Graduate students Jeremiah Henning (Classen Lab) and Quentin Read (Sanders Lab) were just invited to participate in the Boreal Forest Ecology Course in Sweden. The course, led by David Wardle at SLU (http://www.seksko.se/en/research/researchers/senior-researchers/70-david-wardle.html) is competitive to get into and attracts students from around the globe.
Five Six current or incoming EEB students were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships or honorable mentions:
Awards:
Update 2: Angela Chuang has decided to enter EEB in the fall; numbers have been updated to reflect this.
| Institution | Awards + Honorable Mentions |
|---|---|
| University of California-Davis | 16 |
| University of Washington | 13 |
| University of California-Berkeley | 9 |
| University of California-Santa Cruz | 9 |
| Cornell University | 8 |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 8 |
| Princeton University | 7 |
| Texas A & M University Main Campus | 7 |
| University of Tennessee Knoxville, all departments | 7 |
| University of Tennessee Knoxville, EEB only | 6 |
| Colorado State University | 6 |
| Michigan State University | 6 |
| University of Florida | 6 |
| University of Arizona | 5 |
| University of Colorado at Boulder | 5 |
| University of Georgia | 5 |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 5 |
| Utah State University | 5 |
| Indiana University | 4 |
| Oregon State University | 4 |
| University of California-Santa Barbara | 4 |
| University of Chicago | 4 |
| University of Michigan Ann Arbor | 4 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 4 |
| Pennsylvania State Univ University Park | 3 |
| Stanford University | 3 |
| University of California-Los Angeles | 3 |
| University of California-San Diego | 3 |
| University of Montana | 3 |
| University of South Florida | 3 |
| Yale University | 3 |
| Arizona State University | 2 |
| Harvard University | 2 |
| Montana State University | 2 |
| Oklahoma State University | 2 |
| Purdue University | 2 |
| SUNY at Stony Brook | 2 |
| University of California-Irvine | 2 |
| University of Hawaii | 2 |
| University of Idaho | 2 |
| University of Illinois at Chicago | 2 |
| University of Kansas Main Campus | 2 |
| University of Missouri-Columbia | 2 |
| University of Notre Dame | 2 |
| University of Pittsburgh | 2 |
| University of Texas at Austin | 2 |
| University of Utah | 2 |
| University of Vermont & State Agricultural College | 2 |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 2 |
| American Museum Natural History | 1 |
| Boise State University | 1 |
| Boston University | 1 |
| Central Michigan University | 1 |
| College of William and Mary | 1 |
| Dartmouth College | 1 |
| Emory University | 1 |
| Florida Gulf Coast University | 1 |
| Florida International University | 1 |
| Florida State University | 1 |
| Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology – University of Hawaii Manoa | 1 |
| Humboldt State University | 1 |
| Humboldt State University Foundation | 1 |
| Kent State University | 1 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1 |
| Miami University | 1 |
| Missouri State University | 1 |
| North Carolina State University | 1 |
| North Dakota State University Fargo | 1 |
| Old Dominion University | 1 |
| Portland State University | 1 |
| Rutgers University New Brunswick | 1 |
| Salisbury University | 1 |
| San Francisco State University | 1 |
| San Jose State University | 1 |
| Syracuse University | 1 |
| Texas State University – San Marcos | 1 |
| Trustees of Boston University | 1 |
| Tufts University | 1 |
| University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus | 1 |
| University of California-Riverside | 1 |
| University of Central Florida | 1 |
| University of Connecticut | 1 |
| University of Maine | 1 |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | 1 |
| University of Nevada Reno | 1 |
| University of New Hampshire | 1 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 1 |
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte | 1 |
| University of Oklahoma Norman Campus | 1 |
| University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras | 1 |
| University of Virginia Main Campus | 1 |
| Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | 1 |
Institutions with no awards or honorable mentions not listed.
Note that for this table, ecology and systematics correspond to NSF categories “Life Sciences – Ecology”, “Life Sciences – Systematic Biology”.
Aguiguan, a small island in the Northern Mariana Islands, is home to the only known population of the Emballonura semicaudata rotensis, a subspecies of Pacific sheath-tailed bat. Immediate research is necessary to determine an appropriate approach to its conservation. Two ubiquitous invaders, feral goats and lantana shrub have dense populations on Aguiguan. It is unknown whether these invasive species affect the Pacific sheath-tailed bat.
The grants were funded by Sigma Xi and Bat Conservation International. Jess was also inducted into Sigma Xi as an associate member.
PhD student Jennifer Krauel (a Gary McCracken student) was recently funded by Bat Conservation International for her project, “Identifying insect communities fueling bat migration in an agriculturally important area”. Her project involves high throughput sequencing of bat guano to identify their food sources.
EEB PhD candidate Riley Bernard was featured in the Knoxville News Sentinel for her research on white nose syndrome in bats in Tennessee. The full article is UPDATE: NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Riley is part of the McCracken lab.
EEB undergrad Devin Jones won first place in the EUReCA undergraduate research symposium, Ecology, Evolution, and Water Quality category, at UT. Devin’s poster was on “Fall Migration of Corn and Rice Strains of Spodoptera fruigperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Southwest Texas”. She conceived of the project and performed all the field and lab work as well as the analyses. She was mentored by EEB Dept. Head Gary McCracken and EEB PhD student Jennifer Krauel.
UTK EEB graduate student Amanda Janicki (McCracken lab), as well as other scientists from UTK and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, was interviewed as part of an NBC Today Show segment about white nose syndrome. Video embedded below and available at http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50310493
A recent paper in PLOS ONE by dept. head Gary McCracken and colleagues, including former UTK EEB grad students Veronica Brown and Paula Federico, as well as UTK postdoc Melanie Eldridge, analyzed insect DNA in bat feces. Their work suggests that bats change foraging locations to match prey abundance. It also supports previous researchers’ findings that bats contribute substantially to agriculture, providing services that can amount to 12% of the value of a crop.
Abstract:
The role of bats or any generalist predator in suppressing prey populations depends on the predator’s ability to track and exploit available prey. Using a qPCR fecal DNA assay, we document significant association between numbers of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) consuming corn earworm (CEW) moths (Helicoverpa zea) and seasonal fluctuations in CEW populations. This result is consistent with earlier research linking the bats’ diet to patterns of migration, abundance, and crop infestation by important insect pests. Here we confirm opportunistic feeding on one of the world’s most destructive insects and support model estimates of the bats’ ecosystem services. Regression analysis of CEW consumption versus the moth’s abundance at four insect trapping sites further indicates that bats track local abundance of CEW within the regional landscape. Estimates of CEW gene copies in the feces of bats are not associated with seasonal or local patterns of CEW abundance, and results of captive feeding experiments indicate that our qPCR assay does not provide a direct measure of numbers or biomass of prey consumed. Our results support growing evidence for the role of generalist predators, and bats specifically, as agents for biological control and speak to the value of conserving indigenous generalist predators.
UTK EEB grad student Sara Kuebbing was recently featured in a podcast by the Ecological Society of America. See more information at The importance of managing exotic invasive plants.