Our Milkweed Adaptation Research Continues to Expand!

• Check out the website created by CURI students last year.  Visit  marenweb.com to learn more about the project and how to contribute.
• We expect to have funding to hire students to help with this research during the semester and during CURI in the summer in 2020-2022.  Check the student work website and CURI website for updates.
• In January 2020, we need lots of help preparing milkweed seeds for study. You are invited to learn more about the project and help out in RNS 423 on MWF 2-4:15.  Drop in as you are able.

A lot has happened in the lab this past year.  Most notably, Olivia and Jacqueline completed summer research projects, moving us forward in our study of local adaptation and geographic variation in common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca.  They logged lots of hours in the greenhouse, measuring milkweed growth responses to damage by both aphids and caterpillars.  Jacqueline took the lead on this project. We’re still looking at the data, but we expect to have a story to tell soon because Jacqueline will be presenting at NCUR!

We also spent some time in the field, setting up a small common garden to test the methods for a future transplant study of local adaptation in milkweed.  Olivia took the lead on this project, developing a rich curriculum and videos to help students and teachers understand why and how to participate in the project.  She helped lead a workshop for a great group of teachers in August!  Even my ecology students braved the mosquitoes to collect data on the plot in the fall, and some of them chose to write their final papers on the project.

Current students are working on revising some of the methods and curriculum as we prepare to expand the local adaptation project next summer.

We had a great group in the lab this fall and we made a good start on several projects.

Christina and Jacqueline took the lead on testing lots of different methods that will ultimately help us test whether the same milkweed genotypes that tolerate clipping also tolerate aphid herbivory.  Turns out, our milkweed plants were highly tolerant!  But, there were some aphid species that did affect milkweed growth, even as the aphids died out.  This wasn’t what we initially expected.  Could we be seeing a cost to some kind of induced plant resistance?

Jenny created a lab on aphid plasticity in wing development that I used in Invertebrate Biology over interim. Grant and I keep plugging away on a model of plant defense; I presented our latest results at the Entomology Meetings this year. Tyler helped us all and gave us good feedback along the way.