Insect Agroecology and Evolution Lab

The EEEB group (Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology) gathered for a potluck last Friday to celebrate spring and the end of a very successful first year!

Here are some of the highlights from this year:

– Faculty and student participation in academic talks from 7 different academic units (Biology, Plant Biology, Rubenstein School, Plant and Soil Sciences, Gund Institute, Animal Science, Math and Statistics).

• 39 talks from faculty and students
• 1 professional development forum
• New reading/study groups linking students and researchers across departments (Foundations in Ecology, Practical Computing for biologists)
• And perhaps new collaborations?

– Social events that brought people together (each event 50-100 people):

• September 5, 2014 – UVM Natural History Museum hosted a bbq
• December 5, 2014 – Holiday social hour at ArtsRiot
• May 1, 2015  – Spring bbq potluck, hosted by the Rubenstein Ecosystem Sciences Lab (pictures below)

It was a pleasure for our lab to host a visit from Dr. Charles Vincent from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. We want to add our congratulations to Dr. Vincent who recently was elected as a Fellow to the Entomological Society of America! Félicitations à notre voisin!

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.

Thanks to the Co-op Patronage Seedling Grants and thank you City Market Members! Our project to determine the critical damage threshold was selected by City Market members for funding. Due to a larger than expected pot of money, our grant was three times larger than we expected! To us, this is a sign that each household voted with their own wallet.

It was great to celebrate along with The Schoolhouse, Living Well group, Vermont Goat Collective, and Hunger Free Vermont.

We just got word that USDA is funding us to resequence the Colorado potato beetle genome to understand rapid pest evolution and improve sustainable pest management! This grant will be led by Sean Schoville (Univ. of Wisconsin) and will also involve Dave Hawthorne (Univ. of Maryland)