Second paper of 2020 is out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS for short)! Ellen Welti sums up the work nicely here… “Parsing variation in long-term patterns underlying insect abundances and assigning mechanisms are critical in light of recent reports of dramatic insect declines. Grasshopper abundancesContinue reading “NEW PAPER OUT! Nutrient dilution and climate cycles underlie declines in a dominant insect herbivore”
Category Archives: Ecology
NEW PAPER OUT! The economics of optimal foraging by the red imported fire ant
First paper of 2020 is out in Environmental Entomology! Here we look at how the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, regulates its foraging behavior. This was an interesting project that we first piloted back in 2015 and built on all the way through the summer of 2018. We were interested in testing ideas fromContinue reading “NEW PAPER OUT! The economics of optimal foraging by the red imported fire ant”
Job Announcement: Undergraduate research quantifying insect biodiversity and trophic structure of agricultural food webs
The Harmon-Threatt lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is seeking a motivated, hardworking undergraduate student to join our team for the spring 2020 semester. The successful candidate will work with Dr. Karl Roeder on a recently funded project examining if multifunctional woody polycultures increase insect biodiversity and food web stability. The position will mostlyContinue reading “Job Announcement: Undergraduate research quantifying insect biodiversity and trophic structure of agricultural food webs”
NEW PAPER OUT! Species Energy and Thermal Performance Theory predict 20‐year changes in ant community abundance and richness
Our newest paper of 2019 and the first NEON ants paper is out in Ecology!!! “In an era of rapid climate change, and with it concern over insect declines, we used two theories to predict 20‐year changes in 34 North American ant communities. The ecosystems, from deserts to hardwood forests, were first surveyed in theContinue reading “NEW PAPER OUT! Species Energy and Thermal Performance Theory predict 20‐year changes in ant community abundance and richness”
PhD and future postdoc in Illinois!
Over the past few years, I have tried to post once every month or at least every other month with updates from my research or outreach. This came to a crashing halt after BioBlitz last year as I finished off the last few sections of my dissertation and prepared to defend. After a successful defense,Continue reading “PhD and future postdoc in Illinois!”
Quantifying invertebrate responses to nutrient additions in North American grasslands
A slight delay in posts as I have been gone or busy writing up portions of my dissertation. In September, our lab finished off the last sampling on the SALT grant for the year at three locations in the midwest United States. Having never visited two of these states before, I was quite excited toContinue reading “Quantifying invertebrate responses to nutrient additions in North American grasslands”
NEW PAPER OUT! The role of temperature in competition and persistence of an invaded ant assemblage
Third paper of 2018 is out in Ecological Entomology! Here we look at daily temperature changes, and how such changes regulate activity of red imported fire ants and other native species. This was a pretty fun project that arose from observations during data collection for my first dissertation chapter. Specifically, I was noticing that fireContinue reading “NEW PAPER OUT! The role of temperature in competition and persistence of an invaded ant assemblage”
NEW PAPER OUT! Using metabolic and thermal ecology to predict temperature dependent ecosystem activity: a test with prairie ants
Second paper of 2018 is out in Ecology! This one was led by Rebecca Prather, fellow graduate student in the Kaspari lab, and demonstrates how seasonal and daily temperature differences affect foraging for resources by ants. The abstract is listed below and sums up some of the key results… “As ecosystems warm, ectotherm consumer activity shouldContinue reading “NEW PAPER OUT! Using metabolic and thermal ecology to predict temperature dependent ecosystem activity: a test with prairie ants”
Summer is here…
2018 will be my last field season as a PhD student, which is a bittersweet thing to think about. This summer I will be headed back to one of my favorite places to do research, the University of Oklahoma Biological Station. Here I will be collecting more data on the traits of ants, running some behavioral trialsContinue reading “Summer is here…”
Media coverage of our paper examining how floods impact invertebrate communities
Our recent work on the 2015 flood at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station and its impact on invertebrate communities was just covered in a EurekAlert from AAAS and by the Entomology Today blog hosted by the Entomological Society of America. You can find links to both below. EurekAlert: [CLICK HERE] Entomology Today Blog: [CLICK HERE] Paper:Continue reading “Media coverage of our paper examining how floods impact invertebrate communities”
Roeder Lab 