Mariana Abarca

Role: Research Assistant Professor
Status: Alumnus
Current Affiliation: Smith College
Current Email: mabarca@smith.edu
Google Scholar Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RdsKIngAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
CV: PDF icon CVNovemberMAbarca.pdf
Start year: 2015
End year: 2020
Interests:
Ecology, phenology, plant-insect interactions, climate change and natural history (I like studying how caterpillars eat and get eaten). Mariana started a tenure-track assistant professorship at Smith College in July 2021! Congrats Mariana - we couldn't be more proud!!

Publications

2024

Abarca, M., Parker, A.L., Larsen, E.A., Umbanhowar, J., Earl, C., Guralnick, R.P., Kingsolver, J., and Ries, L. (2024) How development and survival combine to determine the thermal sensitivity of insects. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0291393. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291393

2021

Abarca, M., & Spahn, R. (2021). Direct and indirect effects of altered temperature regimes and phenological mismatches on insect populations. Current opinion in insect science, 47, 67-74.

2020

Abarca, M., Lill, J. T., & Weiss, M. R. (2020). Host Plant and Thermal Stress Induce Supernumerary Instars in Caterpillars. Environmental entomology, 49(1), 123-131.

2019

Abarca, M., E.A. Larsen, and L. Ries. (2019). Heatwaves and Novel Host Consumption Increase Overwinter Mortality of an Imperiled Wetland Butterfly. Front. Ecol. Evol. 7: 193. doi: 10.3389/fevo.

Abarca, M. (2019). Herbivore seasonality responds to conflicting cues: Untangling the effects of host, temperature, and photoperiod. PLoS ONE, 14(9).

2018

Abarca, M., E. Larsen, J.T. Lill, M. Weiss, E. Lind, L. Ries. 2018. Inclusion of host quality data improves predictions of herbivore phenology. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 166 (8), 648-660

Abarca, M., Lill, J. T., & Frank-Bolton, P. (2018). Latitudinal variation in responses of a forest herbivore and its egg parasitoids to experimental warming. Oecologia, 186(3), 869-881.