Nicole Regimbal is a Ph.D. student studying Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto in the Baines Lab. She is interested in how climate change alters movement, specifically in species involved in mutualistic and parasitic interactions. She plans to investigate the impacts of altered movement on the resilience and disruption of mutualism and parasitism. This research has important implications for future ecological stability.
Nicole studies backswimmers, abundant semi-aquatic insects, and water mites, generalist ectoparasites. She investigates the nature of their dynamics, looking at the direct and indirect effects of parasitism on dispersal and behavior. Additionally, she assesses how these dynamics are altered by rising temperatures.
Additionally, Nicole studies aphids, common insect pests, and their bacterial mutualism, Serratia symbiotica, which increases their thermal tolerance. She looks at how this mutualist affects fitness and spreads throughout populations, and how rising temperatures affect these dynamics and dispersal ability and propensity.
Nicole is interested in starting to conduct research that relates to mutualism and range shifts.
Nicole completed her Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto double majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Ethics with an additional minor in Environmental Studies.
2018 – 2022
Nicole Regimbal 