Month: June 2019

Categories
Disease New Publications News Research

Researchers find that probiotic bacteria reduces the impact of white-nose syndrome in bats

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

From VT News | June 26, 2019

Header image: A little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) covered in the fungus, P. destructans, which causes white-nose syndrome. Photo credit Joseph Hoyt.

It is widely accepted that probiotic bacteria are beneficial to human health, but what if they could also be used to reduce wildlife disease and conserve biodiversity?

Researchers from Virginia Tech and UC Santa Cruz did just that in a field trial on the effect of probiotic bacteria on white-nose syndrome in bat populations. They found that it reduces the impact of the disease about five-fold.

These findings were published recently in Scientific Reports.

Bats are dominant night-time insect predators that can greatly benefit agriculture, but their populations are being decimated by the fungal disease called white-nose syndrome.

White-nose syndrome has destroyed bat populations across Eastern North America, and it shows no signs of stopping as it spreads westward.

“Our results suggest that the probiotic bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens, is a useful tool for reducing white-nose syndrome impacts on bat populations, particularly if combined with other management tools,” said Joseph Hoyt, a research scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.

“With the severity of white-nose syndrome declines and facing the potential extinction of some species, it’s essential that we consider out-of-the-box solutions to reducing population impacts. Given the notorious difficulty of treating fungal infections in mammals, probiotics are a sensible solution for reducing fungal burdens of animals,” said Kate Langwig, the second author of this paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science and an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center.

White-nose syndrome is a disease that spreads in the winter and causes bats to leave their roosts during hibernation. The fungus, which kills the bats over several months, depletes the bats’ fat stores, forcing them to expend even more energy on finding food that isn’t available during the harsh winter. Eventually, most bats die of starvation or exposure to the cold.

Researchers are seeing declines that are rendering some bat species functionally extinct. Specifically, the little brown bat, Northern long-eared bat, Indiana bat, and the tri-colored bat populations have declined by 70 to 99 percent across 44 states since 2006.

“Little brown bats were not an uncommon species prior to the emergence of this disease. It would be like losing robins from the bird community. These are abundant backyard species that you would see at nighttime that have essentially been removed,” Hoyt said.

One species, the Northern long-eared bat, has been extirpated from most of its range by white-nose syndrome. “As far as mainland populations go, if we see a single bat all winter – that’s a lot,” Hoyt said. “At this point, it may be too late for that species in terms of trying save it. I think its demise happened so quickly that it was not something that anyone could respond to fast enough.”

Populations of little brown bats, Northern long-eared bats, tri-colored bats, and the big brown bats were sampled for the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens to make sure similar bacteria were naturally present before introducing a higher dosage in the experimental treatment.

In an abandoned mine in Wisconsin, Hoyt and his research team tested the efficacy of P. fluorescens in two simultaneous experiments with caged and free-flying little brown bats. All the bats were tagged with a passive integrated transponder (PIT), which allowed researchers to identify and keep track of when individual bats emerged from the mine.

The purpose of doing the free-flying experiment was to conduct a natural field trial, where bats can move freely and interact with the environment the way that they normally would. Researchers found that measuring the amount of pathogen associated with each bat helped them to better predict the bat’s survival time. Interestingly, researchers also saw that treatment with P. fluorescens lengthened the amount of time that bats stayed in the mine.

“Our treatment delayed emergence time, which would put more bats emerging during spring-time when there are insects available for them to eat, allowing them to recover from the disease,” Hoyt said.

The caged experiment was meant to counteract the uncertainty of the free-flying experiment by keeping them in a controlled area, while providing researchers key information about how or why they died. However, Hoyt said that, in general, bats are challenging to work with.

“In our caged experiment, there were some individuals that got really sick and likely influenced, or biased, our survival estimates for other individuals.” In the end, the researchers found that the amount of fat that a bat had was the only important factor in predicting their survival in the cage trial, not how infected they were.

In the free-flying experiment, their controls had only 10 percent survivability while their treatment group had 50 percent. Hoyt and his team are thinking of ways that the probiotic treatment can be developed to further increase survival. Currently, researchers are testing to see if pairing probiotics with other forms of treatment can increase survival even more.

This is one of the first published papers that show that a probiotic can reduce the impact of pathogens on wildlife. “It’s some potential hope that with the right organism and by tinkering around with different techniques, we can start to develop things similar to what has been done with humans,” Hoyt said.

As far as what you can do to help the bats, there are many ways to be “bat-friendly.” For instance, there are guidelines that you can follow that will help reduce the impact that we have on bats. Putting up bat-boxes, protecting waterways, and changing landscaping to provide insects for bats are good places to start.

In addition to Hoyt and Langwig, who are both affiliated faculty members of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, the coauthors of the paper include Paul White, Heather Kaarakka, and Jennifer Redell at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Winifred Frick at Bat Conservation International and UC Santa Cruz; Katy Parise and Jeffrey Foster at the University of New Hampshire; and Marm Kilpatrick at UC Santa Cruz.

–Written by Kendall Daniels

[hr_shadow]

CONTACT:

Kristin Rose

(540) 231-6614

[hr][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Climate Change Global Change Ideas News Research Science Communication

Marc Stern facilitates local solutions to global climate challenges

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

From VT News | June 26, 2019
With extreme environmental events, such as drought, coastal and river flooding, and wildfires, increasing in frequency, there is an urgent need to develop strategies that will reduce negative outcomes.

A National Science Foundation grant will help Professor Marc Stern of the College of Natural Resources and Environment study and develop workshops that will empower local communities to take action against climate challenges.

“This isn’t about experts coming in to tell a community they need to do x, y, and z,” Stern explained. “Instead, we’re trying to give communities planning tools and strategies so they can go ahead and do the work that needs to be done.”

The first component of Stern’s project is to survey experts who facilitate workshops that focus on using climate-relevant science to address a broad range of challenges. The project will integrate those strategies with a survey of the experiences of workshop participants. This two-step process will provide a holistic view of what is successful in these workshops and identify potential blind spots for reaching audiences and promoting positive change.

From those findings, the second component is to test strategies in a series of climate adaptation workshops around the U.S. These field tests of effective practices will enable the researchers and workshop facilitators to further refine their understanding of how learning takes place in informal learning environments. The workshops will focus on empowering people to take local action to address a worldwide concern.

“If environmental concerns are framed exclusively as a global challenge, it’s easy to brush them off as something too big to take on,” Stern said. “When you instead make it local — when you say, ‘here’s a community, here’s what’s happening, here’s what’s predicted, so let’s talk about it’ — that makes the challenge manageable. The global side, and the politics surrounding it, becomes a secondary issue; rather, you’re concerned that every time it rains your town has a flood, and you start thinking about what to do about it.”

In order for these workshops to successfully reach and resonate with the intended local audiences, Stern notes that it is crucial that the workshops be developed to engender trust between experts and participants so that successful collaboration can happen.

“We’ve done a lot of research around how trust can be developed in collaborative settings, which we hope to translate to facilitation techniques that can lead to a sense of empowerment and participation. We want participants to leave these workshops with a sense that they can solve these challenges.”

The project is a collaboration between Virginia Tech and EcoAdapt, a nonprofit dedicated to helping governments, organizations, and individuals develop climate change adaptations to make communities better prepared and protected from environmental challenges.

For Stern, a faculty member in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, the project is a chance to make a lasting change in the world.

“I look for projects where I can make an on-the-ground, tangible difference, and this is an obvious place to do that,” Stern said. “If we can help even one of these communities on a positive path toward dealing with climate challenges by adapting their policies and planning efforts, that impact would be well worth the effort.”

The continuous grant from the National Science Foundation will run through 2023.

[hr_shadow]

CONTACT:

Krista Timney

540-231-6157

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Blog IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Invasive Species Student Spotlight

IGC fellows initiate an interdisciplinary effort to tackle invasive species

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

June 22, 2019

Written by IGC Fellows Hye-jeong Seo, Becky Fletcher, Vasiliy Lakoba, Rachel Brooks, Ariel Heminger, Lauren Maynard

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”dotted”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Nature’s special issue about interdisciplinarity in 2015 referred to interdisciplinary research as an attempt to save the world by solving the grand challenges we are facing, such as energy, water, and climate (Nature News, 2015). Although saving the world might be too ambitious of a goal, our group of six IGC fellows from diverse disciplines gave it a shot! Our aim was to save Virginia’s natural and economic resources by adding a harmful invasive plant to Virginia’s noxious weeds list for better regulation. We completed a Virginia Noxious Weed Assessment Tool evaluating non-native plants for their environmental and economic impact. The process for the noxious weed application consists of collecting and summarizing existing scientific knowledge about a target plant (in our case, Asian lady’s thumb) to determine the ecological and economic impact of the plant. The completed application is then submitted to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services who decide whether or not to recommend that the plant be listed as a noxious weed in Virginia (See our blog titled “IGC Fellows get first-hand experience arbitrating scientific knowledge for policymakers” for more information).

The noxious weed application requires interdisciplinary efforts as its two main parts – completing a form and getting it reviewed by Noxious Weeds Advisory Committee – are all about linking ecological knowledge to socioeconomic aspects. Although an assessment mainly needs plant science to understand the ecology of target species, information influences policy and management decisions is not limited to scientific knowledge. Conservation decision-making is a “tournament of value” where diverse participants, including landowners, state government, natural and social scientists in the case of listing noxious weeds, construct pertinent information and negotiate competing values relevant to policy actions and allocation of resources (Robertson & Hull, 2001). By going through the process, our group learned the key factors for the successful interdisciplinary project: Communication, Delegation, and Trust.

Communication

Members of our group have varying levels of knowledge about noxious weeds with diverse disciplinary backgrounds from natural sciences to social sciences. Thus, our first step as an interdisciplinary team was to reach a level of shared understanding about what types and depth of knowledge the noxious weed assessment tool requires and how we could collect and interpret that information to complete the assessment form. We created a shared Google document that contains all the basic information about noxious weed application, including the state’s relevant webpages, both a blank and filled out sample form of the assessment tool, and a spreadsheet helping to calculate whether a candidate species qualifies. This document became a go-to page to revisit whenever there is any confusion or ambiguity regarding the process. As we referenced terminologies and information from the Google document when we needed to communicate or clarify, it constructed a common language across disciplines.

Delegation

We carefully delegated a leading role of each part to the best of effectiveness. Rachel, who has the experience of submitting the noxious weed application before, took a leadership role. She generated the Google document mentioned above and shared detailed information about her previous experience. With her guidance, we broke down the process into searching the literature, reviewing papers individually, putting the information together, arranging and interpreting the collective information to answer the questionnaire in the noxious weed form, and examining the document before submission.

Concurrently, Hye-jeong reviewed the literature on interdisciplinary team-building to reflect our team’s current status and develop future strategies, mainly focused on how to integrate social and natural sciences in a multidisciplinary project as she herself has a social science background. One of the issues often raised about interdisciplinary collaborations is that social scientists mostly play a service role rather than substantially contribute to knowledge production because of disciplinary barriers and hard-soft science dichotomy. However, biological problems, such as invasive species, not only have impacts on ecosystems, they also have substantial human impacts, and require broader perspectives on social systems and human dimensions to address those problems (Freudenburg & Gramling, 2002). As such, we designed our process to involve all team members from different disciplines equally in the paper review and information gathering tasks. This provided us the perfect opportunity to become conversant with other disciplines and share different views on interpreting science papers and research results.

We delegated the literature search task to Vasiliy and Ariel from the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences as they have relevant knowledge about plant science. After papers pertinent to the target plant were collected through literature search by two of them, we collectively started to review papers assigned to each member and pull out information helping to fill out the noxious weed form. We put the information from literature together into the application shared via Google Drive and communicated by commenting on the document. Unlike the literature search part where we delegated the task to the members whose backgrounds are most pertinent to the task, arrangement and interpretation task was delegated to Becky and Lauren from two different science disciplines, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences and Biological Sciences, with the purpose of making the result more universally acceptable across the various disciplines. The process went effectively as each member was not only aware of what tasks they were doing but also understood why those tasks were delegated to them.

Trust

In addition to the carefully delegated tasks, trust also plays a vital role throughout the project. Delegation inevitably requires trust as it is impossible to micro-manage everything each of the group members is doing. For instance, we could have searched and reviewed papers individually and filled out the form by discussing the information line by line together instead of delegating the tasks if we felt we could not trust each other. However, that obviously would have been an inefficient and time-consuming way compared to what we have done. A field guide for collaboration and team science published by National Institutes of Health emphasizes the importance calculus-based trust in interdisciplinary team-building, which is fostered by “having process and procedures in place that guides behavior and actions” (Bennett, Gadlin, & Levine-Finley, 2010). We fostered the calculus-based trust among group members by defining the specific role of each person, yet developing shared an understanding of the process and keeping the procedures open via shared google docs tracking revisions and edits.

Working as an interdisciplinary team is easier said than done, but it is worth trying to cross the disciplinary boundaries. By working together, our noxious weed application integrated not only ample scientific information but also diverse perspectives and values that help to decide whether or not to put resources and efforts into removing invasive species. We believe that this is a small but important step towards solving big problems that the world is facing.

[hr]

Reference

Bennett, LM, Gadlin, H., & Levine-Finley, S. (2010). Collaboration & team science: A Field Guide. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health.

Freudenburg, W. R., & Gramling, R. (2002). Scientific expertise and natural resource decisions: social science participation on interdisciplinary scientific committees. Social Science Quarterly, 83(1), 119-136.

Robertson, D. P., & Hull, R. B. (2001). Beyond biology: toward a more public ecology for conservation. Conservation Biology, 15(4), 970-979.

Why interdisciplinary research matters (2015). Nature News, 525(7569), 305.

 

[hr_shadow]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Climate Change Drinking water Ideas New Publications Pollution Science Communication Water

Human domination of the global water cycle absent from depictions and perceptions

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

From Science Daily | June 10, 2019

Pictures of the earth’s water cycle used in education and research throughout the world are in urgent need of updating to show the effects of human interference, according to new analysis by an international team of hydrology experts.

Leaving humans out of the picture, the researchers argue, contributes to a basic lack of awareness of how humans relate to water on Earth — and a false sense of security about future availability of this essential and scarce resource.

The team has drawn up a new set of diagrams to promote better understanding of how our water cycle works in the 21st century. These new diagrams show human interference in nearly all parts of the cycle.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, with an additional comment in Nature, was carried out by a large team of experts from Brigham Young University and Michigan State University in the US and the University of Birmingham in the UK, along with partners in the US, France, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden.

It showed that, in a sample of more than 450 water cycle diagrams in textbooks, scientific literature and online, 85 per cent showed no human interaction at all with the water cycle, and only 2 per cent of the images made any attempt to connect the cycle with climate change or water pollution.

In addition, nearly all the examples studied depicted verdant landscapes, with mild climates and abundant freshwater — usually with only a single river basin.

The researchers argue there is an urgent need to challenge this misrepresentation and promote a more accurate and sophisticated understanding of the cycle and how it works in the 21st century. This is crucial if society is to be able to achieve global solutions to the world’s water crisis.

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”30553″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]

“The water cycle diagram is a central icon of hydro science, but misrepresenting the ways in which humans have influenced this cycle diminishes our awareness of the looming global water crisis,” says Professor David Hannah, UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

“By leaving out climate change, human consumption, and changes in land use we are, in effect, creating large gaps in understanding and perception among the public and also among some scientists.”

The new diagrams drawn up by the team show a more complex picture that includes elements such as meltwater from glaciers, flood damage caused by land use changes, pollution and sea level rises.

Professor Stefan Krause, Head of the Birmingham Water Council states: “For the first time, the new water cycle diagram adequately reflects the importance of not just quantities of water but also water quality and pollution as key criteria for assessing water resources.”

Professor Ben Abbott, from Brigham Young University, is lead author on the paper: “Every scientific diagram involves compromises and distortions, but what we found with the water cycle was widespread exclusion of a central concept. You can’t understand water in the 21st century without including humans.”

“Other scientific disciplines have done a good job depicting how humans now dominate many aspects of the Earth system. It’s hard to find a diagram of the carbon or nitrogen cycle that doesn’t show factories and fertilizers. However, our drawings of the water cycle are stuck in the 17th century.”

“Better drawings of the water cycle won’t solve the global water crisis on their own, but they could improve awareness of how local water use and climate change have global consequences.”

 

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Accolades Faculty Spotlight

GCC advisory committee service transitions to four new members

June 14, 2019

Several Global Change Center faculty members have just completed their multi-year terms on the GCC advisory committee. Please join us in sharing appreciation toward Jeff Walters, Dana Hawley, Mark Barrow, and Emmanuel Frimpong for their time and energy providing sound and balanced guidance as part of this important committee. New additions to the advisory committee include: Kendra Sewall, Brian Romans, Brian Badgley, and Kelly Cobourn – welcome aboard!!

[hr]

Categories
Blog IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Invasive Species Student Spotlight

IGC Fellows get first-hand experience arbitrating scientific knowledge for policymakers

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

June 10, 2019

Written by IGC Fellows Rachel Brooks, Hye-jeong Seo, Ariel Heminger, Becky Fletcher, Lauren Maynard, Vasiliy Lakoba

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) regulates harmful plants, or “noxious weeds”, in our state (Code of Virginia, Title 3.2 Subtitle I, Chapter 8). Many of these harmful plants are also invasive species — a part of global change which is accelerating hand-in-hand with climate change and habitat degradation1. Once regulated, the movement of these species is only possible with a permit. Currently, there are only 8 species listed as noxious in Virginia (a small number, especially when compared to California’s 200+ listed noxious weeds).

Virginia regulation requires these species to be non-native and not commercially propagated in Virginia, but how else is this list determined?

It turns out that proposals for noxious weeds can be submitted by anyone (yes, even you can do it!) by completing a questionnaire called the “Noxious Weed Assessment Tool.” This 23-question application ultimately requires processing all current scientific knowledge regarding a plant (similar to a literature review you might be more familiar with) into categories relevant to policymakers. These categories include the plant’s ecological impact, current distribution and abundance, changes in distribution and abundance, economic impacts, and management difficulty.

When we (a group of six IGC Fellows) became aware of the transparency and accessibility of this process, we decided to use this opportunity to apply what we’ve learned so far in the IGC to the “real world.” We partnered with Blue Ridge PRISM, a Virginia non-profit, that has been coordinating efforts to submit noxious weed applications (including applications for the tree-of-heaven Ailanthus altissima and autumn olive Elaeagnus umbellata). They asked that we help complete the application for the non-native plant Persicaria longiseta (Bruijn) Kitagawa, commonly known as the bristly lady’s thumb.

A dense stand of bristly lady’s-thumb (Persicaria longiseta), an abundant introduced plant found throughout Virginia (Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org).

First, we identified all taxonomic synonyms of our plant species and compiled the latest scientific literature (note: having access to scientific publications is a must, and those unassociated with a university likely would face a large paywall and have difficulties successfully filling out this application). Second, we started to process the information and fill out the application form. We soon discovered that these applications can only be thoroughly completed if there is a clear and detailed understanding of a plant’s ecological, economic, and societal impacts. If the research on a species is limited, it is difficult to answer all the questions. Unfortunately for our application, but fortunately for honest science arbitration, there are large gaps in our understanding of this species’ economic impact, leaving a handful of these questions unanswerable (for now).

Regardless of the questions that were unanswerable, we were able to gain insights into the noxious weed listing process and submit our application to VDACS for review. After VDACS receives and confirms that this paperwork is complete, the application is reviewed by Virginia’s Noxious Weed Advisory Committee, an ad-hoc group that includes individuals from universities (including GCC’s Dr. Jacob Barney, who provided us with insights into this process), government agencies, the VA Farm Bureau, and other interest groups. Based on the provided information, this group determines if they support or reject listing the species as noxious, and makes a recommendation to the VA Commissioner of Agriculture, who ultimately has the final say. The application then makes its slow journey (~2 years, including a public comment period) to the governor’s desk to be signed into regulation.

The road to getting a species listed as “noxious” in Virginia can be initiated by anyone but has to be based on available and extensive scientific literature. So, for all of those conducting research that involves a non-native species, remember that your work can have important and long-lasting impacts in all sorts of unexpected places, including helping policymakers determine if a species should be considered “noxious” in their jurisdiction.

[hr]

1 Bradley, B. A., Blumenthal, D. M., Wilcove, D. S., & Ziska, L. H. (2010). Predicting plant invasions in an era of global change. Trends in ecology & evolution, 25(5), 310-318.

[hr_shadow][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
New Publications News Research Water

Virginia Tech researchers discover connection between symbiotic worms and the magnetic orientation of crayfish

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

From VT News | June 6, 2019

Header image: New River crayfish, Cambarus chasmodactylus. Photo courtesy of James Skelton.

From migratory birds to newly hatched turtles making their way to the sea, studies have shown that animals use the Earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves.

Crayfish are no different. However, their use of magnetic cues is influenced by the number of symbiotic worms that live on the crustaceans’ bodies.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that crayfish can detect and respond to the earth’s magnetic field. What I think makes this study really unique is that it is the first to study the effect of symbionts on magnetoreception,” said Bryan Brown, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.

Brown studies large-scale aquatic community ecology. His work focuses on how multiple species interact in aquatic habitats and how those interactions are altered by changing environmental conditions. Brown has studied crayfish symbiosis for more than 20 years; last year, he completed a 17-day kayaking trip to assess invasive crayfish species.

In a study published in Scientific Reports, Brown and a team of researchers from Virginia Tech looked at the connection between symbionts and crayfish’s ability to magnetically orient themselves.

The researchers found that ectosymbionts — species that live on the outside of the host’s body and have mutually beneficial relationships with their hosts — affect a crayfish’s use of the Earth’s magnetic field as a directional reference.

Lukas Landler and James Skelton, both Ph.D. students who graduated in 2015 from the Department of Biological Sciences, combined their areas of expertise to develop this study. Landler, who earned his Ph.D. under John Phillips, studied the neuronal basis of magnetoreception, while Skelton, one of Brown’s Ph.D. students, studied the interspecific relationships in aquatic macroinvertebrate species. Phillips, a professor in the same department, specializes in magnetic field detection and sensory ecology.

James Skelton and Lukas Landler
James Skelton (left) and Lukas Landler (right) collecting crayfish on Sinking Creek in Newport, Virginia. Photo courtesy of James Skelton.

“Magnetoreception is one of the more mysterious things about animals, because nobody fully knows how that mechanism works,” said Brown, who is also an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, housed within the Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

It is well established that animals use a variety of directional cues, including sun position, star patterns, polarized skylight, and the Earth’s magnetic field to guide their movements. What is less understood is why a wide variety of animals, when not actively moving, spontaneously align themselves along roughly the north-south axis relative to the magnetic field.

Worms and crayfish live in symbiosis with one another — the worms feed on parasites and keep the crayfish’s exoskeleton clean, especially its gills. In exchange, the worms get food, protection, and access to favorable habitat. The natural density of worms found on crayfish tends to be in the moderate range, which is most beneficial for the crayfish.

Crayfish with symbiotic worm on its head.
Crayfish with symbiotic worm on its head. Photo courtesy of Bryan Brown.

“Our previous work has shown that along the gradient from no worms to high density, the relationship between host and ectosymbionts goes from mutualism to parasitism,” Brown said. “In parallel with this change in the relationship between crayfish hosts and worms, the response of crayfish to the magnetic field goes from quadramodal alignment to bimodal alignment to a random distribution as the density of worms increases.”

Quadramodal alignment is consistent with systematic search of the area surrounding a fixed reference point to which the searching individual returns after each foray.  Consistent with the quadramodal response being part of an “active” response, crayfish without ectosymbionts showed significantly higher levels of activity than those in the other two groups. In contrast, bimodal alignment is indicative of a resting state in which standardizing the “projection” of the outside world onto the visual system may make it easier for the crayfish to detect and identify novel features of its surroundings. For example, this would help the crayfish lying in wait under the edge of a rock to distinguish between the approach of a potential predator versus that of potential prey, a distinction critical to the crayfish’s survival that must be made before deciding whether or not to leave the safety of its refuge.

“Symbioses are really complicated. To make sense of them, ecologists tend to pigeonhole them into familiar little boxes like ‘cleaning symbiosis.’ But if we stop there, some fascinating and important nuances are lost. I love this study because it shows that these worms don’t just clean crayfish. At higher densities the worms become a little annoying, and being annoying has real effects on how crayfish behave, which stimuli they respond to, and perhaps how well they can find their way home. It shows just how intimate and complex these interactions really are,” Skelton said.

At high densities, ectosymbionts can injure the crayfish, feeding on gill tissue when all the organic matter that worms normally consume has been removed by other worms. As a consequence, the researchers speculate that at high densities of ectosymbionts, crayfish may seek out a safe refuge or burrow where they can safely groom to reduce the worm population. If so, visual features may be more useful than the magnetic field in finding the entrance. However, further research is clearly needed to pin down how the ectosymbionts directly influence the crayfish’s behaviors.

“As of now, there are very few conservation efforts directed at symbiotic organisms,” Brown said. “Every organism has symbionts; the more we know about them, the more important they appear to be.”

This study furthers the scientific understanding of the evolutionary forces shaping sensory systems, how symbionts influence a host’s response to magnetic cues, and how symbiotic interactions affects the host’s and ectosymbiont’s fitness.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the Global Change Center (formerly Organismal Biology and Ecology) Seed Grant, and the Virginia Tech Graduate Research and Development Program.

-Written by Rasha Aridi

Related story:

Researcher embarks on kayaking trip to assess invasive crayfish species

[hr_shadow]

CONTACT:

Kristin Rose

(540) 231-6614

[hr][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
biweekly update

Biweekly Update – June 4, 2019

Biweekly Update – June 4, 2019

New Announcements:

1.    Biweekly Update Submission form – Please use this form for submitting future biweekly update items. Due to staffing limitations through the summer of 2019, submissions sent through email could be missed.

2.    Master Gardener College Updates: September 19-22, 2019, Norfolk, Virginia

a)    Registration is open! View our registration information page. For more information on booking your accommodations (scroll down to “Accommodation Costs”).

b)    Room block information available! Book your room at The Main now!

3.    Master Gardener Scholarship for 2019– Deadline for applications August 9th

a.     (VMGA) Diane Relf Master Gardener College Scholarship Application Form

b.    Scholarship Application Process

c.     Scholarship Nomination Guidelines

d.    Scholarship Nomination Rules and Guidelines

4.    Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive pest insect– found in Winchester, Va- January 2018

a.     For information regarding the quarantine please see attached flyer

5.    Get to Know Insects Series– at the Greensville/Emporia Extension Office- June 24, 2019

a. Beneficial Insects- Learn about beneficial insects and pollinators including native bees and butterflies. Learn what to do and what to plant to attract them. This class is free.

b. Registration closes 5 business days prior to the class.

Call (434) 348-4223 to sign up.

6.    Online Plant ID Classes– from Longwood Gardens and NC State- July 8th- October 31st

a.     Reduced fee for Extension Professionals so you can brush up on your plant ID skills and preview the classes to determine if they will be useful as advanced training opportunities for your volunteers.

                                              i.     Discount Code for Extension Master Gardener Volunteers & Master Naturalists – MASTER ($98 fee) = $97 discount

                                             ii.     Discount Code for Extension Professionals – AGENT ($50 fee) = $145 discount

b.    Course instructor, Preston Montague, is a landscape designer, educator and artist.  He has a bachelor's degree in horticulture and a master’s degree in landscape architecture, both from NC State.  He has experience teaching at NC State, NC A & T, and many botanical gardens in the region.

7.    The American Horticultural Society’s National Children & Youth Garden Symposium- University of Wisconsin, Madison in Madison, Wisconsin – July 10th-13th

May Announcements:

1.    2019 Tree and Shrub Identification Series – Stafford, VA – May 2-June 6, 2019

2.    2019 Strengthening your Facilitation Skills Trainings – May 9 – July 18

3.    Piedmont Master Gardeners Through the Garden Gate – Charlottesville-Albemarle County – May 11-September 1

4.    eXtension Good and Bad bugs webinar series – Feb 1 – Dec 6, 2019

June Announcements:

5.    Strategic & Project Planning: Becoming Agents of Change – June 5 – September 11, 2019

6.    Celebrate Pollinator Weed with the Capital Naturalist! – Bristow, VA – June 8, 2019

7.    NC State Extension Master Gardener College – Raleigh, NC – June 6 – 9, 2019

8.    Are you attending International Master Gardener College 2019 in Valley Forge, PA June 17-21? Let VMGA know!

9.     Monticello | UVA 23rd Annual Historic Landscape Institute, “Preserving Jefferson’s Gardens and Landscapes” – June 23-28, 2019

a.     This one-week course uses Monticello and the University of Virginia as outdoor classrooms to study historic landscape preservation.

b.    Preserving Jefferson’s Gardens and Landscapes Flyer

 

 

July Announcements:

10. NRV Garden Tour – Blacksburg/Christiansburg, VA – July 6, 2019

a.     9 am until 5 pm

Featuring 7 gardens in the Blacksburg/Christiansburg area

Tickets on sale at local libraries – June 1

11. Wildlife Gardening with the Humane Gardener – Bristow, VA – July 13, 2019

12.  Cullowhee Native Plant Conference – Western Carolina University – July 17-20, 2019

October Announcements:

13. Save the Date: Protecting Pollinators in Urban Landscapes – Cincinnati, Ohio – October 7-9, 2019

Other Announcements:

14. Follow the State Office on social media:

●     Facebook

●     Instagram

●     YouTube

15.  Resources for fertilization of lawns and for those involved with Healthy Virginia Lawns programming  

16. Do you have questions coming in to your Extension Master Gardener program and need to find some answers? Extension Search Resources for EMG Questions

17. Registration now open for online Plant Identification Classes by Longwood Gardens and NC State – Click Here

18. An update from National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture: 2018 accomplishments letter

19. Gardeners’ Survey – AmpleHarvest.org

20. Visit the VCE Lawn and Garden Calendar!

21. Every Kid in a Park Program

c)    Information from Chad Proudfoot, 4H: “The program is very simple: every 4th grade student (or home school equivalent) in the United States is entitled to get one Every Kid in a Park pass which lasts through August 31 of the school year.”

Categories
Biodiversity Educational Outreach GSO Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Outreach Science Communication

Backyard Biodiversity Bonanza: An IGC outreach event

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Saturday, June 1, 2019:

Interfaces of Global Change graduate students hosted a science outreach day at 2351 Glade Road in Blacksburg, VA. The afternoon exhibition titled “Backyard Biodiversity Bonanza” focused on sharing information with the public for promoting biodiversity conservation for birds, bees and native plants in backyard habitats.

IGC Fellow, Ben Vernasco, spearheaded the planning for the outreach event. He shared information about bird houses, the types of boxes that can be built (wood duck, bluebird/chickadee/tree swallow, owl boxes) and examples of building plans. Bird coloring sheets for kids were available as handouts, in addition to information about common yard birds and tips to promote nesting. IGC Fellow, Jessica Hernandez, was also on-site to talk about her research with tree swallows, with nest boxes on display!

IGC Fellow and IGC GSO Outreach Committee Chair, Vasiliy Lakoba, led a table featuring native plants beneficial to wildlife and pollinators. This included a hands-on comparison display of commonly planted non-natives along with great native plant alternatives for landscaping around the home and town. Free sunflower seedlings were also available for participants to take home!

Chris McCullough, a graduate student in VT’s School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, provided information about pollinator conservation. A bee collection display allowed participants to see different types of bees up close, and there was also a bee house to check out.

Kudos to these students for sharing both their science and conservation stewardship information with the local community!! [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDYSUyMGRhdGEtZmxpY2tyLWVtYmVkJTNEJTIydHJ1ZSUyMiUyMCUyMGhyZWYlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5mbGlja3IuY29tJTJGcGhvdG9zJTJGZ2xvYmFsY2hhbmdldnQlMkZhbGJ1bXMlMkY3MjE1NzcwOTAzMjk4NDY4NiUyMiUyMHRpdGxlJTNEJTIySUdDJTIwT3V0cmVhY2glM0ElMjBCYWNreWFyZCUyMEJpb2RpdmVyc2l0eSUyMEJvbmFuemElMjIlM0UlM0NpbWclMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRmxpdmUuc3RhdGljZmxpY2tyLmNvbSUyRjY1NTM1JTJGNDgwNDI5OTcyNTZfODA3MzM2MDY5YV96LmpwZyUyMiUyMHdpZHRoJTNEJTIyNjQwJTIyJTIwaGVpZ2h0JTNEJTIyNDI3JTIyJTIwYWx0JTNEJTIySUdDJTIwT3V0cmVhY2glM0ElMjBCYWNreWFyZCUyMEJpb2RpdmVyc2l0eSUyMEJvbmFuemElMjIlM0UlM0MlMkZhJTNFJTNDc2NyaXB0JTIwYXN5bmMlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjIlMkYlMkZlbWJlZHIuZmxpY2tyLmNvbSUyRmFzc2V0cyUyRmNsaWVudC1jb2RlLmpzJTIyJTIwY2hhcnNldCUzRCUyMnV0Zi04JTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGc2NyaXB0JTNF[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Accolades

Nine GCC faculty earn Tenure and/or Promotion in 2019

Congratulations to nine Global Change Center affiliated faculty members who have earned tenure and promotion in June 2019 as a result of their outstanding achievements in teaching, research, and service. Tenure and promotion marks an important milestone in their academic careers, so please join us in congratulating our colleagues.

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved the following promotions and tenure:
Promotion to associate professor with tenure:

Bryan Badgley, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Cayelan Carey, biological sciences

Leandro Castello, fish and wildlife conservation

Kelly Cobourn, forest resources and environmental conservation

Megan O’Rourke, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

R. Quinn Thomas, forest resources and environmental conservation

Kendra Sewall, biological sciences

Promotion to professor:

Emmanuel Frimpong, fish and wildlife conservation

Dana Hawley, biological sciences

[hr]