Lab Members

My research interests center around maintaining a sustainable agriculture system. Intercropping provides a higher level of diversity that may promote a more stable community with less pressure from pests and weeds. My goals are to detail these interactions and implement them in forage systems.

I am researching crop relatedness in sustainable agriculture systems because I want to find out how insects populate/respond to different crop pairings to help improve pest resistance on diversified farms without relying too heavily on insecticides. Keeping grower preferences and economics in mind, our crop configurations may help farmers harness ecosystem services while decreasing input costs.

I am interested in how community-level trophic interactions are altered by the varied responses of arthropod guilds to agrochemical exposure.

I am interested in how soil microbial communities influence plant defenses against herbivorous insect pests, and how these communities are shaped by on-farm management practices aimed at improving soil health

I am interested in intraspecific cooperation and conflict in both social and sexual contexts. I have previously studied the costs and benefits of group living in spiders, as well as the effects of sexual cannibalism on mate choice. My current research examines sexual behavior in the goldenrod gall fly and how its host plant, a voyeur of fly sex pheromone, influences sexual selection.

I am the Research Tech for the Tooker Lab. I manage our daily lab and field research activities. I have a wide interest in applying ecological principals to agricultural systems, and communicating the research results of applying these principals to the farming community and the general public.

Sarah is studying the influence of crop rotations on pest populations, as well as the activity of neonicotinoid insecticides in the environment.

(2009-present)