DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Effect of Secondary Herbivores on Tritrophic Interactions.

物种在一个复杂的系统中相互作用，它们之间有许多关系。然而，人们通常只研究一个单一物种与另一个物种。该项目将进行实地和实验室实验，以检验第二种草食动物如何影响植物-草食动物-寄生虫系统中的相互作用。它将研究蚜虫在烟草-毛虫-黄蜂相互作用中的作用，并研究蚜虫的存在如何改变植物化学，这可能会改变毛虫和寄生蜂相互作用的方式。将测量寄生虫和食草动物的生长速度、寄生虫的偏好、蛾子的产卵决定和寄生虫的感染率。最后，这个项目将研究空间尺度如何改变这些相互作用的结果。这项工作将拓宽我们对群落组成如何改变多物种相互作用结果的理解，支持博士生的论文研究，并提供本科生在生态学领域的研究经验。

Species interact in a complex system with many relationships among them. However, a single species is often studied with respect to only one other species. This project will conduct field and laboratory experiments to examine how a second herbivore species affects the interactions in a plant-herbivore-parasite system. It will examine the role of aphids, which are plant sap feeders, on tobacco-caterpillar-wasp interactions, and examine how the presence of aphids change plant chemistry, which may alter the way a caterpillar and parasitic wasp interact. The growth rates of parasites and herbivores, parasite preference, egg-laying decisions of moths, and parasite infestation rates will be measured. Lastly, this project will examine how spatial scale alters the outcome of these interactions. This work will broaden our understanding of how community composition alters the outcomes of multi-species interactions, support the disseration research of a doctorate student, and provide undergraduate research experience in the field of ecology.