Education
Ph.D. (2012), Biological Science, Florida State University, Advisor: Dr. Brian Inouye
M.S. (2006), Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Advisor: Dr. Graeme Cumming
B.S. (1999), Biology, Portland State University
Research Interests
I am interested in how environmental variation, on multiple scales, affects the diversity and function of ecological communities. For my dissertation I studied how regional habitat loss can alter the architecture of local plant-pollinator interaction networks. As a postdoc in the Gratton lab I lead a team researching native pollinators in bioenergy grasslands. We are working to understand how local management (harvesting) and variation in the surrounding landscape combine to affect pollinator diversity and function.
- Spiesman, BJ, A Bennett, R Isaacs, and C Gratton. 2017. Bumble bee colony growth and reproduction depend on local flower dominance and natural habitat area in the surrounding landscape. Biological Conservation 206:217-223.
- Spiesman, BJ and C Gratton. 2016. Flexible foraging shapes the topology of plant-pollinator interaction networks. Ecology 97:1431-1441.
- *Wenninger, A, TN Kim, BJ Spiesman, and C Gratton. 2016. Contrasting foraging patterns: testing resource-concentration and dilution effects with pollinators and seed predators. Insects 7:23.
- Kim, TN, BJ Spiesman, AL Buchanan, A Hakes, S Halpern, BD Inouye, A Kilanowski, N Kortessis, DW McNutt, AC Merwin, and N Underwood. 2015. Selective removal of insect herbivores influences an old-field plant community. Plant Ecology 216:1029-1045.
- Spiesman, BJ and BD Inouye. 2015. The consequences of multiple indirect pathways of interaction for species coexistence. Theoretical Ecology 8:225-232.
- Bartrons, M, C Gratton, BJ Spiesman, MJ Vander Zanden. 2015. Taking the trophic bypass: Aquatic-terrestrial linkage reduces methylmercury in a terrestrial food web. Ecological Applications 25:151-159.
- Spiesman, BJ and BD Inouye. 2013. Habitat loss alters the architecture of plant-pollinator interaction networks. Ecology 94:2688-2696.
- Spiesman, BJ and GS Cumming. 2008. Communities in context: The influence of multiscale environmental variation on local ant community structure. Landscape Ecology 23:315-325.
- Cumming, GS and BJ Spiesman. 2006. Regional problems need integrated solutions: pest management and conservation biology in agroecosystems. Biological Conservation 131:533-543.
- In progress
- Spiesman, BJ, A Bennett, R Isaacs, and C Gratton. Harvesting effects on bee communities in bioenergy grasslands depend on nesting guild. In review
- Spiesman, BJ, H Kummel, and RD Jackson. Carbon storage potential increases with increasing ratio of C4 to C3 grass cover and soil productivity in restored tallgrass prairies. In review.
- Spiesman, BJ, AP Stapper, and BD Inouye. Independent effects of habitat amount, arrangement, and matrix quality on community structure and ecosystem function in an experimental microcosm. In prep.
- *Bartel, S, TN Kim, BJ Spiesman and C Gratton. Body size distributions of ants and bees in mixed-prairie grasslands. In prep
- *Undergraduate-led research