Education

Ph.D., Zoology, North Carolina State University
M.Sc., Entomology, North Carolina State University
B.Sc., Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University

Research interests

Broadly, my research focuses on understanding how human systems affect the ecological benefits of insect communities. Some of my recent work includes:

• Using greenhouse systems to test the efficacy of biological control agents as a means to disrupt abundant herbaceous insects;
• Evaluating pollinator diversity gradients across tropical row-crop systems;
• Habitat effects on pollination services in coffee farms;
• Sampling and instrumentation methods in field ecology;
• Studying pollinator-plant interactions in tropical forests to assess the potential benefits of restored vegetation to pollinator communities.

In my current position as Research Associate in the Youngsteadt lab, my work is focused on studying the effects of climate change and urbanization on tropical insects and their functional role in forest regeneration and nutrient cycling.

Selected publications

S.G. Prado, J.A. Collazo, P. Stevenson & R.E. Irwin (2019) A comparison of coffee floral traits under two different agricultural practices. Scientific Reports. 9: 7331

Prado, S.G., R.E. Irwin & J.A. Collazo (2018) Resurgence of specialized shade coffee cultivation: Effects on pollination services and quality of coffee production. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 265: 567-575.

Terando, A.J., Youngsteadt, E., Meineke, E.K. & S.G. Prado (2017) Ad hoc instrumentation methods in ecological studies produce highly biased temperature measurements. Ecology and Evolution. 7(23): 9890-9904.

Prado, S.G., H.T. Ngo, J.A. Florez, & J.A. Collazo. (2017) Sampling bees in tropical forests and agroecosystems: A review. Journal of Insect Conservation. August: 1-18.

Prado, S.G., S.E. Jandricic & S.D. Frank. (2015) Ecological Interactions Affecting the Efficacy of Aphidius colemani in Greenhouse Crops. Insects. 6(2): 538-575.

Engel, M.S. and S.G. Prado (2014) First record of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Sphecodes from Puerto Rico (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Journal of Melittology. 39: 1-6.

Prado, S.G. & S.D. Frank. (2014) Optimal foraging by an aphid parasitoid affects the outcome of apparent competition. Ecological Entomology. 39(2): 236-244.

Prado, S.G. & S.D. Frank. (2013) Tritrophic effects of plant growth regulators in an aphid-parasitoid system. Biological Control. 66(1): 72-76.