Frances Sivakoff

Research in the Sivakoff Lab explores the factors that regulate arthropod abundance and distribution, from common agricultural pests to rare endangered butterflies, across agricultural, natural and urban landscapes. Across these systems, we aim to gain a mechanistic understanding of how changes in habitat quality influences arthropods to improve habitat management and promote ecosystem services. Changes in habitat quality often arise from habitat manipulation, and can be done intentionally (as in the installation of hedgerows to promote beneficial species) or unintentionally (as in the case of anthropogenic contamination of urban soils). Regardless, habitat manipulation can have profound consequences on species interactions, including those between plant-pollinator, plant-insect, and predator-prey, and ultimately affect arthropod species abundance and distribution