Lab News
Updates on the Lab’s current and future projects and present and former members. We encourage all former post-docs and students to keep in touch. Send news to the webmaster to be posted!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Christina is an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and is returning to our lab to conduct a project funded under
NSF’s REU program. She will be studying the influence of native ecosystem engineers, in this case leaftying caterpillars, on the abundance of the exotic Asiatic oak weevil. She is seen here building an emergence trap that will allow her to assess the host plant preference of oak weevil larvae for tree roots.
NSF’s REU program. She will be studying the influence of native ecosystem engineers, in this case leaftying caterpillars, on the abundance of the exotic Asiatic oak weevil. She is seen here building an emergence trap that will allow her to assess the host plant preference of oak weevil larvae for tree roots.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Amanda Duckwall, who was awarded the Alumni Scholarship Award by the Department of Biology for her excellence in academics, is conducting undergraduate research in the lab this summer. She is studying the indirect effects of invasive plant species on insect pupal survivorship via white-footed mouse activity. She completed her first experiment this Friday and Saturday, estimating survivorship of pupae of the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum. She is seen here with Humberto Dutra in...
Monday, June 1, 2009
After many trials and tribulations, John Flunker successfully gets his first chromatogram of the sugar contents of extrafloral nectar from Chamaecrista fasciculata, the partridge pea. John is studying the impacts of ant attendance and soil water addition on the concentration of sugars in the extrafloral nectar of this plant as part of his MS thesis.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
The Marquis lab sampled caterpillars on black and white oaks for the 13th consecutive year as part of the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project in southeastern Missouri this May. George Wang, John Flunker, Kirk Barnett, and Bob Marquis trudged over and under numerous treefalls caused by a huge windstorm that hit the area the previous evening.
Monday, May 4, 2009
We gathered to trek 5 miles along the Lewis and Clark Trail for a beautiful but cool day to the overlook of the Missouri River, search out honeysuckle, ants, caterpillars and wildflowers.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Diego Salazar is awarded the Arnold Grobman Award for Excellence in Field Research. Diego has been sampling herbivore communities on two species of Piper along a transect from Mexico to Panama as part of his dissertation research. The award was made at a formal gathering of the department in which various end of the year awards for presented. Previous awardees of the Grobman Award currently in the lab include Humberto Dutra, Nick Barber, and Bia Baker. Dr. Grobman is currently a professor...
Friday, April 17, 2009
Nick Barber completed the last requirement for his doctoral degree by successfully defending his dissertation this morning. Committee members included Bob Marquis, Bob Ricklefs, Jon Chase, and Patty Parker. No headgear was needed, thankfully, and Nick gladly brought the pizza to the celebration party. Nick and his family have recently moved to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he is starting a prestigious postdoc with Dr. Lynn Adler.