Gund Institute for Environment

Sarah Cusser

Gund Affiliate, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

Sarah received her PhD in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior from University of Texas, Austin where, advised by Dr. Shalene Jha, she studied the role and management of wild pollinators in cotton and peach production in Texas. Prior to her work in Texas, Sarah earned her master’s degree working with Karen Goodell at Ohio State University, investigating the restoration of plant pollinator mutualisms on a reclaimed strip mine.

Sarah's research focuses on evaluating how agricultural, industrial, and urban habitat disturbance affect plant-pollinator communities and interactions. Her work hopes to inform land management decisions that best promote the conservation and restoration of important insect communities.

Publications

Cusser, S., Haddad, N. M., & Jha, S. (2021). Unexpected functional complementarity from non-bee pollinators enhances cotton yield. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 314, 107415.
Cusser, S., Helms IV, J., Bahlai, C. A., & Haddad, N. M. (2021). How long do population level field experiments need to be? Utilising data from the 40‐year‐old LTER network. Ecology Letters, 24(5), 1103-1111.
Cusser, S., Pechal, J. L., & Haddad, N. M. (2021). Carrion increases pollination service across an urban gradient. Urban Ecosystems, 24(2), 243-250.
Senapathi, D., Fründ, J., Albrecht, M., Garratt, M. P., Kleijn, D., Pickles, B. J., ... & Klein, A. M. (2021). Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288(1947), 20210212.
Cusser, S., Bahlai, C., Swinton, S. M., Robertson, G. P., & Haddad, N. M. (2020). Long‐term research avoids spurious and misleading trends in sustainability attributes of no‐till. Global change biology, 26(6), 3715-3725.