Ph. D., University of Notre Dame

   

Office:     312C Life Sciences Building

Phone:   1-419-372-8760

Email:     spelini@bgsu.edu

   

Research:

Community Ecology, Global Change Biology, Biogeography, Conservation Biology

   

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Research Interests:

Work in the Pelini lab uses large scale field manipulations and lab experiments to assess the effects of climate change on invertebrates (e.g., butterflies, ants, and soil invertebrates) and the consequences of those responses on other taxa (e.g., plants, microbes) and ecosystem services (e.g., decomposition, carbon cycling, pest control). More specifically, we are examining joint relationships among temperature, soil invertebrates, soil microbes, and carbon flux in order to fill in knowledge gaps on the influence of invertebrates’ responses to climate change on carbon budgets and feedback effects on future climate change. We also are examining the relationships between ants, aphids (and potentially butterflies) and plants in different temperatures to see if the interactions between them are likely to change with climate change, a process that has important implications for future agricultural and horticultural practices. Currently we examine these processes in northeastern US forests using open-top warming chambers at Harvard Forest, MA and Duke Forest, NC. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWCj3JFsZs for more details on some of our experiments.

Selected Publications:

Pelini SL. 2012. Opening the climate envelope: Biophysical models of butterfly performance reveal demographic trade-offs. Functional Ecology 26: 767-768.

Diamond SE, L Nichols, N McCoy, C Hirsch*, SL Pelini, Nathan J Sanders, Aaron M Ellison, Nicholas Gotelli, Robert R Dunn. 2012. A physiological trait-based approach to predicting the responses of species to experimental climatic warming. Ecology. In press.

Del Toro I, RR Ribbons, SL Pelini, 2012. The little things that run the world revisited: a review of ant-mediated ecosystem services and disservices (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Mrymecological News. In press.

Del Toro I, K Towle, DN Morrison, SL Pelini. 2012. Community structure, ecological and behavioral traits of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Massachusetts open and forested habitats. Northeastern Naturalist. In press.

Oberg E, I Del Toro, SL Pelini. 2012. Thermal tolerance assays in New England Ants. Insectes Sociaux 59: 167-174.

Diamond SE, DM Sorger, J Hulcr, SL Pelini, I Del Toro, C Hirsch, E Oberg, RR Dunn. 2012. Who likes it hot? A global analysis of the climatic, ecological, and evolutionary determinants of warming tolerance in ants. Global Change Biology 18:448-456.

Hellmann JJ, K Prior, SL Pelini. 2012. The influence of species interactions and local adaptation on geographic range change under climate change. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1249: 18-28.

Pelini SL, M Boudreau, N McCoy, AM Ellison, NJ Gotelli,NJ Sanders, RR Dunn. 2011. Effects of short-term warming on a low and high latitude forest ant community. Ecosphere 2(5): art62.

Pelini SL, JA Keppel, AE Kelley, JJ Hellmann. 2010. Slow host plants prevent rapid insect responses to climate change. Global Change Biology 16:2923-2929.

Pelini SL, JDK Dzurisin, KM Prior, CM Williams, TD Marsico, BJ Sinclair, JJ Hellmann. 2009. Translocation experiments in butterfly species reveal limitations to range shifts under climate change. PNAS 106:11160-11165.

Pelini SL, KM Prior, DJ Parker, JDK Dzurisin, RL Lindroth, JJ Hellmann. 2009. Climate change and temporal and spatial mismatches in insect communities. In Climate Change: Observed Impacts on Planet Earth, edited by Trevor Letcher. Elsevier, Inc. Amsterdam.