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Research
Interests
I spent the majority of the last decade traipsing around the American
West staring at plants, birds, and trapping small mammals. During
this time, I acquired a degree in Wildlife Biology and a minor in
Entomology from UC Davis. While I was at Davis, I had the opportunity
to work on a small mammal community ecology project in the Colorado
Desert of California. It was during this time that I became enamored
with field biology. For the next 6 years I worked on a variety of
taxa in many different places, from Spotted Owls in New Mexico to
rare plants in Idaho to Bowerbirds in Australia (just ask me anytime
to do my male bowerbird imitation). It was during a rare plant conference
in Idaho in January of 2000 that I became interested in what I currently
study, pollination. As I was sitting there listening to botanists
state how many individuals of Mirabilis macfarlanei they have seen
in the past year, it occurred to me that none of these people were
thinking about the pollinators of these plants. From this point
on I became interested in two broad topics in ecology, space and
interactions. While landscapes are inherently heterogeneous, humans
have increased the patchiness of populations and communities by
fragmenting and degrading natural ecosystems. My broad question
that I am interested in is; how does space and altered landscapes
affect interactions between species?
Here in Hawaii, I am studying the pollination systems of dry forests
on the Big Island. Dry forests are found on the leeward side of
all the major islands, and were historically the most diverse plant
communities to exist in Hawaii. At present, only 10% of this community
remains and it is highly fragmented and degraded. I am currently
investigating the pollinators of this community with an emphasis
on the native bees in the system. The yellow-faced bee (Hylaeus
sp.: Colletidae) is the only native bee in Hawaii. There are 63
species found throughout the island chain, and about 15 of these
species are found in the dry forests on the Big Island. I am currently
investigating the relationships between these bees and the native
dry forest trees, and how a fragmented landscape can affect these
relationships.
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