Dr. Annika Nelson
FORMER MEMBER
POSTDOCTORAL NETWORK | Global Change Center
![Postdoctoral Portrait](/content/globalchange_vt_edu/en/about/people/former-members-postdoctoral-network/nelson-annika/_jcr_content/content/adaptiveimage.img.jpg/1653927498810.jpg)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Susan Whitehead
Department of Biological Sciences
annikasn@vt.edu
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In 2023 Dr. Nelson started a position as a USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, studying biodiversity effects in bumble bee gut symbioses.
Dr. Annika Nelson was a Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Susan Whitehead’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. She is a population and community ecologist with research focused on the causes and consequences of variation in the outcomes of mutualisms between plants and animals.
![Amanda smiling](/content/globalchange_vt_edu/en/about/people/former-members-postdoctoral-network/nelson-annika/_jcr_content/content/adaptiveimage_copy.img.jpg/1653927422382.jpg)
Specifically, Annika uses ecological field experiments, demographic modeling, and analytical chemistry to evaluate the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on food-for-protection and seed dispersal mutualisms involving ants. She conducts this work across a range of ecosystems, from the mountains in Colorado to the tropics in Costa Rica. Ultimately, Annika’s goal is to obtain a position as a tenure-track faculty member at a research university to conduct work that will inform our understanding and management of ecological systems that are under threat from global change.
DR. NELSON IN THE NEWS:
How plant parents ensure that their kids make it far in life - VTX
Last updated 06/01/2023.
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