The Ries Lab of Butterfly InformaticsThis is a new research area for the Ries Lab. We will be rearing caterpillars at different temperatures to determine how thermal conditions impact growth rates and mortality. We are starting with two species: the silver-spotted skipper and the Baltimore Checkerspot.
Experimental Thermal Ecology
Early Evidence for Sexually Dimorphic, Ultraviolet Eyespots in Parnassius smintheus
The intersection of immune function and thermal stress
IntBIO Collaborative Research: An integrative approach for projecting insect responses to a rapidly changing climate
A project with fellow Biology faculty Peter Armbruster. This is a 5-instituion collaborative award totally almost $3M! 2128242 (Greg Breed @ Univ of AK-Fairbanks), 2128245 (Louie Yang @ UC-Davis), 2128244 (Joel Kingsolver @ UNC-Chapel Hill), 2128243 (Angela Smilanich @ University of NV-Reno)
Host Plant and Thermal Stress Induce Supernumerary Instars in Caterpillars
Herbivore seasonality responds to conflicting cues: Untangling the effects of host, temperature, and photoperiod
Heatwaves and Novel Host Consumption Increase Overwinter Mortality of an Imperiled Wetland Butterfly
EAGER: Environmental drivers of biodiversity: leveraging a history of NSF-funded research to test models of butterfly responses to global change
Our most pressing ecological priority is to determine how human activity is driving global shifts in biodiversity and how we can balance preserving ecosystem function with the needs of a growing human population. The PI proposes new ecological research on the Pierid family of butterflies that have been the subject of research on thermal responses over the last 40 years. The overarching goal of this research is to extend and generalize Species Distribution Models (SDM), the dominant modeling approach to understanding large-scale shifts of biodiversity in the face of global change.