Network of interactions among bees (yellow circles, each one a species) and flowers (green circles, each one a species as well). This network corresponds to the dry season of 2016 in the southernmost part of the Chihuahuan desert.

My research

How seasonality affects ecological interactions?

Argueta-Guzmán et al. 2022

After surveying natural bee communities in the dry and rainy season of 2016 in the southernmost part of the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico, we detected a strong impact of seasonality on the structure and assembly of ecological interactions, promoting a more complex and robust interaction system among bee and plant species in the rainy season.

How do the species pool functional traits is related to β-diversity?

Project in progress (Doctoral dissertation chapter)

To answer this question, I am studying natural communities of flowers, their bee partners and their gut microbes in the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains in California. This Summer, I finished the field data collection stage and I am currently at the middle of molecular lab work. This research is funded by National Geographic.

Same than left image but for the rainy season!

How niche components influence coexistence in local communities?

Opened brood cell with bee larvae and the remains of its pollen provision

Project in progress (Doctoral dissertation chapter)

For this research (part of a bigger NSF project), I am studying the microbial communities present in the pollen provisions of ground nesting bees. I am currently finishing molecular lab work and starting bioinformatic analysis.

Clarity in the scientific language: The use of homonyms and metaphors

Project in progress (Research product of a grad student seminar course )

This is a side project that was born at the middle of the pandemic (Spring 2020) when all we could do was to take classes and work using Zoom. Actually, the whole research arose from a seminar offered in Spring 2020 in the Entomology Department at UCR. I am leading this research in collaboration with other grad students, postdocs, and faculty It turned out to be a completely new area of interest for me!!

Field work at Santa Cruz Island

Publications

Argueta-Guzmán M, Golubov J, Cano-Santana Z & Ayala R. 2022. The role of seasonality and disturbance in bee-plant interactions in semi-arid communities of the southern Chihuahuan desert. Insect Conservation and Diversity. https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12572

Guerra G A, Barrales-Alcalá D, Argueta-Guzmán M, Cruz A, Mandujano-Sánchez M C, Áevalo-RamírezJ, Brook G. M. & Golubov F J K. 2018. Biomass Allocation, Plantlet Survival, and Chemical Control of the Invasive Chandelier Plant (Kalanchoe delagoensis) (Crassulaceae). Invasive Plant Science and Management. Vol. 11, Issue 4.

Argueta-Guzmán M, Barrales-Alcalá D A, Galicia-Pérez A, Golubov F J K & Mandujano-Sánchez MC. 2013. Sistema reproductivo y visitantes florales de Zephyranthes carinata HERB (Amaryllidaceae). Cactaceas y suculentas mexicanas. Vol. 58, Num 4.

Submitted papers

Argueta-Guzmán M, West M, Gaiarsa M P, Allen C, Cecala J, Gedlinske L, McFrederick Q, Murillo A, Sankovitz M, & Wilson-Rankin E. Words matter: how ecologists discuss managed and non-managed bees and birds. Submitted on Apr 2022.

Publiations

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