Nick Ivers is one of our 2021 Stengl-Wyer Fellows. He is a is a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Shalene Jha where they work towards the conservation of native pollinators amid rapid habitat loss and degradation. As part of the Stengl-Wyer Endowment, the Stengl-Wyer Fellows Program supports year-long fellowships for doctoral candidates pursuing dissertation research in the area of Diversity of life and organisms in their natural environments.
Tell us where you came from before UT, and what you studied then?
I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington, with certificates in Underwater Resource Management and Animal Behavior. I worked with Dr. Claudia Johnson and focused my thesis on coral recruitment at ‘Living Museums of the Sea’, underwater archaeological and biological preserves established by IU in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, I spent time breeding sea urchins for re-introduction in the Florida Keys with Mote Marine Laboratory, maintained colonies of dung beetles with Dr. Armin Moczek, and worked as an alpaca rustler. After graduation, I worked for Dr. Eric Ragsdale on several projects involving the evolution of a developmental polyphenism in nematodes that allows them to take on a cannibalistic life-history when environmental conditions are less than ideal. So I’ve bounced around a bit and had the opportunity to meet some interesting invertebrates along the way.
What got you interested in studying native pollinators, specifically the impacts of habitat loss/degradation?
Invertebrates have always stood out to me as the coolest things around, and there is a clear and immediate need for native pollinator conservation. Some of the major threats to pollinators, like parasites and habitat loss, are also right up my alley. More broadly, I’m really interested in how our actions as humans impact wildlife in unexpected or circuitous ways. Habitat loss is one of the obvious ways that we disturb wildlife. I grew up hiking the forests of Indiana, and happened to live right in between rapidly developing suburban sprawl and pristine habitat that would remain intact for the next 20+ years. I was able to see the devastation of habitat loss in real time, and also the incredible value of well-preserved and accessible natural habitat.
Photo of honey bee (A. mellifera) visiting Gaillardia puchella in an Austin pocket prairie.
Does Texas present a unique situation, challenge or benefit for your research?
Texas is a unique situation. There are somewhere between 800-1000 species of bees native to Texas (and honey bees aren’t one of them). The parasites I study infect many different species, and we really don't know what impact these parasites have on most species. So Texas is a pretty complicated situation for my research, but with that challenge comes a lot of opportunity.
Another challenge is that 95% of Texas is privately owned, so finding a place to study bees can be difficult. Fortunately, there is a lot of passion for the land and I have met some tremendous people working diligently as stewards for conservation on both public and private land. Grassroots community efforts have led to major conservation victories, including the creation of the Water Quality Protection Lands and the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, while individuals and families have made incredible gifts and investments in our future such as the Stengl “Lost Pines” Biological Station and the entire Stengl-Wyer Endowment.
Where do you see your research agenda heading here at UT?
Pollination. We should all be a little concerned about pollinator decline as two out of every three bites of food we eat require animal pollination. Bees provide an incredible ecosystem service to the planet, and we as humans have every reason to maintain that beneficial relationship. If we continue pushing pollinators to their limits through habitat loss, pesticide use, and intensive land management, we may start to see the consequences in the grocery store. Through the Stengl-Wyer Fellowship I have been able to pursue these questions by studying the impacts of land use, pesticides, and land management on bee communities, their parasites, and the crops they pollinate.
