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Research Interests: I completed an Hons B.Sc. in Zoology at the University of Toronto, St.George campus.
During this time I assisted various people in Dr. Thomson's lab with projects on pollination biology/pollinator
behaviour and completed two honours theses. The first looked at the effects of parasites on bumblebee foraging behaviour
and the second documented the transfer of parasites from commercial bumble bees used for greenhouse pollination to wild bumblebees
foraging near greenhouses. I am now pursuing
a PhD in Biology at York University under the supervision of Dr. Packer. My projects include determining to what
extent the Rusty-Patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) has declined throughout its native range and how bumblebee
species diversity has changed in southern Ontario, Canada over the past 100 years. I am also interested in determining
habitat associations and requirements for each eastern species in order to aid future conservation efforts. The possible
causes for decline which I am currently looking into include pesticide use, disease susceptibility, habitat loss and
climate change.
Here are some media links related to my research:
Signs of Decline, First Honeybees, Now Bumblebees -Washington Post
Colony Collapse Disorder:Many Suspects, No Smoking Gun -BioScience
The Disappearing Bumblebee -CBC's Quirks & Quarks
North America's Losing Its Bumblebees -CurrentResults.com
Plight of the Bumblebee -Toronto Star
Plight of the Bumblebee- Canadian Geographic
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Scientific
Publications:
- Colla, S.R. & C.M. Ratti (Submitted) Evidence for the decline of the Western
Bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis Greene) in British Columbia
- Ratti,
C.M. & S.R.Colla (Submitted) The presence of an eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens, in western Canada
- Colla, S.R. (Submitted) Status Report for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee (Bombus
affinis). For the Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), Environment Canada
- Colla, S.R,, E.Willis, & L.Packer. (2009) Can green roofs
provide habitat for urban bees? Cities and the Environment. (2):1 [Online] http://escholarship.bc.edu/cate/vol2/iss1/4/
- Williams, P., S.R.
Colla & Z. Xie. (2009) Bumblebee vulnerability: common correlates of winners and losers across three continents.
Conservation Biology 23: 931-940
- Colla, S.R. & L. Packer. 2008. Evidence for decline in eastern North American bumblebees (Hymenoptera:Apidae),
with special focus on Bombus affinis Cresson. Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 1379-1391
- Colla, S.R., M.C. Otterstatter, R.J. Gegear & J.D. Thomson. 2006.
Plight of the bumblebee: Pathogen spillover from commercial to wild populations. Biological Conservation 129:
461- 467
- Otterstatter, M.C., R.J. Gegear,
S.R. Colla & J.D. Thomson. 2005. The effects of two parasites (Crithidia bombi and Locustacarus
buchneri) on bumblebee foraging behaviour. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 58: 383-389
DOWNLOAD PDFs
WilliamsCollaandXie2009
Colla&Packer2008
Colla et al.2006
OtterstatterGegearCollaandThomson2005
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Society Memberships: North American Pollinator Protection Campaign Partner (2006-2009) Member of the Bee Importation and Laws Affecting
Pollinators, Pesticides & Bombus Issues Task Forces Society for Conservation Biology Entomological Society of Canada Entomological Society of
Ontario Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Society of
Invertebrate Pathology
Awards: - American Association for the Advancement of Science Program for Excellence
in Science Award: May 2008-2009
- NSERC
Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship: May 2007-2010
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship:
May 2007 (Declined)
- Ronald Pearlman Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology: May
2006 (Declined)
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship: May 2006
- Faculty of Graduate Studies Entrance
Scholarship, York University: September 2005
- NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award, University of Toronto: May 2003
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