Aldo A. Arellano

I am currently a Postdoctoral fellow in molecular ecology at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan. I am interested in how trophic interactions shape community ecology across macroscopic and microscopic scales. I use food webs and symbioses as models to explore these topics.

By pairing field-based approaches and in situ manipulations with laboratory experiments I can selectively poke and prod communities of microorganisms, host-microbe interactions, and trophic complexity to understand basic features of ecological networks and function across diverse environments.

My experience in research began in limnology and aquatic ecology, where I studied the spatio-temporal dynamics of seasonal cyanobacteria blooms. From then I caught the “research bug” and moved on to work in marine microbial ecology where I adopted a systems-level perspective for understanding the emergent properties of ecosystems. Most recently, I use a novel mosquito model (Wyeomyia smithii) to elucidate basic features of host-microbe-environment interactions. I am also interested in the role of microorganisms in the evolution of diverse host life histories and how microbial symbionts may impact host resilience and phenotypic plasticity.