About me
I’m from San Antonio, Texas and I studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University. At Rice, I worked with tadpole mesocosms and assayed cannibalism and life history traits in flour beetles. My honors thesis centered around linking phenological shifts in competitive intensity across the life history stages of amphibian communities. I am a third year PhD candidate in the Population Biology Graduate Group and have worked with solitary wasps and an oak budburst community.
Research
I use field experiments to answer questions about how the effects of climate change reshape species interactions in space and time within natural communities. I am currently working on several projects in the milkweed insect community. I am testing the effects of simulated heat waves on the relationship between milkweed and its strong herbivore the milkweed-oleander aphid (Aphis nerii). I am also testing how aphid herbivory impacts the pollinator community and working on using my field data to inform accurate dynamical models of the effects of pulsed disturbances on natural communities. Please reach out to me and/or Louie if you are interested in collaborating with me on these projects.
Contact
Population Biology Graduate Group
Department of Entomology and Nematology
Briggs Hall 380K
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616 USA
Publications
Carroll, C. M., D. Saenz, and V. H. W. Rudolf. 2023. Tracking phenological distributions and interaction potential across life stages. Oikos: e09973. link