Gemelle Brion successfully defended her thesis and will be officially receiving her Masters degree in a few weeks. The title of her thesis is, “Swede midge, Contarinia nasturtii (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), response to Brassica oleracea in simulated intercropping systems”. Gemelle finished her Masters research in a whopping year and a half. She put her head down, worked really hard, never really looked up, and voila – now has something to show for it. And, she landed a job too! She is now working at the NRCS in Maryland. Great job Gemelle!
Gemelle examined a wide range of intercrops to test their effect on swede midge larval densities on broccoli plants. She tested whether plant growth form, total leaf area, proportional leaf area (host to non-host), and plant phylogenetic distance influenced the number of midge larvae found on broccoli plants. She has found some very interesting results showing that closely related plant genera (within Brassicaceae) may be most effective as intercrops! Stay tuned and visit the garden outside of our building to see whether it works outside!
IAEL Lab members (Chase Stratton, Kristian Brevik, Yolanda Chen, Victor Izzo, and Gemelle Brion) celebrating at an undisclosed location in Burlington.