Joanie Ball
The intensification of human land use and changing climate are fundamentally altering freshwater ecosystems.
Urbanization in particular impairs water quality, increases water temperatures, and in many cases has resulted in complete elimination of natural water bodies.
How do these broad-scale factors influence the distribution of aquatic insects, which have both aquatic and terrestrial life stages?
To answer this question, I focus on a particularly eye-catching and popular group that people have collected extensively over the past 100 years, the dragonflies.
Specifically, my research objectives are to: 1) determine how landscape, habitat, and collection event factors influence Odonata species detection and occupancy rates;
2) determine whether odonate community metrics, trait composition, and species occupancy rates have changed over the past 100 years; and 3) use species distribution models to estimate the amount of suitable habitat lost or gained in recent years by several focal taxa.
For more information, please visit my website at joanballdamerow.wordpress.com
Contact
Information
Joanie Ball
Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy & Management
University of California, Berkeley
137 Mulford Hall #3114 (Resh Lab)
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: 510.642.5913
Fax: 510.642.7428
jball@nature.berkeley.edu
