Elise Larsen (she/her/they)

Role: Research Assistant Professor
Status: Current
Current Affiliation: Georgetown University
Current Email: eal109@georgetown.edu
Google Scholar Link: http://tinyurl.com/EALarsen-GS
CV:
Start year: 2013
Interests:
Ecology, population dynamics, phenology, disturbance. I focus on how species traits mediate timing and abundance patterns. I'm broadly interested in animal responses to environmental change at the population level and how those responses vary in relation to individual and population traits. I've worked primarily with birds and butterflies. I work mostly with community science platforms reporting surveys (Pollardbase, Discover Life) and opportunistic observations (iNaturalist, eButterfly).
Favorite Links:

Publications

2025

Belitz, Michael W., Elise A. Larsen, Allen H. Hurlbert, Grace J. Di Cecco, Naresh Neupane, Leslie Ries, Morgan W. Tingley, Robert P. Guralnick, and Casey Youngflesh. "Potential for bird–insect phenological mismatch in a tri‐trophic system." Journal of Animal Ecology 94, no. 4 (2025): 717-728.

Edwards, C.B., Zipkin, E.F., Henry, E.H., Haddad, N.M., Forister, M.L., Burls, K.J., Campbell, S.P., Crone, E.E., Diffendorfer, J., Douglas, M.R., Drum, R.G., Fallon, C.E., Glassberg, J., Grames, E.M., Hatfield. R., Herschovich, S., Hoffman Black, S., Larsen, E.A., Leuenberger, W., Linders, M.J., Longcore, T., Marschalek, D.A., Michielini, J., Neupane, N., Ries, L., Shapiro, A.M., Swengel, A.B., Swengel, S.R., Taron, D.J., Van Deynze, B., Wiedmann, J., Thogmartin, W.E., and Schultz, C.B. 2025. Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century. Science, 387(6738), pp.1090-1094.

2024

Abarca, M., Parker, A.L., Larsen, E.A., Umbanhowar, J., Earl, C., Guralnick, R.P., Kingsolver, J., and Ries, L. (2024) How development and survival combine to determine the thermal sensitivity of insects. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0291393. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291393

Larsen, E.A., M.W. Belitz, G.J. Di Cecco, J. Glassberg, A.H. Hurlbert, L. Ries and R. P. Guralnick. (2024) Overwintering strategy regulates phenological sensitivity and consequences for ecological services in a clade of temperate North American insects. Functional Ecology 38(5)

Neupane, N., E.A. Larsen, and L.Ries (2024). Ecological forecasts of insect range dynamics: a broad range of taxa include winners and losers under future climate. Invited paper at Current Opinion in Insect Science: 101159

2023

Di Cecco, G.J., M.W. Belitz, R.J. Cooper, E.A. Larsen*, W.B. Lewis, L. Ries, R.P. Guralnick, and A.H. Hurlbert. (2023) Phenology in adult and larval Lepidoptera from structured and unstructured surveys across eastern North America. Frontiers in Biogeography 15(1).

Kawahara, A. Y., Storer, C., Carvalho, A. P. S., Plotkin, D. M., Condamine, F. L., Braga, M. P., ... Larsen, E.A., .... Shirey, V., ... Ries, L., ... & Lohman, D. J. (2023). A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1-11.

Belitz, M. W., Larsen, E. A., Shirey, V., Li, D., & Guralnick, R. P. (2023). Phenological research based on natural history collections: Practical guidelines and a lepidopteran case study. Functional Ecology, 37(2), 234-247.

2022

Larsen, E. A., Belitz, M. W., Guralnick, R. P., & Ries, L. 2022. Consistent Trait-Temperature Interactions Drive Butterfly Phenology in Both Incidental and Survey Data. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 1-10.

Vaughn Shirey, Elise Larsen, Andra Doherty, Clifford A. Kim, Faisal T. Al-Sulaiman, Jomar D. Hinolan, Micael Gabriel A. Itliong, Mark Arcebal K. Naive, Minji Ku, Michael Belitz, Grace Jeschke, Vijay Barve, Gerardo Lamas, Akito Y. Kawahara, Robert Guralnick, Naomi E. Pierce, David J. Lohman, Leslie Ries. (2022) Lep Traits 1.0: Butterfly Traits 1.0: A globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9:382

M. Belitz, E. Larsen,V. Shirey, D. Li, and R. Guralnick. 2022. ”Phenological research based on natural history collections: practical guidelines and a Lepidopteran case study.” In Review.

2021

Larsen, E., Shirey, V. In Press. Method matters: pitfalls in analyzing phenology from occurrence records. Ecology Letters

Belitz, M. W., Barve, V., Doby, J. R., Hantak, M. M., Larsen, E. A., Li, D., ... & Stucky, B. J. (2021). Climate drivers of adult insect activity are conditioned by life history traits. Ecology Letters, 24(12), 2687-2699.

Larsen, E.A., V. Shirey. 2021. Method matters: pitfalls in analysing phenology from occurrence records. Ecology Letters 24:1287-1289

2020

Belitz, M.W., E.A.Larsen*, L.Ries and R.P. Guralnick. 2020. The accuracy of phenology estimators for use with sparsely sampled presence-only observations. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 11:1273–1285

2019

Abarca, M., E.A. Larsen, and L. Ries. (2019). Heatwaves and Novel Host Consumption Increase Overwinter Mortality of an Imperiled Wetland Butterfly. Front. Ecol. Evol. 7: 193. doi: 10.3389/fevo.

2018

Abarca, M., E. Larsen, J.T. Lill, M. Weiss, E. Lind, L. Ries. 2018. Inclusion of host quality data improves predictions of herbivore phenology. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 166 (8), 648-660

2016

Thorson, J.T., J.N. Ianelli, E.A. Larsen, L. Ries, M.D. Scheuerell, C. Szuwalski, and E.F. Zipkin. 2016. Joint dynamic species distribution models: a tool for community ordination and spatio‐temporal monitoring. Global Ecology and Biogeography.