Education

Personal History

I was born in Brisbane, Australia on June 2, 1977. My family moved to California when I was 2 years old, and then to West Virginia a year later. I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I learned a special fondness for the Appalachian mountains. I went to college thinking that I wanted to study veterinary medicine, then later decided that I actually wanted to study film and biology in order to make nature documentaries. As it turns out, I was much more interested in ecology and evolution, and learned as much as I could. I graduated in 1999, and spent the next year working as a field assistant studying birds and traveling in central New York, Venezuela, Australia, South Africa, China and Mongolia. In August of 2000, I began my Ph.D. in Population Biology at the University of California, Davis. My dissertation investigated the effects of 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) as resource pulses. I began a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California in Santa Barbara in 2006, and then returned to the University of California, Davis as an Assistant Professor in 2009. I am currently investigating how resource pulses, disturbance events and the timing of species interactions affect ecological communities.

Favorite Quotes

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." John Muir

"Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters." St. Benard of Clairvaux

"A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world." John le Carré

"Theories have four stages of acceptance: i) this is worthless nonsense; ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view, iii) this is true, but quite unimportant; iv) I always said so." J.B.S. Haldane

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel J. Boorstin

"A person can always find a career in a calling, but it is far more difficult later in life to find a calling in a career." David W. Orr

"I have a commonplace book for facts, and another for poetry, but I find it difficult to preserve the vague distinction which I had in mind, for the most interesting and beautiful facts are so much more poetry and that is their success. They are translated from earth to heaven. I see that if my facts were sufficiently vital and significant - perhaps transmuted into the the substance of the human mind - I should need but one book of poetry to contain them all." Henry David Thoreau

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki

"Dare to be naïve." Buckminster Fuller

"I love fools' experiments. I am always making them." Charles Darwin

"A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Trust thyself." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall." Ray Bradbury

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do." Kahlil Gibran

"1. Find a subject you care about. 2. Do not ramble, though. 3. Keep it simple. 4. Have the guts to cut. 5. Sound like yourself. 6. Say what you mean to say. 7. Pity the readers. " Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Research

I am interested in how species interactions change over time. I study ecology at multiple time scales, including community responses to extreme events, changes in species interactions over ontogeny, and the effects of climate change on the timing of species interactions. I am particularly interested in understanding how species interactions change when communities are strongly perturbed, and seek to develop a general framework to understand when ecosystems show resilience and when they don’t. In general, I am interested in how natural communities combine complex, coordinated and changing interactions over time.

My research aims to integrate multiple perspectives in order to tackle emerging questions in complex systems. I attempt to draw insights from multiple avenues of inquiry, including field-based investigations in a wide range of ecosystems. I often seek to combine behavioral, population, community and ecosystem ecology to study a wide range of species interactions, including plant-herbivore, soil-plant, predator-prey, plant-pollinator, mutualistic and competitive interactions.

A few of my current projects:

1) How is climate change affecting the phenology and ontogeny of species interactions?

On a the global scale, climate change is causing most seasonal life-history events to occur earlier than they have in the historical past. However, within specific communities, individual species often show variable responses to climate change. While most species are advancing their phonologies to varying degrees, some show little phenological change, and others show delayed phonologies. As a result, climate change is altering the relative timing of species interactions in many communities. I’m interested in understanding the causes and consequences of these changes for a) the seasonal assembly of insect communities surrounding California milkweeds and b) the foraging interactions of trapnesting bees and wasps.

2) How do storms affect island communities though aboveground and belowground pathways?

Each year, Atlantic hurricanes and storms cause high winds, wave action and seawater inundation on the small islands of the Caribbean. While all islands experience storm disturbance, the frequency and intensity of these disturbances varies widely. I’ve been using a combination of experimental and observational methods to investigate how chronic and catastrophic disturbances regimes affect the physical and chemical leaf traits relevant to herbivory on the common buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus).

In addition to their direct disturbancs, these storms also push floating seaweed from the Sargasso Sea towards the islands of the Bahamas. These inputs of marine-derived biomass are often substantially pulsed subsidies. Since 2006, I’ve been working with David Spiller, Thomas Schoener, Jonah Piovia-Scott, Amber Wright, Gaku Takimoto and others to investigate the ecological effects of this pulsed subsidy on island communities. We’ve found that seaweed pulses affect island foodwebs through both aboveground and belowground pathways, with combined effects on detritivores, plants, herbivores and predators.

3) How do communities and consumers respond to pulsed resources?

Following up previous field-based experimental studies, I have became interested in trying to understand whether there are general patterns among the diversity of pulsed resource phenomena in nature. Are there any characteristics of the resource pulse, the consumer or the ecosystem that could allow one to predict important aspects of the resource pulse-consumer interaction? Are we likely to observe any general patterns among a collection of exceptional events? I’ve been collaborating with Kyle Edwards, Jarrett Byrnes, Justin Bastow, Amber Wright and Ken Spence to develop some conceptual and quantitative syntheses in order to address these questions.

4) Do detrital resource pulses create apparent competition or apparent mutualism for the prey of carnivorous plants?

In a nitrogen-poor alpine fens, carnivorous sundew plants (Drosera spp.) occasionally experience localized pulses of nitrogen availability in the form of mammalian urine and dung. These plants respond with vigorous photosynthetic growth. I’m interested in understanding the consequences of this growth for their alternative nitrogen source, insect prey. Does the availability of nitrogen resources cause sundews to shift away from a carnivorous habit, or do these belowground resources enable sundews to become more efficient prey gatherers?

5) How does cannibalism affect measurements of trophic position?

Mounting evidence suggests that cannibalism is a common feature of nature. At the same time, ecologists are increasingly using nitrogen stable isotoptic measurements to assess the trophic position of species in the field. How does cannibalism affect these isotopic measurements of trophic position? How much of the observed variation in trophic position could be attributed to cannibalism in nature? I’m collaborating with Volker Rudolf and Yao Hua Law to investigate the effects of cannibalism on isotopic measurements.

6) How does tospovirus infection affect the diet and trophic position of western flower thrips?

Disease is a potentially important general mechanism affecting the context-dependence of species interactions. Tospoviruses are a class of plant viruses that are transmitted by insect vectors. In western flower thrips, tospoviruses may also reduce the efficiency of digesting plant cells. I’m working with Candice Stafford to investigate whether omnivorous thrips respond to tospovirus infection by shifting towards a more carnivorous diet.

7) Under what conditions do nutrients and/or herbivory limit grassland primary productivity and biodiversity?

One of the fundamental questions of plant ecology asks what factors limit the diversity and productivity of plant communities: are plant communities more limited by nutrient availability or herbivory? Since 2006, I’ve been part a network of ecologists working to tackle this basic question with a single global experiment coordinated between more than 40 grassland sites around the world. The NutNet experiment is being conducted with a common protocol to manipulate herbivory and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients) in a systematic way across a wide range of grassland ecosystems.

Publications

Yang, L. 2012. Resource pulses of dead periodical cicadas increase the growth of American bellflower rosettes under competitive and non-competitive conditions. Arthropod-Plant Interactions. Online First. pdf

Stamps, J. A., L. H. Yang, V. M. Morales, and K. L. Boundy-Mills. 2012. Drosophila Regulate Yeast Density and Increase Yeast Community Similarity in a Natural Substrate. PLoS ONE 7:e42238.pdf

Yang, L. H. 2012. Insect Ecology: Behavior, Populations and Communities. (book review) Quarterly Review of Biology 87:166.

Pearse, I. S., L. M. Porensky, L. H. Yang, M. L. Stanton, R. Karban, L. Bhattacharyya, R. Cox, K. Dove, A. Higgins, C. Kamoroff, T. Kirk, C. Knight, R. Koch, C. Parker, H. Rollins, and K. Tanner. 2012. Complex Consequences of Herbivory and Interplant Cues in Three Annual Plants. PLoS ONE 7:e38105. pdf

Grace, J. B., P. B. Adler, E. W. Seabloom, E. T. Borer, H. Hillebrand, Y. Hautier, A. Hector, W. S. Harpole, L. R. O’Halloran, T. M. Anderson, J. D. Bakker, C. S. Brown, Y. M. Buckley, S. L. Collins, K. L. Cottingham, M. J. Crawley, E. I. Damschen, K. F. Davies, N. M. DeCrappeo, P. A. Fay, J. Firn, D. S. Gruner, N. Hagenah, V. L. Jin, K. P. Kirkman, J. M. H. Knops, K. J. La Pierre, J. G. Lambrinos, B. A. Melbourne, C. E. Mitchell, J. L. Moore, J. W. Morgan, J. L. Orrock, S. M. Prober, C. J. Stevens, P. D. Wragg, and L. H. Yang. 2012. Response to Comments on “Productivity Is a Poor Predictor of Plant Species Richness”. Science 335:1441–1441. pdf

Yang, L. 2012. The ecological consequences of insect outbreaks. in P. Barbosa, D. Letourneau, and A. Agrawal, editors. Insect Outbreaks Revisited, 1st edition. Wiley-Blackwell.

Tomich, T. P., S. Brodt, H. Ferris, R. Galt, W. R. Horwath, E. Kebreab, J. H. J. Leveau, D. Liptzin, M. Lubell, P. Merel, R. Michelmore, T. Rosenstock, K. Scow, J. Six, N. Williams, and L. Yang. 2011. Agroecology: A Review from a Global-Change Perspective. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 36:193-222. pdf

Adler, P. B., E. W. Seabloom, E. T. Borer, H. Hillebrand, Y. Hautier, A. Hector, W. S. Harpole, L. R. O’Halloran, J. B. Grace, T. M. Anderson, J. D. Bakker, L. A. Biederman, C. S. Brown, Y. M. Buckley, L. B. Calabrese, C.-J. Chu, E. E. Cleland, S. L. Collins, K. L. Cottingham, M. J. Crawley, E. I. Damschen, K. F. Davies, N. M. DeCrappeo, P. A. Fay, J. Firn, P. Frater, E. I. Gasarch, D. S. Gruner, N. Hagenah, J. Hille Ris Lambers, H. Humphries, V. L. Jin, A. D. Kay, K. P. Kirkman, J. A. Klein, J. M. H. Knops, K. J. La Pierre, J. G. Lambrinos, W. Li, A. S. MacDougall, R. L. McCulley, B. A. Melbourne, C. E. Mitchell, J. L. Moore, J. W. Morgan, B. Mortensen, J. L. Orrock, S. M. Prober, D. A. Pyke, A. C. Risch, M. Schuetz, M. D. Smith, C. J. Stevens, L. L. Sullivan, G. Wang, P. D. Wragg, J. P. Wright, and L. H. Yang. 2011. Productivity Is a Poor Predictor of Plant Species Richness. Science 333: 1750-1753. pdf

Mulder, C., H. Jones, K. Kameda, C. Palmborg, S. Schmidt, J. Ellis, J. Orrock, D. Wait, D. Wardle, L. Yang, H. Young, D. A. Croll, and E. Vidal. 2011 Impacts of Seabirds on Plant and Soil Properties. in Seabird Islands: Ecology, Invasion and Restoration. Oxford University Press.

Sih, A., J. Stamps, L. H. Yang, R. McElreath, and M. Ramenofsky. 2010. Behavior as a Key Component of Integrative Biology in a Human-altered World. Integrative and Comparative Biology 50:934 -944. pdf

Spiller, D.A., J. Piovia-Scott, A.N. Wright, L.H. Yang, G. Takimoto, T.W. Schoener and T. Iwata. 2010. Marine subsidies have multiple effects on coastal food webs, Ecology. 91(5):1424-1434 pdf

Yang, L.H., K. Edwards, J.E. Brynes, J.L. Bastow, A.N. Wright, K.O. Spence. 2010. A meta-analysis of resource pulse-consumer interactions, Ecological Monographs. 80(1):125-151. pdf

Yang, L.H. and V. Rudolf. 2010. Phenology, ontogeny and the effects of climate change on the timing of species interactions, Ecology Letters 13(1):1-10. pdf

Yang, L.H. and R. Karban. 2009. Root herbivory and habitat selection: explaining the relationship between periodical cicada density and tree growth, The American Naturalist 173(1):105-112. pdf

Yang, L.H. 2008. Pulses of dead periodical cicadas increase herbivory of American bellflowers, Ecology. 89(6): 1497-1502 pdf

Yang, L.H., J.L. Bastow, K.O.Spence, A.N. Wright. 2008. What can we learn from resource pulses?, Ecology. 89(3):621-634 pdf

Nowlin, W.H., Vanni M.J., and L.H. Yang. 2008. Comparing resource pulses in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, Ecology. 89(3):647-659 pdf

Yang, L.H. and S. Naeem. 2008. The ecology of resource pulses, Ecology. 89(3):619-620 pdf

Robinson, G.R., Jr., P.L. Sibrell, C.J. Boughton, and L.H. Yang. 2007. Influence of soil chemistry on metal and bioessential element concentrations in nymphal and adult periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.). Science of the Total Environment. 374:367-378 pdf

Yang, L.H. 2006. Periodical cicadas use light for oviposition site selection. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B - Biological Sciences. 273:2993-3000 pdf

Yang, L.H. 2006. Interactions between a detrital resource pulse and a detritivore community. Oecologia. 147:522-532 pdf

Yang, L.H. 2006. Cicada (invited article). Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Yang, L.H. and M.D. Holland. 2005. Small world properties emerge in highly compartmentalized networks with intermediate group sizes and numbers. Physical Review E. 72:067101 pdf

Yang, L.H. 2004. Periodical cicadas as resource pulses in North American forests. Science 306:1565-1567 pdf press

Bolnick, D.I., R. Svanback, J.A. Fordyce, L.H. Yang, J.M. Davis, C.D. Hulsey, and M.L. Forister. 2003. The ecology of individuals: incidence and implications of individual specialization. The American Naturalist 161(1):1-28 (2005 Mercer Award) pdf

Bolnick, D.I., L.H. Yang, J.A. Fordyce, J. Davis, and R. Svanback. 2002. Measuring individual-level diet specialization. Ecology 83(10):2936-2941 pdf

Bell, A..M., J.M. Davis, C.M. Greene, S.C. Lema, J.V. Watters, and L.H. Yang. 2001. Evolutionary questions in a ecologically relevant context (book review) Evolution 55(8):1715-1716 pdf

Yang, L.H. 2000. Effects of body size and plant structure on the movement ability of a predaceous stinkbug, Podisus maculiventris (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae). Oecologia 125:85-90 pdf

... more to come.

Teaching

Winter and Spring 2013

Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (EVE and ENT 180A and 180B)

Fall 2012

Insect Ecology (ENT 105)

Fall 2011

Insect Ecology (ENT 105)

This is an undergraduate course for students interested in the ecology of insects. This course will cover fundamental questions in ecology, with an emphasis on ideas, hypotheses, and insights related to the ecology of insects. I hope that this course will provide a firm foundation in both basic ecological concepts and the remarkable biology of insects. The core objective of this course is to teach the process of insect ecology, including the skills required to: a) observe nature in the context of existing knowledge and ideas, b) read and understand scientific figures and writing, c) ask and investigate questions in insect ecology, and d) effectively and concisely communicate scientific ideas with others.

Winter and Spring 2011

Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (EVE 180)

This is an advanced undergraduate course for students interested in getting real hands-on experience with the process of conducting ecological and evolutionary experiments in the field. The central focus of this course will be student-led research projects conducted in the great outdoors.

Fall 2010

Insect Ecology (ENT 198)

The first time I taught Insect Ecology, it was taught under a temporary course number, ENT 198.

Winter 2010

Principles and Applications of Ecology (ECL 200B)

I taught two discussion-based lectures about linking species interactions with communities and ecosystems. We discussed how diverse kinds of species interactions contribute to communities and ecosystems, traditional and unconventional ways to build conceptual maps of ecological complexity, the spectrum between reductionism and holism in ecology, and the essential temporal dimension of community dynamics.

Collaborative Learning at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology (CLIMB) program

I participated in the CLIMB program's student-led 5-week project analyzing a 40-year old dataset of size-structured population data describing interactions between monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) in the area around Santa Barbara, CA.

Fall 2009

Building Insect Ecology: Current Topics, Course Design and Research Methods (ENT 294/ECL 290)

This was a participatory graduate seminar designed with three 30-40 minute modules during each of our 2 hour meetings. We focused on three parallel aspects of insect ecology: 1) talks on current topics in the field, 2) discussing the principles and practices of modern course design in insect ecology, and 3) mini-workshops of methods and advice for the insect ecologist's toolbox.

Ecology Outdoors (FRS 002)

This was a freshman seminar where nearly every class was conducted outdoors. I co-instructed this course with Ian Pearse and Amanda Hodson. We guided students through the process of observing the natural world, asking testable questions about observations, setting up studies to address these questions, interpreting their results, and presenting their findings to colleagues.

Fall 2005

General Ecology (ESP 100)

In 2005, I co-taught General Ecology with Prof. Andy Sih at the University of California, Davis. The Chancellor's Teaching Fellowship is competitive program that allows graduate students to co-teach university courses with a faculty mentor. General Ecology is an introductory course in ecology.

Education

Personal History

I was born in Massachusetts in 1979. My family moved to California when I was nine, and, except for a brief stint as a research technician at the University of Washington in Seattle, I have been part of California’s public education system ever since: Berkeley Arts Magnet (1988-1991), Willard Junior High (1991-1993), Berkeley High (1993-1997), UC Santa Cruz (1997-2001), UC Davis (2003- ), and UC Berkeley (2012- ). I am currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis and UC Berkeley, working on the effect of seaweed on terrestrial food webs in the Bahamas, the interaction between a fungal pathogen and its amphibian hosts in the mountains of northern California, and linkages between river networks and the coastal ocean in northern California.

Research

My research focuses on the causes and consequences of variation in the strength of species interactions. Species interactions link individual- and population-level processes with those that occur at higher levels of organization, such as communities and ecosystems. My research explores how environmental context influences the strength of interactions between species and, in turn, how variation in species interactions influence community and ecosystem processes. Much of my current research considers host-pathogen interactions and plant-animal interactions. I focus on field studies, however, I also use laboratory experiments to provide more detailed information on particular interactions. I currently conduct research in two study systems, and will begin work on a third in 2012. I describe my projects in each system below.

1) Pulsed seaweed subsidies and island ecosystems

The flow of material from one ecosystem to another represents an important component of global biogeochemical cycles. Increasingly, these flows are influenced by anthropogenic factors such as fertilizer application, species introductions and extinctions, and climate change. Since 2005, I have been studying the effects of seaweed deposition on terrestrial ecosystems in the Bahamas. In the Caribbean and surrounding areas, seaweed abundance has increased as a result of overfishing and eutrophication. Furthermore, intense storms, which are associated with the deposition of large pulses of seaweed, are expected to increase in frequency, a trend that is likely to be exacerbated by global warming. These seaweed subsidies support an abundance of detritivores, which attract terrestrial predators. Stable isotope analyses reveal that these predators consume more marine-derived prey in the presence of seaweed, which increases herbivore pressure on terrestrial plants. In addition, plant growth rates increase, as does the nutritional content of terrestrial plants, suggesting that seaweed also has a fertilization effect. In a study combining seaweed manipulations with predator inclusion/exclusion treatments on small islands, we found that the interactive effect of two predators on lower trophic levels was influenced by the presence of resource subsidies. Specifically, ants and lizards had synergistic effects on herbivory in the absence of seaweed which disappeared in the presence of seaweed. More recently, I have used structural equation models to show that fertilization caused by consistent seaweed deposition has a stronger effect on herbivory than predation – a manuscript describing these results is in preparation. These findings suggest that seaweed subsidies can have profound effects on Bahamian island communities that are propagated through multiple levels of the food web. My collaborators and I have just begun work on a new project exploring how the magnitude and timing of these seaweed subsidies influence community responses. This new study will provide insight into how spatial and temporal variation in resource availability affects ecological communities and contribute to our understanding of the effects of increased hurricane frequency on terrestrial ecosystems.

2) Variation in the strength of an ant-plant mutualism

Positive interactions between species are ubiquitous but have received much less attention from biologists than antagonistic interactions. Ant-plant mutualisms, in which ants protect plants from herbivory and in return receive a reward from the plant, are common features in many ecosystems. There is often a great deal of variation in the strength of these interactions, which can have important consequences for the ecology and evolution of the species involved. I have been studying the causes of variation in the effect of mutualistic ants on a common mangrove in the Bahamas using a combination of field experiments and observational studies. I found that plants with a high density of leaf hairs do not receive as much of a benefit from ants as plants with a low density of leaf hairs and do not offer as much of a reward for ants, suggesting that these two morphs are on distinct evolutionary trajectories with regard to anti-herbivore defense. I also found that simulated hurricane disturbance increased the amount of reward produced by plants for ants and the strength of competition between ants and other arthropod predators and that seaweed and the presence of lizard predators influence the effect of ants on plants (as mentioned above). I am currently working with collaborators to study of the effects of multiple vertebrate predator species on the strength of the ant-plant mutualism. These studies enhance our understanding of the ecology and evolution of positive interactions between species by showing how ecological context influences the beneficial effect of mutualistic partners.

3) The effects of a fungal pathogen on amphibians

Invasive species can have profound impacts on communities and ecosystems. In particular, the introduction of novel pathogens often has disastrous consequences for naïve hosts. For example Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), an emerging fungal pathogen of amphibians, has been implicated in die-offs and extinctions worldwide. Along with collaborators at the University of California, Davis, the US Forest Service, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, I am examining the effects of Bd on native amphibians in the mountains of northern California. Bd infects at least four of the seven amphibians that are common in lakes and ponds in this region. We have conducted extensive sampling for Bd throughout this region in order to investigate how environmental factors influence the relationship between Bd and its amphibian hosts. We found differences between amphibian species and life stages in the rate of Bd infection and pronounced seasonal patterns of infection that differ between life stages and between lakes at different elevations, suggesting that both biotic and abiotic factors affect the relationship between host and pathogen.

We are also conducting intensive studies of the interaction between Bd and the Cascades frog (Rana cascadae), which has experienced severe declines in the mountains of northern California. We have been monitoring Cascades frog populations and sampling for Bd at 15 sites. Preliminary data suggests that Cascade frog populations with higher rates of Bd infection have lower survival. This year, we have reared frogs from 7 of these populations in the laboratory and will test for population-level differences in Bd susceptibility (using Bd strains from multiple populations) under laboratory conditions. This experiment will provide insight into whether genetic differences between host and pathogen populations contribute to differences in disease susceptibility.

Symbiotic skin bacteria may help explain variation in the effects of Bd on amphibians. Naturally-occurring skin bacteria can limit the effect of Bd on amphibians. We are currently cataloguing the diversity of microbes that occur on the skin of Cascades frogs and are conducting laboratory experiments to determine if any of these bacteria have anti-fungal activity and can influence the outcome of interactions between Bd and Cascades frogs. These experiments will help determine whether symbiotic microbes contribute to disease resistance.

4) The ecosystem effects of introduced trout

Introduced trout have dramatic effects on ecological communities in mountain lakes. These active predators can also sever linkages between lakes and surrounding terrestrial habitats by consuming aquatic organisms before they metamorphose into terrestrial adults. I have been working in collaboration with scientists at UC Davis and the US Forest Service to examine the effects of trout on connections between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems using whole-lake trout manipulations. We found that trout reduce the biomass and composition of emerging aquatic insects and reduce the proportion of aquatic prey in frog diets. We are currently assessing the long-term effects of trout removal and stocking cessation on amphibian populations.

5) River food webs and nutrient export

Rivers represent important conduits for the flow of energy and resources from land to sea. However, there is considerable debate about the importance of in-stream biological processes in governing the magnitude and timing of resource export from rivers. Beginning in January 2012, I will work with a team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley to examine how species interactions in northern California’s Eel River influence resource transport through the river to the sea. In the Eel, seasonal blooms of macroalgae represent significant concentrations of resources, in part due to the presence of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. The growth of these algal blooms is largely determined by hydrological factors, such as the timing and intensity of seasonal flooding, which influence the composition of the grazer community. I will combine experimental manipulations of river food web components (including grazers), observational studies of resource fluxes, and models of watershed processes (such as streamflow and sediment transport) to investigate how biological and hydrological processes govern the downstream transport of algal resources through the river to the sea. The results of these studies will be coupled with biophysical models of the coastal ocean and regional climate models in order to explore how nutrient export from the Eel influences oceanic and atmospheric systems.

Publications

Piovia-Scott, J., K.L. Pope, S.P. Lawler, E.M. Cole, J.E. Foley. 2011. Factors related to the distribution and prevalence of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Rana cascadae and other amphibians in the Klamath Mountains. Biological Conservation 144: 2913-2921.

Piovia-Scott, J. 2011. The effect of disturbance on an ant-plant mutualism. Oecologia 166: 411-420.

Joseph, M., J. Piovia-Scott, S.P. Lawler, K.L. Pope. 2011. Indirect effects of introduced trout on Cascades frog (Rana cascadae) via shared aquatic prey. Freshwater Biology 56: 828-838.

Piovia-Scott, J., D.A. Spiller, T.W. Schoener. 2011. Effects of experimental seaweed deposition on lizard and ant predation in an island food web. Science 331: 461-463.

Piovia-Scott, J. 2011. Plant phenotype influences the effect of ant mutualists on a polymorphic mangrove. Journal of Ecology 99: 327-334.

Spiller, D.A., J. Piovia-Scott, A.N. Wright, L.H. Yang, G. Takimoto, T.W. Schoener and T. Iwata. 2010. Marine subsidies have multiple effects on coastal food webs, Ecology. 91(5):1424-1434 pdf

Piovia-Scott, J. 2009. Effects of disturbance on Cenchritis muricatus (beaded periwinkle) populations on small islands in the Bahamas. Bulletin of Marine Science 84: 307-313.

Pope, K.L., J. Piovia-Scott, and S.P. Lawler. 2009. Changes in aquatic insect emergence in response to whole-lake experimental manipulations of introduced trout. Freshwater Biology 54: 982-993.

Chang, A.L., J.D. Grossman, T.S. Spezio, H.W. Weiskel, J.C. Blum, J.W. Burt, A.A. Muir, J. Piovia-Scott, K.E. Veblen, E.D. Grosholz. 2009. Tackling aquatic invasions: risks and opportunities for the aquarium fish industry. Biological Invasions 11: 773-785

Burt, J.W., A.A. Muir, J. Piovia-Scott, K.E. Veblen, A.L. Chang, J.D. Grossman, and H.W. Weiskel. 2007. Preventing horticultural introductions of invasive plants: potential efficacy of voluntary initiatives. Biological Invasions 9: 909-923.

Parker, M. S., E. V. Armbrust, J. Piovia-Scott, and R. G. Keil. 2004. Induction of photorespiration by light in the centric diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii (Bacillariophyceae): Molecular characterization and physiological consequences. Journal of Phycology 40: 557-567.

... more to come.

Education

Personal History

I am a talkative and cheerful individual from Gainesville, Florida, where I was born on June 1, 1987. My entomological career began at the ripe old age of 9, when I first realized it was an actual field. Since then, I have nurtured a deep appreciation of our tiny brethren, and received my BS in Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. My practical experience has been in biocontrol of greenhouse pests and apiculture, but I am now much more interested in insect behavioral ecology. In my free time, I am an avid rock climber and karaoke artist.

Research

I am primarily interested in how plastic traits influence evolution in insect populations. I am currently studying how habitat learning (natal habitat preference induction) in Orius tristicolor influences the evolution of host plant specialization. I am using a combination of modeling, selection experiments, and broad cross-sectional sampling in the field to gain a complete picture of this system. By gaining a better understanding of how individual plastic responses to novel situations enhance or hamper selection, we can make predictions about how populations will respond to species introductions and rapid environmental change.

Teaching

Winter 2013

Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Biology: Principles of Ecology and Evolution (BIS 2B), University of California, Davis

Fall 2012

Teaching Assistant, Insect Ecology (ENT 105), University of California, Davis

Winter 2011 and Winter 2012

Teaching Assistant, Behavioral Ecology of Insects (ENT 104), University of California, Davis

Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011

Teaching Assistant, Entomology Freshmen Seminar (FRS 001), University of California, Davis

Education

Personal History

Like many ecologists, I cultivated a strong sense of respect and intellectual curiosity regarding the natural world at a young age. As such, I spent most of my childhood knee deep in the stream behind my house or searching for the next unlucky member of my bug collection. Antiquated teaching methods in elementary school drew a clear line between my interest in the natural world and the study of biology, temporarily steering me away from the sciences. In high school, my hefty biology textbook seemed to suggest that few questions remained unanswered and there was little left to do but memorize.

Once I reached college, the disconnect between science as a hobby and science in practice quickly vanished. As an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to conduct independent research in a wide variety of ecosystems, from the saltwater estuaries of Baja California Sur to the heavily invaded riparian areas of Massachusetts. Most recently, I worked with the Ecology of Bird Loss Project in the Mariana Islands, investigating the ecological consequences of the brown tree snake invasion on Guam vis-à-vis the functional extinction of all native bird species on the island.

My favorite activities include exploring the forest with my spirited little black lab, teaching myself the art of cooking, and trying to convince others to eat what I have cooked.

My research focuses on some of the smallest and most feared members of ecological communities: parasites. Although parasitology has traditionally been a descriptive discipline, my interest lies in the broader effects that they can have on communities and ecosystems. More specifically, my research interests revolve around three central questions: (1) Using parasite and host physiology, ecology, and behavior as clues, can we predict how phenological shifts will affect parasite-host interactions? (2) How do episodic disturbances, such as resource pulses, affect parasite diversity? (3) How can flowering parasitic plants, such as dodder and broomrape, mediate competitive interactions and influence community diversity? These questions, while variable in scope and focus, aim to move beyond analyses of parasite effects at the individual level and better understand how these organisms can affect populations, communities, and entire ecosystems.

Education

Personal History

I was born in Jackson, Michigan on April 8th, 1987. I lived in Jackson with my very supportive family until graduating high school, after which I moved to Ann Arbor to start college at the University of Michigan. My intent was originally to pursue a career in Architecture however, my curiosity of the natural world led me to take more and more science courses. For several years, I took intro science courses until I finally discovered that I could combine my curiosity and my passion for the outdoors in ecology. After graduating in 2009, I spent 3 years as a research technician in a variety of ecology related labs working in Michigan, Idaho, and California. These experiences have solidified my desire to pursue a career in ecology and also made me realize that I like staring at plants and bugs more than the average person. During these years I have also been lucky enough to be a teaching assistant at the University of Michigan Biological Field Station, which was both challenging and rewarding. I am very excited to be at UCD and to be starting up my own research. In my spare time I enjoy hiking, disc golf, and playing fetch with my dog Cosmo.

I am broadly interested in the plasticity of plant-animal interactions across space and time. My research is focused on how plants and animals use information about their environment to maximize their fitness. I have many more questions than answers, including: How do herbivores choose when and what to eat? How do plants effectively allocate their defenses to prevent damage from herbivores? Can plants change defensive strategies if they are proving ineffective? How does defensive trait expression vary on short timescales? To what extent does defensive allocation in plants depend on the surrounding plant community?

Teaching

Spring 2010 and Spring 2012

Teaching Assistant, General Ecology (EEB 380), University of Michigan Biological Station