Dispersal Ecology

Understanding how organisms spread and disperse has strong implications for managing invasions, disease, and rare populations alike.  For my PhD, I used the model system Tribolium castaneum (red flour beetle) to provide insight into a long-standing question in ecology: what influences how far an individual decides to disperse from its current habitat?  I found that an individual's phenotype, as induced by juvenile environment, mediates how both individuals and their neighbors respond to their external conditions: the juvenile history of just one-third of the population can drive the dispersal of the entire group (read more in our article in Ecology Letters). 

 

I now apply my interest in dispersal ecology in a more applied context.  For example, I found that the four insect species released to control purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) were limited by topography (i.e., following prevailing wind directions) ten years after their release, but that thirty years after their release all four species are now widespread throughout central New York.