Matthew O'Neal

This postdoctoral research associate position at Iowa State University focuses on bee ecology and conservation in farmland, with a specific emphasis on how reconstructed native habitat within agricultural landscapes influences managed and wild bees. The successful candidate will join a USDA-NIFA-funded, interdisciplinary project titled “Evaluating Benefits of Reconstructed Habitat in Farmland Across Bee Species and Landscapes” . The research examines when and where prairie strips and other reconstructed habitats provide net benefits to bee communities in intensively farmed systems, especially corn-soybean production landscapes in Iowa. Working in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, the postdoctoral scholar will contribute to a broad program that combines field ecology, pollinator health, landscape ecology, pesticide exposure assessment, floral resource evaluation, and management of honey bee and bumble bee colonies. The project involves extensive fieldwork on Iowa farms and collaboration with project investigators, research staff, graduate and undergraduate students, farmer cooperators, and other partners. The scholar will collect ecological and bee health data from wild bees, managed bumble bees, and honey bees; assist with colony management and monitoring; support plant surveys and floral resource measurements, including drone imagery; and participate in pollen sampling and analysis. The position also includes data analysis, manuscript preparation, conference presentations, and opportunities to contribute to research planning and mentoring within an active conservation-oriented research environment. Supervision will be provided by Professor Amy Toth, with additional collaboration from Professors Lisa Schulte Moore and Matthew O'Neal. The postdoctoral researcher will be part of an interdisciplinary team working across ecology, conservation science, and agricultural sustainability at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.