Nicole Wonderlin

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. My work is in collaboration with the Resilience In Species and Ecosystems flagship of the Planet Texas 2050 Bridging Barriers Initiative. Our goal is to examine how ecological communities are responding to anthropogenically-induced changes in the environment, and how these changes affect ecosystem function. We approach these questions by combining data collected from biodiversity, micro-climate, and ecosystem process sensing technology with large biodiversity and environmental datasets.

Before joining this research team, I completed a dual degree Ph.D in Entomology and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) at Michigan State University. Broadly, I am interested in landscape and community ecology, ecosystem services, and how urbanization affects these processes. My dissertation work centered on urban community gardens and their capacity to foster diverse insect communities in disturbed urban spaces. I specifically focused on pollinator use of urban green space, with an emphasis on nocturnal pollinators like moths, which are particularly affected by urbanization.