People

Dr. Sunshine Van Bael’s (she/her) laboratory studies community ecology with emphases on symbioses and plant-animal interactions. Broadly, we are interested in how plants, animals and fungi become involved in symbioses with other organisms to feed themselves and defend themselves from enemies. We are involved in projects in Ecuador, Panama and in the southeastern US that include microbial ecology, chemical ecology, biodiversity conservation, coastal restoration and agroecology.

Dr. Rosa Soria (she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow who explores the interaction between tropical forest diversity and microbial communities. Her research interests include soil health, soil ecology, soil restoration, heavy metals, soil geochemistry, biochar, and carbon sequestration. She is also interested in outreach activities aimed to visibilize the participation of women in science.

Judith Santano (she/they) is a PhD student interested in using ecosystem processes to quantify environmental degradation and uncover what mechanisms drive these patterns at varying scales. Their questions seek to understand how individual actions scale up to shape ecosystem wide patterns, and how those actions are influenced by ecological forces and environmental conditions. Broadly, they are interested in pollination ecology, avian behavior, and networks.

Bolívar Aponte-Rolón (he/him) is a Ph.D. student interested in studying bacterial and fungal endophytic communities in tropical forests and mangrove ecosystems. His research interests are, broadly, tropical ecology, agroecology, mycology and myrmecology.

Elizabeth MacDougal (she/her) is a Ph.D. student who studies mycorrhizal and root endophyte fungi in Louisiana wetlands. She is interested in the role they can play in ecological restoration, and her current research evaluates whether sand made from recycled glass can be used to restore damaged coastal ecosystems.

Jacob Dixon (he/him) is a Ph.D. student interested in endophytic and epiphytic fungi in plant species in the Convolvulaceae – mostly in the genus Ipomoea – and their effect on specialist and generalist tortoise beetles. He is also interested in endophytic fungal alkaloids and the ecological role they play in affecting insect herbivore development. His research interests include ecological biochemistry, coevolution, and entomology.

(not showing: Iker Yturralde and Siena Paxman)