I am broadly interested in the effects of climate change on the tripartite (3-way) interaction between flowers, pollinators, and their associated microbes.
Alterations to this symbiosis can lead to changes in nectar sugar concentrations, pollinator foraging preference, plant fitness, and pollination success.
I use multiple methods to answer questions relating to climate change and wild pollinators including lab experiments, manipulative field studies, and large scale field work.
My PhD research focused on the effects of climate change on plants, pollinators, and nectar-inhabiting microbial communities. The goal of this research was to understand how climate change, specifically global temperature increases, will affect pollinator health, nectar quality, and plant fitness using beneficial and detrimental pollinator associated microbes. I also examine floral microbial community structure under climate change conditions. I discovered that as temperatures increase, nectar microbial communities change and alter nectar properties and pollinator visitations.
My postdoctoral research goals are to understand how other aspects of climate change, specifically night-time warming and heatwaves, will impact plant-pollinator-soil relationships. To do this I have subjected plants to extreme temperatures in the green house and have transplanted them in the California Desert to observe pollination and floral traits and longevity.
I am also interested in the disparity between how intensely climate change will affect a region and how much research in done in that area. For example, there is very little research done on pollinators in South America, however, climate change is expected to hit that area very drastically. I am interested in expanding my pollinator research to South America, specifically, Peru.
For my Masters degree I studied biodiversity on a cattle station in the Australian outback. This station, Wambiana, is known for using multiple different grazing management strategies, some of which are much more supportive of wild biodiversity than the others.
Along with biodiversity conservation research, I have also done work looking at women's health in the modern area. Many women, especially during the pandemic, found themselves looking for support in a virtual setting. Online support groups for women's health issues have increased in use and many people use these forums to spread medical information (accurate or otherwise). These groups are incredibly important for the emotional well-being of women struggling with issues such as ectopic pregnancies, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Russell, K. A., & McFrederick, Q. S. (2022). Floral nectar microbial communities exhibit seasonal shifts associated with extreme heat: Potential implications for climate change and plant-pollinator interactions. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, 931291.
Cohen, H., Ponisio, L. C., Russell, K. A., Philpott, S. M., & McFrederick, Q. S. (2022). Floral resources shape parasite and pathogen dynamics in bees facing urbanization. Molecular Ecology, 31(7), 2157-2171.
Russell, K. A., & McFrederick, Q. S. (2022). Elevated Temperature May Affect Nectar Microbes, Nectar Sugars, and Bumble Bee Foraging Preference. Microbial Ecology, 84(2), 473-482.
Rothman, J.A., Russell, K.A., Leger, L., McFrederick, Q.S., and Graystock, P., (2020). The direct and indirect effects of environmental toxicants on the health of bumble bees and their microbiomes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Ngor, L., Palmer-Young, E.C., Nevarez, R.B., Russell, K.A., Leger, L. Giacomini, S.J., Pinilla-Gallego, M.S., Irwin, R.E., McFrederick, Q.S., (2020). Cross-infectivity of honey and bumble bee-associated parasites across three bee families. Parasitology, 1-62.
Rothman, J.A., Leger, L., Graystock, P., Russell, K.A., and McFrederick, Q.S. (2019). The bumble bee microbiome increases survival of bees exposed to selenate toxicity.
Environmental Microbiology 21, 3417–3429. Featured on the cover of Environmental Microbiology
Rubanov, A., Russell, K.A., Rothman, J.A., Nieh, J.C., and McFrederick, Q.S. (2019). Intensity of Nosema ceranae infection is associated with specific honey bee gut bacteria and weakly associated with overall gut microbiome structure. Scientific Reports, 3820(9), 1-8.
McFrederick, Q. S., Thomas, J. M., Neff, J. L., Vuong, H. Q., Russell, K. A., Hale, A. R., & Mueller, U. G. (2017). Flowers and Wild Megachilid Bees Share Microbes. Microbial Ecology, 73(1), 188-200.
Russell, K.A., & Weirauch, C. (2016). ‘Toothbrush’ plant bugs and allies: Protemiris gen. nov., a new genus and five new species of Proteaceae-associated Australian Phylinae (Hemiptera: Miridae). Austral Entomology. 56(1), 75-93.
Weirauch, C., Russell, K.A., & Hwang, W. S. (2014). Reduvius frommeri, a new species of Reduviidae from the Western United States (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), with a synopsis of the Nearctic species of Reduvius Fabricius. Zootaxa, 3972(2), 267-279.
Towne, J., Suliman, Y., Russell, K. A., Stuparich, M. A., Nahas, S., & Behbehani, S. (2021). Health information in the era of social media: an analysis of the nature and accuracy of posts made by public Facebook pages for patients with endometriosis. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology.
Russell, K.A., Tran, R., Stuparich, M.A., Nahas, S., Behbehani, S. Ectopic Pregnancy Social Media Support: An Analysis of Content and Accuracy of Facebook Groups for Woman Experiencing Ectopic Pregnancies. In Review at The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research
Cruz, J., Qazi, Z., Vasireddy, A., Russell, K.A., Stuparich, M.A., Nahas, S., Behbehani, S. Instagram Cysters: What’s available on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome? In Review at Journal of Gynecology Obstetrics and Human Reproduction