Claudio Gratton

Education and Background

• Faculty. University of Wisconsin, 2003-current (full Professor 2013)
• Post-Doc. University of Maryland, College Park, 1997 – 2003
• PhD Entomology. University of California at Berkeley, 1991 – 1997
• B.S. Honors Biology summa cum laude. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988 – 1991

Research Interests

My research group and I work broadly in the field of landscape ecology of arthropods in both agricultural and natural systems.  Our work has examined the role of unmanaged “non-crop” lands in the agricultural matrix and their effects on the abundance and diversity of beneficial insects including predators and pollinators and their effect on the provisioning of ecosystem services in agricultural habitats.  Recently, we have been part of bee and butterfly conservation efforts in the state. Our work studying insect landscape ecology and conservation has partnered us Wisconsin potato, soybeans, cranberry, apple growers, and as well as rotational grazers. We focus our studies on understanding how land-use and land-cover interact with management in order to develop ways to enhance and conserve beneficial insects.  Our recent work (2007-2017) in bioenergy landscapes has been as part of the sustainability team of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.  Our research also extends to examining the ecosystem linkages between lakes and the adjacent terrestrial landscapes and the role of aquatic insects in creating those linkages.

Topics that interest me: Food web ecology, landscape ecology, ecosystem services, natural pest-suppression, pollination ecology, biological control, soil food webs, conservation, eco-informatics, lake-land linkages, invasive species, spatial subsidies.

Personal Interests

Soccer, photography, classical guitar, baking bread

Awards and honors

• Post-doctoral mentoring award, UW post-doc association 2018
• Vilas Associates Research Award, University of Wisconsin, VCRGE 2017
• McMaster Research Fellow, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia, 2016
• Vilas Mid-Career Travel Award, University of Wisconsin, 2015
• Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, Stanford University/Woods Institute, 2013
• Pound Research Award, University of Wisconsin, College of Agr. and Life Sciences, 2012
• Cornell University, Griswold Lecture, Department of Entomology, March 2012
• H.I. Romnes Research Award, University of Wisconsin, Graduate School, 2012

Full list here.

• Insect Biological Control (no longer offered)
• Basic and Applied Insect Ecology (Entomology 450/451)
• Field Ecology (“Sapelo” Problems in Oceanography, Zoology 750)
• Multivariate Analysis of Community and Landscape data (Entomology / FWE 711)
• Ecology of Food and Agriculture (Agroecology 103)

Recent Graduate seminars (Ento/Zool 875 and 990):

• Scientific proposal writing
• Novel Ecosystems
• Big data and ecoinformatics in agricultural research
• Introduction to Wisconsin Ecology research

• Biological Sciences Divisional Committee (2015-2017)
• Graduate School Fall Research Competition (2010-12)
• Graduate School Fall Research Multi-Disciplinary Competition (2013)
• Wisconsin Ecology, Chair (2012)
• Novel Ecosystems IGERT, Executive committee