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Sarah Cusser, Ph.D. 

Sarah works to better understand, conserve, and restore insect communities and the essential ecosystem services they provide in natural, agricultural, and urban habitats.

As one of the terrestrial invertebrate conservation ecologists at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Sarah Cusser, Ph.D., works to better understand, conserve, and restore insect communities and the essential ecosystem services they provide in natural, agricultural, and urban habitats. In the past, Sarah has investigated pollination and decomposition services provided by insects in Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and worked on habitat restoration projects in California, Vermont, and Ohio. Sarah earned her doctorate in evolution, ecology, and behavior from University of Texas at Austin, her master’s in evolution ecology and organismal behavior from the Ohio State University, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Pomona College. 

Research interests: landscape ecology, restoration ecology, conservation, ecosystem services, pollination ecology 

Publications

2023

Journal Articles (peer reviewed)

Cusser, S., Jha, S., Lonsdorf, E., & Ricketts, T. (2023). Public and private economic benefits of adopting conservation tillage for cotton pollination. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 342, 108251.

Knapp, D.A., S.M. Calloway, and S. Cusser. 2023. Using historic data to understand the shrinking pollinators of the endangered salt marsh bird’s beak (Chloropyron maritimum subsp. maritimum). Western North American Naturalist 83(4):498-507.

Technical Reports & Non-peer Reviewed Articles

Cusser, S., Etter, E. & Knapp, D. Floral Visitors of Deinandra increscens ssp. villosa, 2022 Preliminary Findings Report, Dudek

Cusser, S., Etter, E. & Knapp, D. Restoring Pollination Networks for the California Jewelflower, 2022 Preliminary Findings Report, BLM

2022

Journal Articles (peer reviewed)

Lybbert, A. H., Cusser, S., Hung, K. L. J., & Goodell, K. (2022). Ten‐year trends reveal declining quality of seeded pollinator habitat on reclaimed mines regardless of seed mix diversity. Ecological Applications, 32(1), e02467.

Allen‐Perkins, A., Magrach, A., Dainese, M., Garibaldi, L. A., Kleijn, D., Rader, R., … Cusser, S. … & Montero‐Castaño, A. (2022). CropPol: A dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination.

Knapp, D.A., K. Etter, & S. Cusser. 2022. Floral visitors of Deinandra increscens ssp. villosa: 2021 findings report. Unpublished report prepared for Dudek by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara, CA. 20 pages.

Technical Reports & Non-peer Reviewed Articles

Cusser, S., Etter, E. & Knapp, D. Floral Visitors of Deinandra increscens ssp. villosa, 2021 Preliminary Findings Report, Dudek


Insights

Terrestrial Invertebrate Conservation Ecologist