---

Patrycja Pluta

Research interest

• Population genomics
• Host-pathogen interactions
• Epidemiology
• Pollinator ecology
• Data analysis
• Bioinformatics

I am interested in ecology of insects and their pathogens, particularly in the modulation of host-pathogen interactions by environmental factors and the association between the genetic makeup of the host and its microbiome. Throughout my work in the project ComBee and other side-projects I put an emphasis on bioinformatics and data analysis using frequentist and bayesian approaches. I am passionate about coding and open data; for pipelines and workflows, please check out my Github (links section).

ComBee Project

The scientific objective of ComBee is to investigate the direct and  indirect landscape-related ways of mitigation of pollinator insect losses. The interactions between different  agri-environmental measures and landscape structures, their  effects on pollinator communities, population development of  wild and managed bees, prevalence of pathogens and parasites, resource use and trophic interactions between plants, pollinators, and pathogens are the core interests of the project.

Curriculum vitae

2021 - present
PhD Student, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
ComBee Project

2015 - 2021
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland

2018 - 2019
MostAR Exchange Student, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland

2017 - 2018
Erasmus Exchange Student, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Publications

Pluta P., Czechofsky K., Hass A., Frank L., Westerhoff A., Klingenberg H., Westphal C., Paxton R.J. 2024. Organic farming and annual flower strips reduce parasite prevalence in honey bees and boost colony growth in agricultural landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology. 10.1111/1365-2664.14723   

Pluta P., Paxton R. 2022. Assessing the impact of disease on pollinators. In: Kevan, P.G., Chan, S.W. (Eds.), Promoting Pollination and Pollinators in Farming. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Cambridge, UK. ISBN: 9781801460989

Sokół R., Pluta P. 2022. Endoparasites in Western Capercaillies (Tetrao urogallus) and Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) kept in various types of aviaries. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 58, 114-121. 10.7589/JWD-D-21-00017

Pluta P., Sokół R. 2020. Changes in the expression of antimicrobial peptide genes in honey bees (Apis mellifera) under the influence of various pathogens. Annals of Parasitology 66, 457–465. 10.17420/ap6604.286

Conferences

2024 December - Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society (BES), Liverpool, UK, poster: 'Exploring how plant-pollinator network structure shapes the virome of bee communitites'

2024 November - iDiv Conference, Leipzig, Germany, Vortrag: 'Exploring how plant-pollinator network structure shapes the virome of bee communitites'

2024 July - European Congress of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), Lausanne, Switzerland, talk: 'High honey bee colony density increase viral prevalence and load in wild bees'

2024 January - DAFA Strategy conference, Berlin, Germany, talk: ‘Assessment of the effect of agri-environment schemes on pathogen prevalence among bee communities’

2023 Septemeber - 52nd Annual Conference of the German Ecological Society (Gfö), Leipzig, Germany, talk: ‘Organic agriculture and annual flower strips reduce parasite prevalence in honey bees and boost colony growth in agricultural landscapes’

2022 September - 9th Congress of Apidology EurBee, Belgrade, Serbia, talk: 'Impact of Agri-environment schemes on parasite prevalence and spillover among managed and wild bees'

2022 April - Die 69. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Institute für Bienenforschung e.V., Hohenheim, Germany, talk: 'Relationship between agri-environmental measures and pathogen prevalence in honey bees and bumble bees'

2020 February - Third International Technical Conference Eimeriana Avia, Wrocław, Poland, poster: 'Mapping (assessment) of the population of Dermanyssus gallinae in a henhouse of hens using an invasion monitoring system'

Courses and workshops

Bipartite networks workshop, University of Gottingen, Germany, 2024

Introduction to Bayesian Modelling, University of Gottingen, Germany, 2024

Structural   Equation Modelling workshop, iDiv, Leipzig, Germany, 2023

Research and Proposal Writing in the Sciences course, StudentAID, 2020

Veterinary Oncology course, University of Warmia and
Mazury in Olsztyn, 2019

Protection and use of laboratory animals course, University of Warmia and Mazury, 2017

Up