williams, N.M. 2023. Sublethal behavioral impacts of resource limitation and insecticide exposure reinforce negative fitness outcomes for a solitary bee. Science of the Total Environment 867: 161392.

Rundlöf, M.,* Stuligross, C.,* Lindh, A., Malfi, R.L., Burns, K., Cibotti, S., Mola, J.M., and Williams, N.M. 2022. Flower plantings support wild bee reproduction and may also mitigate pesticide exposure effects. Journal of Applied Ecology 59: 2117-2127. (* = co-first authors)

Stuligross, C. and Williams, N.M. 2021. Past insecticide exposure reduces bee reproduction and population growth rate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2109909118.

Page, M.L., Nicholson, C.C., Brennan, R.M., Britzman, A.T., Greer, J., Hemberger, J., Kahl, H., Müller, U., Peng, Y., Rosenberger, N.M., Stuligross, C., Wang, L., Yang, L.H., and Williams, N.M. 2021. A meta-analysis of single visit pollination effectiveness comparing honeybees and other floral visitors. American Journal of Botany 108: 1-12.

Mola, J.M., Stuligross, C., Page, M.L., Rutkowski, D., and Williams, N.M. 2021. Impact of “non-lethal” tarsal clipping on bumble bees (Bombus vosnesenskii) may depend on queen stage and worker size. Journal of Insect Conservation 25: 195–201.

Stuligross, C. and Williams, N.M. 2020. Pesticide and resource stressors additively impair wild bee reproduction. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287: 20201390.

LoPresti, E.F., Goidell, J., Mola, J.M., Page, M.L., Specht, C.D., Stuligross, C., Weber, M.G., Williams, N.M., and Karban, R. 2020. The lever action hypothesis for pendulous hummingbird flowers; experimental evidence from a columbine. Annals of Botany 125: 59-65.

Williams, N.M., Mola, J.M., Stuligross, C., Harrison, T., Page, M.L., Brennan, R.M., Rosenberger, N.M., and Rundlöf, M. 2019. Fantastic bees and where to find them: locating the cryptic overwintering queens for a western bumble bee. Ecosphere 10: e02949.

Malfi, R.L., Walter, J.A., Roulston, T.H., Stuligross, C., McIntosh, S., and Bauer, L. 2018. The influence of conopid flies on bumblebee colony productivity under different food resource conditions. Ecological Monographs 88: 653-671.

Kanaski, A.M.,* Stuligross, C.,* Pareja, J. and Tori, W. 2012. Long-tailed Manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis). Birds of the World (T.S. Schulenberg, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. (* = co-first authors)

Bombus impatiens colony with RFID tags

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