Lab Members
Cory S. Sheffield:
Research Associate, York University
Ph.D., Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph
M.Sc., Department of Biology, Acadia University
Honours B.Sc., Department of Biology, Acadia University
Research Interests:
Cory's current research interests include studying the factors affecting bee diversity and community structure in multiple ecosystems, the factors linking pollination success within agricultural and natural plant communities, evaluation of ecosystem health through indicator taxa, and pollinator conservation. His current approach has been to integrate life history traits (i.e., guilds) of bee communities into diagnosing ecosystems, which has implications for pollinator conservation, monitoring ecosystem restoration, and habitat suitability. More...
Sheila R. Colla:
PhD candidate, York University
Honours B.Sc. in Zoology, University of Toronto
Research Interests:
Sheila is pursuing a PhD in Biology at York University under the supervision of Dr. Packer. Her projects include determining to what extent the Rusty-Patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) has declined throughout its native range and how bumblebee species diversity has changed in southern Ontario, Canada over the past 100 years. She is also interested in determining habitat associations and requirements for each eastern species in order to aid future conservation efforts. The possible causes for decline which she is currently looking into include pesticide use, disease susceptibility, habitat loss and climate change. More...
Alana Taylor:
PhD candidate, York University
M.Sc. in Biology, York University
B.Sc. in Biology, Acadia University
Research Interests:
Ultimately, the long-term goal of my PhD research is to contribute to our understanding of how fauna, in particular bees, respond to fire. The response to fire by plant species is well known. Clarke (2008) discusses the importance of fire in ecosystems worldwide and cautions meeting the needs of plant species alone to manage fire dependent ecosystems. In comparison to the number of studies that have reported the impacts of fire on plants, the number of studies that have investigated how fauna respond is much less. This is alarming since so many land managers believe that fire increases biodiversity in a habitat, yet the evidence for this is generally lacking. More...
Hien T. Ngo:
PhD candidate, York University
M.Sc. in Biology, York University
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, Simon Fraser University
Research Interests:
My research involves bee diversity in coffee systems. Coffee management systems do affect bee diversity in Costa Rica. I am interested in finding out other factors that affect bee diversity in coffee systems that are less studied, such as Robusta coffee systems, particularly in Asia. Small changes in management can help to conserve existing bee diversity and at the same time increase pollination of coffee and productivity. More...
Scott MacIvor:
PhD candidate, York University
M.Sc. in Applied Science, Biology, Saint Mary's University
Honours B.Sc. in Ecology, Plant Biology, University of Guelph
Research Interests:
In my PhD, I'm investigating how landscape and urban complexity limits diversity and foraging of wild bees in cities. My research interests are centered on biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships of novel and constructed habitat, such as green roofs and gardens, and reconciliation ecology in architectural and landscape design. More...
Sheila Dumesh:
M.Sc. candidate
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, York University
Research Interests:
Sheila is one of the taxonomists in the Packer lab. For her MSc thesis she is working on a revision of the Mesoamerican bee genus Mexalictus. Sheila is also involved in some projects with other lab members such as the revision of Canadian Dufourea (with Cory Sheffield) and the bees of Algonquin Park (with Sheila Colla). More...
Lincoln R. Best:
M.Sc. candidate, York University
Honours B.Sc. in Zoology, University of Guelph
Research Interests:
Currently, the Packer Lab is working on The Bees of Canada Project, aiming to document the diversity and distribution of Canada's bee fauna while providing mtDNA samples of these specimens to the Barcode of Life Project (www.boldsystems.org). My role is to survey, curate, and interpret barcode (mtDNA) data for the fauna west of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. In 2008, I conducted an independent survey of the Aculeate Hymenoptera of British Columbia which yielded new species, new species introductions, national and provincial records, as well as distributional data for species at risk such as Bombus occidentalis Greene, the Western Bumble Bee (http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/). More...
Natalia Veiga:
M.Sc. candidate
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, York University
Research Interests:
The goal of my MSc is to determine the effect of a large-scale fire on bee diversity in North Eastern Argentina. This study is extremely important as no other experimental studies on fire impacts have been done on bees. It is especially unknown which bees, if any, are able to survive a fire or if they migrate into recently burned areas. More...
Nick de Silva:
M.Sc. candidate
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, York University
Research Interests:
I am primarily interested in the taxonomy and systematics of bees - although a little ecology never hurt anyone. My M.Sc. thesis research if focused on clarifying the taxonomy of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Coelioxys in Canada. Ultimately, this revision will serve to improve our knowledge on this group as well as produce an interactive web based key for the identification of the species occurring in Canada. More...
Jennifer Albert:
M.Sc. candidate
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, York University
Research Interests:
For my master's thesis project I am conducting sociobiological research on a primitively eusocial sweat bee species, Halictus farinosus. This work will involve monitoring and excavation of nests and ecological surveys in a Halictid nest aggregation located in North Logan, Utah and will take place in the spring and summer 2010 and 2011. I plan to employ molecular genetic tools in this research such as the use of microsatellites to estimate relatedness between individuals and generations of individuals within the nest. These comparisons will help us estimate how many adult females are involved in producing offspring and to determine how many males the queen has mated with; important questions in Hymenopteran sociobiology. The work will improve our understanding of social interactions and social organization in the eusocial sweat bee Halictus farinosus. Research into primitively eusocial species of bee such as H. farinosus is important in understanding the evolution of altruism which is key to the development of evolutionary theory. More...
Claudia Ratti:
Part-Time Web Master
M.Sc. in Biology, Simon Fraser University
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, University of Waterloo
Research Interests:
Claudia is currently employed part-time as the Packer Laboratory web master. She is in charge of creating and maintaining the Bugsrus website, the tribe images page and the technical elements of interactive, on-line keys. Her previous work with the lab focused on producing and processing all required bee images using the Visionary Digital BK plus Digital Imaging System. Other duties have included databasing 49,000 specimens for GBIF, organisation of the Bee-BOL inaugural meeting and curatorial work on the collection. More...