Shalene Jha
- Professor
- Faculty Director, Wildflower Center
- Integrative Biology
- Texas Field Station Network
- Biodiversity Center
Contact Information
Biography
Jha received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied plant and pollinator ecology in southern Mexico and the western United States. She joined the Department of Integrative Biology at The University of Texas at Austin in 2011 and immediately began collaborating with colleagues at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to quantify the impacts of human land management practices on native plant and insect communities, pollinator foraging biology, and resulting ecosystem services.
As the Academic Director of Research at the Wildflower Center, Jha develops and supports collaborative research opportunities for undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows working at the Center. She also co-leads the College of Natural Sciences’ InSTInCT REU program and manages the annual Jean Andrews Lecture Series, a public science engagement event celebrating biodiversity.
Research
Jha's research interests include landscape genetics, population ecology, conservation biology and foraging ecology. More specifically, she is interested in examining how global land use change influences gene flow, foraging patterns, and population viability for plants and animals. She is investigating a number of these topics within human-altered landscapes in California, Texas, Panama and Mexico.
Research Areas
- Biodiversity, Ecology or Sustainability
- Evolution
Fields of Interest
- Ecology and Global Change Biology
- Plant Biology
Centers and Institutes
- Biodiversity Center
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Education
- Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley (2011)
- Ph.D., University of Michigan (2009)
- B.S., Rice University (2004)
Publications
Jha, S. & C. Kremen (in press) Bumble bee foraging in response to landscape heterogeneity. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences
Kennedy, C.M., Lonsdorf, E., Neel, C.M., Williams, N.M., Ricketts, T.H., Winfree, R., Bommarco, R., Brittain, C., Burley, A.L., Cariveau, D., Carvalheiro, L.G., Chacoff, N.P., Cunningham, S.A., Danforth, B.N., Dudenhöffer, J., Elle, E., Gaines, H.R., Gratton, C., Greenleaf, S.S., Holzschuh, A., Isaacs, R., Javorek, S.K., Jha, S., Klein, A.M., Krewenka, K., Mandelik, Y., Mayfield, M.M., Morandin, L., Neame, L.A., Otieno, M., Park, M., Potts, S.G., Rundlöf, M., Saez, A., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Taki, H., Tuell, J.K., Felipe, B., Veldtman, R., Westphal, C., and C. Kremen. (in review) A global quantitative synthesis of local and landscape effects on native bee pollinators in agroecosystems. Ecology Letters
Jha, S., Stefanovich, L. & C. Kremen (in review) Native plants dominate bumble bee pollen loads across natural and agricultural landscapes.
Jha, S., Burkle, L., & C. Kremen (2012) Vulnerability of pollination ecosystem services to global climate change. Ecosystem Services and Climate Change. Timothy Seastedt and Kathryn Suding. Netherlands, Springer.
Jha, S., Allen, D.A., Liere, H., Perfecto, I., & J.H. Vandermeer (2012) Mutualisms and population regulation: mechanism matters. PLoS ONE. 7(8): e43510
Jha, S., Bacon, C., Philpott, S.M., Rice, R.A., Mendez, V.E., & P. Läderach (2011) Shade coffee at a crossroads again: A review of ecosystem services, farmer livelihoods, and value chains in shade coffee agroecosystems. In: Campbell, W. B. and Lopez Ortiz, Silvia, Integrating Agriculture, Conservation and Ecotourism: Examples from the Field. Dordrecht: Springer
Netherlands, pp.141-208.Jha, S. & C.W. Dick (2010) Native bees facilitate gene flow across shade coffee landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences: 107:13760-13764.
Jha, S. & J.H. Vandermeer (2010) Impacts of coffee agroforestry management on tropical bee communities. Biological Conservation: 143: 1423-1431.S.Jha - C.V. - 3
Jha, S., Vandermeer, J.H. & I. Perfecto (2009) Assessment of stage-specific population densities of Coccus viridis (Coccidae) using digital photography. Bulletin of Insectology: 62: 183-189.
Jha, S. & J. H. Vandermeer (2009) Contrasting bee foraging in response to resource scale and local habitat management. Oikos 118: 1174-1180.
Jha, S. & C.W. Dick (2009) Isolation and characterization of nine microsatellite loci for the tropical understory tree Miconia affinis Wurdack (Melastomataceae). Molecular Ecology Resources 9: 344-345
Jha, S. & J.H. Vandermeer (2009) Contrasting foraging patterns for Africanized honeybees and native bees and wasps in a tropical agroforestry landscape. Journal of Tropical Ecology: 25: 13-23.
Jha, S. & C.W. Dick (2008) Shade coffee farms promote genetic diversity of native trees. Current Biology: 18: 1126-1128.
Philpott, S.M., Lin, B.B., Jha, S. & S.J. Brines (2008) A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts on agricultural landscapes based on land-use and topographic features. Agriculture, Ecosystems and the Environment: 128: 12-20.
Jha, S., Casey-Ford, R.G., Platt, T., Queller, D.C. & J.E. Strassmann (2006) The queen is not the pacemaker in colonies of the small-colony wasps Polistes instabilis and P. dominulus. Animal Behavior: 71: 1197-1203.
Jha, S., Harcombe, P.A. & I.S. Elsik (2004) Analysis of American beech death at Wier Woods. Texas Journal of Science: 21: 328-339.
Awards
- 2009 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan
- 2007 Whittaker Mentoring Fellow, University of Michigan
- 2006 Helen Olson-Brower Research Fellowship, University of Michigan