Meet the Lab
Meet the amazing people who make up The Catano Lab. We value creativity and diverse perspectives, and our team brings together expertise from various scientific fields, such as theoretical ecology, geography and remote sensing, and ecosystem restoration, working together to drive forward our research initiatives.
Principle Investigator
Dr. Christopher Catano
Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside.
I lead the Catano Lab which I founded in 2024. I am broadly interested in understanding how ecological communities reorganize following disturbance and the consequences this has on patterns of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and ecological resilience. My research focuses on plant communities, but occasionally includes plant-pollinator interactions, host microbiome assembly, birds, and herbivores. Beyond research, I am highly motivated to improve undergraduate and graduate education, professional development, and serve on the editorial board for the journal Ecology.
Current Lab Members
Madison Elowitt
PhD Student in Plant Biology
Madison graduated from Cal State University, Northridge with a B.S. in Geography and Environmental Studies, an M.S. in GIS, and then worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab using remote sensing to characterize effects of fire and bark beetles on tree mortality across Southern California. Madison joined the lab in Fall 2025 and is interested in spatial ecology, remote sensing, and biogeography. Her dissertation seeks to combine remote sensing with experiments to understand how disturbances (drought and fire) alter density-dependent mechanisms shaping Oak recruitment across scales.
Emily Maynard
PhD Student in EEOB
emily.maynard@email.ucr.edu
Emily graduated from Clark University with a B.A. in Biology and Studio Art. While there she completed her honors thesis on desert grassland ecology and restoration. After graduating, she worked for the USDA, where she developed pheromone lures for invasive beetle detection. She went on to assist with research on pollinators in tallgrass prairie at Kansas State University. Emily joined the lab in Fall 2025 interested in plant-pollinator networks, community assembly, and functional ecology.
Aarya Bhat
Undergraduate Honors Student
Aarya is pursuing a B.S. in Biology at UCR and is interested in the interface between human health, agriculture, and pollinator conservation. Before joining the lab she helped conduct research on the role of an insect pest, spotted wing drosophila, on berry farms. In the lab, her honors thesis research seeks to understand how conservation grazing by domestic cattle alters plant and pollinator communities in southern California grasslands, with a particular focus on the importance of pollinator traits like nesting habits and body size.
Danielle Shafer
Undergraduate Student Researcher
Danielle is a Plant Biology undergraduate with a passion for California’s ecology. She is particularly interested in understanding how plants and animals interact to guide management and conservation of California’s endangered ecosystems. In the lab, Danielle is leading the effort to characterize the composition and diversity of seed banks in non-native dominated grasslands at Weir Canyon and to develop seed mixes for restoring native functional diversity on this landscape.