Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Office: Naraghi Hall 262
Phone: 664-6926
Botany 1050 Introductory Botany Lecture & lab (Fall)
Botany 3000 Plant Propagation (Winter)
Botany 4200 Plant Physiology (Spring)
Biology 1020 World of Biology Laboratory (Fall)
I have a strong interest in effective teaching. My philosophy is that students must take an active role in learning and instructors must provide opportunities for them to take that role. Various techniques practiced in a class can quantifiably increase student learning and retention. While I was a Post-doctoral Associate at the University of Wisconsin, I was part of a community of scholars interested in effective undergraduate and graduate education.
The Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning
Within the Delta Program, the Teaching-As-Research program aims to use “deliberate, systematic, and reflective…research methods to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and learning outcomes of students/participants and teachers/facilitators.”
The Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching
I am broadly interested in
multi-trophic interactions like plant-herbivore interactions and plant-symbiont
interactions. My PhD work at UC-Riverside focused on influence of
mycorrhizal fungi on aboveground herbivore populations.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi reduced population size of a specialist herbivore, the mirid Tupiocoris notatus, on tobacco (Wooley & Paine 2007). T. notatus is a solanaceae specialist native to California that feeds on Datura, Nicotiana and can also feed on tomatoes. These mirids are particularly adept at scurrying around on leaves with trichomes (like Datura and Nicotiana). They are zoophytophagous, meaning they eat plants as well as animals (they are cannibalistic, and eat early Manduca sexta larvae).
If you look at the picture to the left, you may notice that the hairs have very small knobs on the end. These 'hairs with knobs' (AKA glandular trichomes) contain very sticky, toxic chemicals. Further note that the body of T. notatus is held high above the glandular trichomes. They are adapted to living on plants with trichomes. If you could see the whole plant you would also notice that a lot of whiteflies, dust and other insects (including some mirids) are stuck and have died in the sticky goo.
If you look carefully at the front of the insect, you can see the beak-like mouthparts prepared to puncture some cells to suck out the cell contents. You can also see small hairs from the wings on the dorsal surface (the wings, actually). I would like to do more work with these insects and mycorrhizae.
Complementary to my interests in plant-herbivore interactions is the influence of plant chemistry on those herbivores. Working with the Cottonwood Ecology Group based at Northern Arizona University, I studied how genetically-influenced cottonwood and aspen phytochemistry (mainly phenolic glycosides and condensed tannins) influenced several different ecological components. For example, we examined how phenolic glycosides and tannins influenced cottonwood arthropod communities.
Another
experiment examined how tannin chemistry in aspen leaf litter influences leaf
litter decomposition and
aquatic
invertebrate communities. That research was conducted at Otter Creek, a
Nature Conservancy site between
Sauk City and
Baraboo, WI).
When
I was an undergraduate, I worked for the
Utah Department of Natural
Resources,
Division of Wildlife Resources in Ephraim, Utah. While there, I worked on a
project with Scott Walker and Deb Turley examining the effects of elk browsing
on mountain mahogany on the north slope of the Uintah Mountains, just west of
Flaming Gorge. Scott and I had discussed elk herbivory on various
occasions after that summer, mostly related to his MS work on aspen recruitment
in/out of exclosures in the
Manti-LaSal
National Forest. He had also had discussions with Robert Campbell at
the
Fishlake National Forest office in Richfield, UT about aspen stands (clones)
that were clobbered by elk yet very nearby were other aspen stands that seemed
to be growing quite well. Why were some aspen stands hammered and others were
not? Because an elk ranch (Kane
Valley Elk Ranch) existed in the northwest side of Ephraim, Scott suggested
we could perform some feeding experiments with the captive elk there. We (Jason
Vernon, the new director of the
Great Basin Research
Center) did that and found that elk preferred some aspen genotypes over
other aspen genotypes. Elk feeding preference depended on the foliar phenolic
glycoside concentration. Above about 15% phenolic glycoside concentration, elk
feeding decreased rapidly.
Finally, I am interested in continuing work with mycorrhizal fungi, herbivores and examining plant functional traits, most recently, in California buckeyes (Aesculus californica).
I am interested in nature photography, being outside with my family, reading, science & religion, lichens and cycling.
Last updated: 2/22/2008