Caroline Chessher

Hello! I am graduate student advised by Dr. Shalene Jha. I am an ecologist and entomologist studying plant-pollinator interactions, specifically the impact of common parasites on wild bumblebee population dynamics and how diet mediates infection outcomes. Despite the global importance of bumblebees as pollinators and as model organisms in the lab, it is amazing how very little we know about the lives of wild bumblebee colonies. To address my questions, I am using host genomes, their infection status, and pollen diet data collected across various timescales to determine how wild colonies respond to infection, both through variation in survival and through adaptive foraging choices in response to infection. Please feel free to reach out at my email if you have any interest in learning more about these projects!