Pollinator ResearchAramee Diethelm
2019 The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
Aramee Diethelm is a PhD candidate studying plant-insect-predator interactions at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is interested in how variation in plant chemistry impacts herbivore survival. Her project investigates how milkweed (Asclepias) chemical traits alter the interactions between western monarchs (Danaus plexippus) and their predators across a rainfall gradient. By exclusively consuming milkweed, monarchs are toxic to some predators. However, the chemistry differences within milkweeds as well as the health of the plant impact monarch survival. Diethelm will research how drought stress interacts with plant chemistry, which may impact monarch survival. Her research will aide monarch conservation across the arid West.
The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
To provide funding to study the causes of pollinator decline, in particular bees, bats, butterflies, and moths, which could lead to potential solutions for their conservation and sustainability.
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