NGRREC Xmas party!
Great to hang with the NGRREC family today - happy xmas to all!
lab VISIT by Dr Kim Medley (Tyson Research Center, Wash U)
Fun and productive visit to our lab today by Kim Medley (Wash U) to talk science, and listen to her seminar on the ecology of disease vectors.
EXPERIMENTS underway to explore the spatial dynamics of grazing
Postdoc Carl Cloyed has been working overtime on a cool set of experiments to explore how the spatial distribution and density of resources (biofilm) affect the foraging behavior of a grazing predator (Radix snail).
"blueprint of freshwater life" initiative
Tony attended a workshop for the "Blueprint of Freshwater Life" initiative, held at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany. A great initiative - and nice to meet so many new faces with such diverse backgrounds and expertise - excited to be involved!
carl gave seminar at SLEEC retreat
Postdoc Carl Cloyed representing the lab - and speaking about "The allometry of animal movement" - at the annual SLEEC (St. Louis Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation ) retreat.
our new allometry of invertebrate speed paper published in ecology
A new paper of ours just published in Ecology, looks at The little things that run: a general scaling of invertebrate exploratory speed with body mass. You can find a pdf of this paper on our PUBLICATIONS page.
Here are some of the videos from that paper...
dragonfly foraging experiment underway
Ashley Olsen ran an experiment in the tracking chamber to explore how the density of prey (mosquito larvae) and the density of predators (dragonfly nymphs) affect consumption rates. Using the tracking system enables us to explore the behavioral drivers of trophic interaction strength.
field trip to explore the role of competition in biodiversity
The lab (Tony, Carl, Ash) just returned from an awesome three weeks with John Delong at University of Nebraska's Cedar Point Biological Station in western Nebraska. Our work here centers on exploring the biological mechanisms underlying co-existance in a diverse grassland spider community, which we expect might have some behavioral underpinnings.
EnviroSLAM: A Showcase of Environment, Energy and Sustainability
Great night at the St. Louis Art Museum for "EnviroSLAM: A Showcase of Environment, Energy and Sustainability at Washington University". Highlight was Peter Raven's inspiring talk on the critical environmental issues of our time.
EPSCoR imaging workshop at the Danforth Plant Science Center
Tony attended the EPSCoR imaging workshop at the Danforth Plant Science Center. The purpose of the workshop was to link imaging and image processing to phenotyping and to share collective capacity on plant imaging technology and data. Really great to see the awesome progress plant folk are making with automated imaging!
OneSTL Sustainability Summit
Tony attended the biodiversity working group at the OneSTL Sustainability Summit. The Summit brought organizations, governments, and people together to share and learn new ideas for charting a defined path towards a sustainable and equitable St. Louis region.
inaugural GRC on Movement Ecology
Tony just back from the inaugral GRC on the Movement Ecology of Animals held in Ventura (CA), where he gave a talk about "The body size and temperature dependence of animal movement and some consequence for trophic interactions". Fun times with an awesome bunch of movement ecologists - looking forward to the next meeting in 2019!
lab trip to Tyson Research Center
A short field trip today to Washington University's Tyson Research Center, where we are working with postdoc Solny Adalsteinsson to explore the effects of fire on tick (and thus disease) ecology.
salamander foraging experiments underway
Postdoc Dave Daversa and summer intern Elizabeth Green have been hard at work getting their salamander foraging experiments underway. Using our unique 12-camera tracking system, the plan is to explore how spatial and temporal variation in the foraging and escape behavior scale up to affect the outcome of species interactions. We are using spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) larvae feeding on gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor) tadpole prey.
And some photos of the experiment...
two internships available in my lab
We currently have two paid undergraduate internships available in the lab for summer 2016.
1) Using UAV’s to monitor bison movement and vegetation dynamics at the Dunn Ranch Prairie
2) Burning question: How does prescribed fire affect tick behavior in riparian and upland forests
While I encourage interested students to email me with questions about the projects, note that to be considered for the positions students must submit all application materials electronically with the online application form (listing one of these two projects as their preferred option) by the Jan 18th deadline at www.ngrrec.org/internship.
Dunn Prairie Bison Ranch
Just back from Dunn Ranch Prairie in northern Missouri, where Andrew Berdahl, Steve Blake and I are doing some work on bison movement ecology, and its relation to tallgrass prairie ecosystems more generally. We currently have an 2017 summer undergraduate internship available as part of this project - see here for more details.
goodbye and good luck postdoc Dr. David Daversa!
Best of luck to Dr. David Daversa who has moved to a new postdoc position in the Institute for Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool.
"The Everyman, the Educator and the Ecologist"
Was great to be involved in a public event last night at the Jacoby Arts Center where Ryan Hanlon (Route 3 Films), Natalie Marioni (NGRREC), and myself presented "The Everyman and the Ecologist", as part of the traveling exhibit: "Running Water: Riverwork Project and Watershed Cairns".
Fun times indeed - looking forward to seeing where all this leads!
lab attends SLEEC retreat
The Dell Ecology Lab attended the 6th Annual St Louis Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation (SLEEC) retreat at Principia College. Great to hear about all the awesome work being undertaken in the St Louis region.
new paper on lake responses to warming
Check out our new paper on Global patterns in lake ecosystem responses to warming based on the temperature dependence of metabolism, led by Ben Kraemer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
You can find a pdf of this paper on our PUBLICATIONS page.