Microbes found in the immature stages of a solitary bee that nests in sand cliffs along Pacific Coast beaches may be helping the bee defend itself from pathogens and protect it from cold stress, according to newly published research led by microbiologist Shawn Christensen of the Rachel Vannette Lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

UC Davis doctoral candidate Shawn Christensen, who studies ecology and evolution through a microbial lens in the laboratory of community ecologist Rachel Vannette, is the 2024 recipient of the Merton Love Ecology and Dissertation Award, an annual award that celebrates the university’s most outstanding doctoral dissertation in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology.