(06/11/25) BATON ROUGE, La. — When Morgan Christman was a doctoral student at Utah State University, she studied data from moth traps over a five-year period in Utah. What shocked her most about her findings wasn’t related to moths. It was the tens of thousands of bumblebees that were accidentally trapped alongside the moths every year.

This unfortunate surprise led Christman to a career focused on pollinators, particularly bumblebees. She earned her doctorate in ecology and later worked as a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University and a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pollinating Insect Biology, Management, Systematics Research Unit.

Now, Christman is the first assistant professor of pollinator ecology at the LSU AgCenter, a job that was more than she could have hoped for.

“Honestly, it's the dream job. When I was going through the job application process, I wanted a position where I could continue to research and develop extension materials for bumblebees and other pollinators,” Christman said. “I’m excited I’m able to conduct that research that gives back to landowners, beekeepers and the general public and to be able to say, ‘Here’s what the research we’re doing is and why it’s so important.’”

In her new role, Christman will be able to continue her postdoctoral research on the rusty patched bumblebee and their habitats in Wisconsin and Iowa. In those states, she is planning to conduct research to ensure that mosquito abatement procedures, used to manage the population of those pests, are not significantly impacting the life cycles and health of bumblebees in the area.

She also will be studying how to improve conservation practices for bumblebees before a species, the American bumblebee, potentially gets listed under the Endangered Species Act, which would make research harder to complete, even if it’s in the benefit of the insect. As part of the conservation process, Christman rears the bumblebees and eventually releases them back into the wild, which can prove to be difficult.

“We’re trying to make sure that the colonies that we’re introducing back into the environment are going to survive and not have diseases that they could then transfer to the wild populations,” Christman said. “That's been a big area of study for the last few years. How do we raise them in a lab setting so that they don’t die when we put them in a lab? And then how do we release them back out without transferring disease?”

Christman also will be one of the first researchers to accumulate baseline data about pollinator species in Louisiana, specifically native bees, which was a big draw to this position for her. In her position, she will begin to find which specific species are in what areas of the state and try to get a grasp of their population changes over time to see what populations need the most support.

While some of this data might not be useful immediately, it’s important for Christman and other entomologists that this data is developed.

“Louisiana is particularly cool for this position because there’s not been a ton of work in the pollinator world in Louisiana,” she said. “That’s not to say hasn’t been done, but from a baseline ecology standpoint, we have a lot to learn.”

With this data, Christman also will do research that looks at the threats and different anthropogenic factors on pollinator populations, specifically bumblebees. To achieve these goals, Christman plans to collaborate with local gardeners and ecologists, especially the Louisiana Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists. With their help, Christman hopes to establish a Louisiana Bumblebee Atlas with the help of citizen scientists where she can record and track the baseline data.

In her new position, Christman will be able to do something else she’s never done before: teach. Starting in spring 2026, she will be teaching both undergraduate and graduate students about pollinator ecology and conservation.

“I never taught before and I’m going to be teaching in this position,” Christman said. “I think that’s exciting to be able to translate the work that I’m doing and all of the knowledge that it gained in the last few years and get other people excited about insects in general.”

New entomology professor Morgan Christman will look to expand the research and knowledge that Louisianans have of local pollinator species. Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter