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Fields of study
Pollination biology and tropical ecology
Research interests
I'm interested in studying tropical pollination systems and how pollinator communities can influence plant populations. I'm particularly interested in studying fragmented forest communities, where I hope to investigate the influences of the agro-ecological matrix and its impact on the pollen dispersing abilities of native plants.
Academic background
B.S. Rice University. 2004. Biology Major, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Concentration. Senior Thesis: The Decline of American Beech trees in Southern Hardwood Forests. Junior Thesis: Worker regulation in the vespid wasp Polistes instabilis.
Advisors
Chris Dick, John Vandermeer
Vandermeer Lab
Dick Lab
Jha's home page
News
NSF dissertation improvement grant award
EEB graduate student Shalene Jha has been awarded a dissertation improvement grant award from the National Science Foundation for her project "Miconia affinis in a tropical forest and coffee landscape mosaic: the population genetics of a buzz-pollinated understory tree.”
Jha will be studying pollen dispersal patterns of M. affinis within forest fragments and coffee farms. M. affinis is a buzz-pollinated tree that can only be pollinated by native buzz-pollinating bees, not by Africanized honeybees. Even though Jha graduates this semester, she is able to use the $14,900 award until her research is finished.
Jha lands president’s postdoc at UC-Berkeley
Shalene Jha has received a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Berkeley campus. Beginning in August 2009, she will study the landscape genetics of bumblebees across agricultural systems in central California. Jha will mentor undergraduates who will assist with her research, with an emphasis on underrepresented students, such as women and minorities. Jha has a great deal of experience mentoring undergraduates from her days in EEB.
Hoorah for Brown and Jha!
Congratulations to EEB graduate students Joseph Brown and Shalene Jha on their Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship Awards. The outstanding students will receive $27,000 over three terms, candidacy tuition and registration fees for fall and winter as well as GradCare health and dental insurance coverage for 2009-10. Brown studies avian phylogenetics and systematics. Jha researches pollination biology and tropical ecology.
NCID funds part of EEB’s recruitment efforts
EEB graduate students Shalene Jha, Brian Sedio, and SNRE grad Jose Gonzalez visited the University of Puerto Rico in February 2009 to present a research symposium and to take part in a panel to answer questions about graduate school and U-M. The segment of EEB’s recruiting program that seeks to increase the diversity of the graduate student body is funded by a grant from the National Center for Institutional Diversity. The long-term goal is to ensure that the diversity of graduate students in the discipline, and ultimately of the professoriate, matches that of society at large. The $30,000 grant is for one-and-a-half years, and began in 2007.
As part of the program, select students from partner universities visit UM’s campus to meet faculty and students in EEB and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and participate in a field ecology course for the weekend. Partners for 2008 were: University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras and Mayaguez Campuses, Morehouse College and Howard University. So far, 12 students have visited campus through the program.
EEB and SNRE students began visiting partner universities as part of the NCID program in 2007. Jha and EEB grad Mike Sheehan traveled to Morehouse College in 2008 where many Spelman College students were in attendance. EEB grads Sarah Cobey, Jahi Chappell and SNRE grad Solomon David visited Howard University in 2007.
Professor John Vandermeer, chair of EEB’s Diversity Committee, presented a seminar and touted graduate school in EEB at Howard University in 2008. He travels to Morehouse College in April 2009. Future plans include expanding the program to include Tuskegee University.
Shade coffee benefits more than birds
Here's one more reason to say "shade grown, please" when you order your morning cup of joe. Shade coffee farms, which grow coffee under a canopy of multiple tree species, not only harbor native birds, bats and other beneficial creatures, but also maintain genetic diversity of native tree species and can act as focal points for tropical forest regeneration.
The finding comes from a study published by EEB Ph.D. student Shalene Jha and Professor Christopher Dick in the Dec. 23 issue of the journal Current Biology. Listen for Jha on NPR’s Science Friday on Friday, Dec. 26 beginning at about 3 p.m. (U-M News Service press release)
Recent publications
Jha, S. and C.W. Dick. The colonization of shade coffee: age-based spatial genetic structuring of the tropical understory tree, Miconia affinis. (in preparation).
Jha, S., E. Chen, and B.R. Rathcke. Pollen limitation for a buzz-pollinated tropical tree: Miconia affinis (Melastomataceae) reproduction in Mexican coffee agroecosystems. (in preparation).
Goodall, K. and S. Jha. Avian seed dispersers of Miconia affinis in a tropical shade coffee and forest landscape. (in preparation).
Jha, S., J.H. Vandermeer, and I. Perfecto. Assessment of stage-specific population densities of Coccus viridis (Coccidae) using digital photography. (in preparation).
Jha, S., D.N. Allen, J.H. Vandermeer, and I. Perfecto. Stochastic LPA model for the green coffee scale, Coccus viridis (Coccidae), in the presence of the hemipteran-tending ant Azteca instabilis (Formicinae). (in preparation).
Jha, S. Bee diversity and vegetation management in coffee agroecosystems of Chiapas, Mexico. (in review).
Jha, S. and J. H. Vandermeer. Bee foraging in coffee agroecosystems: sociality influences response to resource scales. (in review).
Jha, S. and C.W. Dick. Shade coffee, it’s not just for the birds: Extensive gene flow for the tropical understory tree, Miconia affinis. Current Biology. (in press).
Jha, S. and C.W. Dick. Isolation and characterization of nine microsatellite loci for the tropical understory tree Miconia affinis Wurdack (Melastomataceae). Molecular Ecology Resources. (in press).
Jha, S. and J.H. Vandermeer. Contrasting foraging patterns for Africanized honeybees and native bees and wasps in a tropical agroforestry landscape. Journal of Tropical Ecology. (in press).
Philpott, S.M., B.B. Lin, S. Jha, and S.J. Brines. 2008. A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts on agricultural landscapes based on land-use and topographic features. Agriculture, Ecosystems and the Environment 128:12-20.
Jha, S., R.G. Casey-Ford, T. Platt, D.C. Queller, and J.E. Strassmann. 2006. The queen is not the pacemaker in colonies of the small-colony wasps Polistes instabilis and P. dominulus. Journal of Animal Behavior 71:1197-1203.
Jha, S., P.A. Harcombe and I.S. Elsik. 2004. Analysis of American beech death at Wier Woods. Texas Journal of Science 21:328-339.
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