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Portrait of Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler Ph.D.
  • Biological Sciences

Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler Ph.D.

Associate Professor - Cellular / Molecular / Microbiology / Ecology

Catalina grew up in Colombia, in between Bogotá and a small coffee farm in Sasaima. Went to college at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, majoring in Biology and Microbiology, and worked for a few years in environmental education. Her research focuses on microbial assembly and function using bacteria associating with Pitcher plants and marine invertebrates as model systems. Research questions in Dr. Cuellar-Gempeler’s lab related to microbial metacommunity dynamics and ecosystem function

  • PhD 2016, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Microbial Ecology
  • General Microbiology
  • Bioinformatics
  • Marine Microbiology
  • Sci100

Interactions between microbial communities and their hosts. In my lab, we focus on research questions related to microbial metacommunity dynamics, ecosystem function and eco-evolutionary dynamics.View Catalina's research page

  • Munoz-Ucros, J., M. Zwetsloot, C. Cuellar-Gempeler and T. Bauerle. 2021. Spatio-temporal patterns of rhizosphere microbiome assembly: from ecological theory to agricultural application. Accepted to Journal of Applied Ecology
  • C. Cuellar-Gempeler. 2021. Diversity-function relationships and the underlying ecological mechanisms in host-associated microbial communities. In: Advances in Environmental Microbiology, Vol 8. In press.
  • Cuellar-Gempeler, C. 2019. Habitat filters mediate succession in microbial communities associated with the stripped shore crab Pachygrapsus transversus. Oecologia 191:957-970.
  • T. E. Miller, M. L. Buhler, and C. Cuellar-Gempeler. 2019. Species-specific differences determine responses to a resource pulse and predation. Oecologia 190 (1): 169-178.
  • C. Cuellar-Gempeler and M. A. Leibold. 2019. Key colonist pools and habitat filters mediate the composition of fiddler crab-associated bacterial communities. Ecology 100 (4): e02628.
  • C. Cuellar-Gempeler and M.A. Leibold. 2018. Multiple colonist pools shape fiddler crab-associated microbial communities. The ISME Journal 12(3):825-837.
  • E. Canter, C. Cuellar-Gempeler, A. Pastore, T.E. Miller and O. Mason. 2018. Predator identity more than predator richness structures aquatic microbial assemblages in Sarracenia purpurea leaves. Ecology 99(3):652-660.
  • Holdridge, E., C. Cuellar-Gempeler, and C. terHost. 2016. A shift from exploitation to interference competition with increasing density affects population and community dynamics. Ecology and Evolution 6(15):5333-5341.
  • Cuellar-Gempeler, C. and P. Munguia. 2013. Fiddler crabs affect bacterial assemblages in mangrove forest sediments. Community Ecology 14(1): 59-66.
  • Cuellar-Gempeler, C., C. terHorst, O. Mason and T.E. Miller. Variation in predator dispersal influences prey community diversity in metacommunities. In preparation. Anticipated submission to: Ecology letters.
  • Munoz-Ucros, J., M. Zwetsloot, C. Cuellar-Gempeler and T. Bauerle. Spatio-temporal patterns of rhizosphere microbiome assembly: from ecological theory to agricultural application. Journal of Applied Ecology. In review

Graduate Students

Current Students:
Parker Lund, Megan Teigen, Jonas Sotingco, Victoria Cifelli, Amelia Jackson, Jakob Joachin

Previous Students:

Fiona Connor
Sandrine Thompson. graduation: 2022. Title: Environmental effects on constructed wetland microbial diversity and function in the context of wastewater management.