Claudio Gratton
Professor
567 Moore Hall
1575 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53705
Twitter: @flypod2
Instagram: @flypod2
Interests: Landscape ecology, food webs, conservation, biological control
Education and Background:
Faculty, University of Wisconsin, 2003-current (full Professor 2013)
Post-Doc, University of Maryland, College Park, 1997-2003
PhD Entomology, University of California at Berkeley, 1991-1997
B.S. Honors Biology summa cum laude, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988-1991
Affiliations:
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Agroecology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests:
My research group and I work broadly in the field of landscape ecology of arthropods in both agricultural and natural systems. We are interested in insect conservation in agricultural landscapes. Our work has examined the role of unmanaged “non-crop” lands in the agricultural matrix and their effects on the abundance and diversity of beneficial insects including predators and pollinators and their effect on the provisioning of ecosystem services in agricultural habitats. Recently, we have been part of bee and butterfly conservation efforts in the state. Our work studying insect landscape ecology and conservation has partnered us with Wisconsin potato, soybeans, cranberry, apple growers, and as well as rotational grazers. We focus our studies on understanding how land-use and land-cover interact with management in order to develop ways to enhance and conserve beneficial insects. Our research also extends to examining the ecosystem linkages between lakes and the adjacent terrestrial landscapes and the role of aquatic insects in creating those linkages.
Topics that interest me: Agroecology, conservation, ecosystem services, natural pest suppression, pollination ecology and conservation, biological control, food webs, eco-informatics, ecosystem linkages and spatial subsidies.
Research Category: Organismal, Applied
Personal Interests: Soccer, photography, classical guitar, baking bread
Online profiles: ResearchGate – Google Scholar
Please see Dr. Gratton’s google scholar profile for a full list of publications
Featured Articles:
Bruce, A.S., Thogmartin, W.E., Trosen, C., Oberhauser, K., Gratton, C., 2022. Landscape- and local-level variables affect monarchs in Midwest grasslands. Landscape Ecology 37, 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01341-4
Hemberger, J., Crossley, M.S., Gratton, C., 2021. Historical decrease in agricultural landscape diversity is associated with shifts in bumble bee species occurrence. Ecology Letters 24, 1800–1813. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13786
Iuliano, B., Gratton, C., 2020. Temporal resource (dis)continuity for conservation biological control: from field to landscape scales. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00127
Gratton, C., Hoekman, D., Dreyer, J., Jackson, R.D., 2017. Increased duration of aquatic resource pulse alters community and ecosystem responses in a subarctic plant community. Ecology 98, 2860–2872. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1977
Mallinger, R.E., Gaines-Day, H.R., Gratton, C., 2017. Do managed bees have negative effects on wild bees?: A systematic review of the literature. PLoS ONE 12, e0189268.
Rosenheim, J.A., Gratton, C., 2017. Ecoinformatics (big data) for agricultural entomology: pitfalls, progress, and promise. Annual Review of Entomology 62, 399–417. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-031616-035444
Gaines-Day, H.R., Gratton, C., 2016. Crop yield is correlated with honey bee hive density but not in high woodland landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment 218, 53–57, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.11.001
Mallinger, R.E., Gibbs, J., Gratton, C., 2016. Diverse landscapes have a higher abundance and species richness of spring wild bees by providing complementary floral resources over bees’ foraging periods. Landscape Ecology 31, 1523–1535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0332-z
Meehan, T.D., Gratton, C., Diehl, E., Hunt, N.D., Mooney, D.F., Ventura, S.J., Barham, B.L., Jackson, R.D., 2013. Ecosystem-service tradeoffs associated with switching from annual to perennial energy crops in riparian zones of the US Midwest. PLoS One 8, e80093. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080093
Meehan, T.D., Werling, B.P., Landis, D.A., Gratton, C., 2011. Agricultural landscape simplification and insecticide use in the Midwestern United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, 11500–11505. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100751108
Courses Taught:
- Basic and Applied Insect Ecology (Entomology 450/451), odd Falls
- Field Ecology (“Sapelo”, Problems in Oceanography, Zoology 750/Ento 875), even Falls
- Introduction to the Ecology of Food and Agriculture (Agroecology/Ento 103), every Fall
- Recent Graduate seminars (Ento/Zool 875 and 990):
- Agroecological Transitions
- Scientific proposal writing
- Novel Ecosystems
- Big data and ecoinformatics in agricultural research
Service:
- Biological Sciences Divisional Committee (2015-2017)
- Graduate School Fall Research Competition (2010-12)
- Graduate School Fall Research Multi-Disciplinary Competition (2013)
- Wisconsin Ecology, Chair (2012)
- Novel Ecosystems IGERT, Executive committee
Awards and honors:
- Post-doctoral mentoring award, UW post-doc association 2018
- Vilas Associates Research Award, University of Wisconsin, VCRGE 2017
- McMaster Research Fellow, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia, 2016
- Vilas Mid-Career Travel Award, University of Wisconsin, 2015
- Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, Stanford University/Woods Institute, 2013
- Pound Research Award, University of Wisconsin, College of Agr. and Life Sciences, 2012
- Cornell University, Griswold Lecture, Department of Entomology, March 2012
- H.I. Romnes Research Award, University of Wisconsin, Graduate School, 2012