Paul Raymond Rhoades

University of Idaho | UID · Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences

Disturbances alter biodiversity via their specific characteristics, including severity and extent in the landscape, which act at different temporal and spatial scales. Biodiversity response to disturbance also depends on the community characteristics and habitat requirements of species. Untangling the mechanistic interplay of these factors has guid...

Landscape-scale bark beetle outbreaks alter forest structure with direct and indirect effects on plants and animals in forest ecosystems. Using alpine spruce forest and a native bee community as a study system, we tested how tree mortality from bark beetles impacts bee foraging habitats and populations. Bees were collected across the growing season...

Land managers face constant challenges when balancing multiple land use goals that include ensuring that keystone species are protected. As mindful stewards of our natural areas we aim to promote, secure, and enhance our natural landscapes and the species that make them their home. When we focus our efforts on protecting and promoting pollinators a...

Wild bee community assemblages were surveyed in a high-elevation mixed conifer forest in central Colorado at multiple points during the growing season (April-August) and across a range of forest stand densities using blue vane traps. Understory forb communities were also characterized and related to bee species abundance and diversity. Overall γ-di...

Reliable and consistent monitoring is essential for bee conservation. Correctly interpreting the influence of habitat characteristics on native bee communities is necessary to develop effective strategies for bee conservation and to support the provision of pollination services to agricultural crops or natural plant communities. Biases imposed by d...

Plant pathogens can play a role in the competitive interactions between plant species and have been understudied in native prairies, which are declining globally, and in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands in the United States. Barley/Cereal yellow dwarf virus (B/CYDV) are among the most economically important disease-causing agents of small g...

While synoptic collections provide data on the range and general composition of the North American bee fauna, bee communities associated with specific habitats are largely uncharacterized. This report describes the community of native bees currently found in remnant fragments of the Palouse Prairie of northern Idaho and southeastern Washington Stat...

Many aspects of bee biology and conservation remain unresolved despite the crucial role bees play in both native plant and crop pollination. Bee communities associated with specific habitats are largely uncharacterized, the influence of changing land use, exotic grass invasion, and intensifying agriculture on bee populations and species is often un...

Interdisciplinarity is crucial for addressing the complex problems society faces. We present a model for educating doctoral students for careers involving interdisciplinary, team-based research to address problem-focused questions. The educational model is theoretically based and evaluated in light of the literature, faculty perspectives, and an as...

Since the mid-1990s, Bombus occidentalis (Green) has declined from being one of the most common to one of the rarest bumble bee species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Although its conservation status is unresolved, a petition to list this species as endangered or threatened was recently submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servic...

Decreased habitat quality caused by exotic plant invasion and fragmentation due to agricultural intensification and urbanization continues to impact bee species persistence and general ecological integrity. Although the relationship between fragment area and species diversity and abundance is well known, the scale at which landscape characteristics...

Visitors to flowers of Cornus florida and C. kousa were assessed in East Tennessee during spring in 2008 and 2009. Visitation rate data were compiled throughout the flowering period of both tree species across a range of environmental conditions. Diurnal and seasonal variations in visitation are reported. Pollen coverage on collected insects was as...

Dispersal of flowering dogwood pollen in an orchard was evaluated by performing parentage analyses on open pollinated seedlings collected from a single maternal tree. Pollen sources for 45 seedling trees were established using three polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. Previous data suggest that Cornus florida pollen is typically limited...

Floral visitors to Flowering (Cornus florida L.) and Kousa (Cornus kousa (Buerger ex. Miq.) Hance) Dogwoods were both observed and captured during Spring 2008 to identify key arthropod species in the pollination guild for these trees common to Tennessee woodlands and landscapes. The floral structures of C. florida and C. kousa are similar, consisti...