Description

Understanding how environmental stressors shape plant-pollinator and pollinatorpathogen interactions and dynamics in anthropogenic landscapes, and the consequences for pollinator health, plant reproduction, and ecosystem services. Please see the Fitch Lab website for more detail.

Research Focus

Research in the lab focuses on how environmental stressors affect species interactions and the consequences for populations and ecosystem function. Because they are super cool and also super important, we mostly focus on pollinator-plant, and especially bee-plant, interactions. Current projects in the lab focus on the effects of urbanization and agricultural land management on bee movement and foraging, the role of parasites in shaping bee foraging preferences, and the effects of the built environment on bee-parasite interactions.

We use a variety of techniques to address these questions, including field surveys, manipulative experiments in both the lab and the field, and multiple modeling approaches. Our work is motivated by the desire to better understand ecological complexity and the imperative to conserve biodiversity and promote just, sustainable futures.

Representative Publications

• Fitch G, Figueroa LL, Koch H, Stevenson PC, Adler LS. 2022. Understanding effects of floral products on bee parasites: mechanisms, synergism, and ecological complexity. International Journal for Parasitology – Parasites and Wildlife 17 (244-256).
• Fitch G, Vandermeer J. 2021. Can conflicting selection from pollinators and nectar-robbing antagonists drive adaptive pollen limitation? A conceptual model and empirical test. The American Naturalist 198:5 (576-589).
• Fitch G, Vaidya C. 2021. Roads pose a significant barrier to bee movement, mediated by road size, traffic, and bee identity. Journal of Applied Ecology 58:6 (1177-1186
• Fitch G, Wilson CJ, Glaum P, Vaidya C, Simao M-C, Jamieson MA. 2019. Does urbanization favor exotic bee species? Implications for the conservation of native bees in cities.
• Fitch G, Glaum P, Simao M-C, Vaidya C, Iuliano B, Matthijs J, Perfecto I. 2019. Changes in adult sex ratio in wild bee communities are linked to urbanization. Scientific Reports 9:3767 (1-10).

Sub-Disciplines

Plant-insect interactions, urban ecology, agroecology, pollination ecology

Research Areas