WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF
Gavin Sutter
Who am I?
I am a scientist, instructor, and photographer driven by a passion for research, education, and environmental stewardship.
Currently, I am a master’s candidate in the Cuellar-Gempeler Lab at Cal Poly Humboldt. My research focuses on exploring biodiversity, dispersal, and ecosystem-functioning in the microbial communities of the carnivorous pitcher plant Darlingtonia californica. As a lab instructor, I enjoy teaching botany and microbiology, and as the president of the Biology Graduate Student Association I find purpose in providing grants, events, and support for fellow graduate students.
Formerly, I completed my B.Sc. in Biology at Cal Poly Humboldt with an emphasis in microbiology and science education. During my undergraduate career, I worked as a professional climbing, rafting, and backpacking guide where I held both field and leadership positions. If I’m not in the lab, classroom, or office, you’ll most likely find me on the local trails, rivers, and rocks.
Photo: Keith Sutter
Education
2023 – present: M.Sc. Biology. Cal Poly Humboldt. Community and Population Ecology.
Advisor: Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler, Department of Biological Sciences
2021 – 2023: B.Sc. Biology. Cal Poly Humboldt, Science Education and Microbiology.
2019 – 2020: A.A. Feather River Community College, Outdoor Recreation Leadership
Advisor: Saylor Flett, Outdoor Recreation Leadership Department
2017 – 2018: University of California Santa Cruz, MCD Biology
*Read my complete CV here.
While there is a breadth of research on the effects of biodiversity loss on ecosystem-function, much less is known about what additional factors may influence ecosystem-services.
Broadly speaking, my master’s research works to address this gap in knowledge.
Specifically, my research attempts to parse apart the relative impacts of a community’s environment, biodiversity, and spatial-distribution on its ecosystem-function. The host-associated microbial communities found in the California pitcher plant, Darlingtonia californica, provide an ideal system for metacommunity research. D. californica’s microbial communities have clear spatial boundaries (contained to each leaf), ecosystem-functions (insect degradation), environmental variability (leaf conditions), and spatial-distributions (the location of each plant in a population) providing both a natural and complete metacommunity dataset.
See my research page for details, preliminary results, and past work.
