Insects are one of the most diverse groups of living organisms both in terms of species richness and ecological function. Diversification has allowed insects to colonize every continent on Earth, exploit an assortment of food sources, and perform a variety of ecological roles (e.g. herbivory, predation, decomposition). Thus, insect activities provide critical ecosystem services, including provisioning, pollination, and soil formation. Human activities pose severe threats to insect populations such as habitat loss and degradation, climate change, chemical and light pollution, pesticide use, and altered plant communities. The combined effects of these threats have triggered severe insect population declines. Research in the Insect Ecology lab focuses on the effects of altered plant communities and thermal stress on butterflies and moths.
Students joining the lab may choose to focus on a.) habitat restoration at the MacLeish Field Station, b.) studying the effects of novel host plants and thermal stress on a native butterfly, the Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton), or c.) developing and improving automated insect monitoring systems.
Skills to be developed during this project: experiment design, critical thinking, data management and processing, ecological field techniques, entomological techniques, teamwork, creativity and problem solving.
