Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences reached by my communication efforts include the scientific community, undergraduate assistants, and the local farming community. For the scientific community, results on the consequences of plant chemical dissimilarity on herbivore performance were accepted for publication by the high-impact journal Ecology. Additionally, I presented at two conferences organized by the Entomological Society of America, the first in St. Louis, Missouri in November 2019 and the second was a virtual meeting in November 2020. Furthermore, I was invited to present at two seminars at Louisiana State University in the spring of 2021, one hosted by the Department of Biological Sciences and the other hosted by the Department of Entomology. For undergraduate assistants, I have provided hands-on laboratory and field experience. Specifically, I have taught them important skills in experimental design, data management, and chemical extraction techniques. I also hosted a workshop on professional development that provided information and resources on how to pursue graduate school and jobs in science. For the local farming community, I have participated in two research spotlight newsletters that were distributed to the agricultural community in Western Michigan and through the extension program at Michigan State University. I have also taken time to listen to the local growers' concerns on implementing sustainable pest management and have provided information on the natural history of certain insect pests. Changes/Problems:Michigan State University shut down due to COVID19 during the middle of March and that created a huge delay with the progress of objective #3. My timeline for objective #3 planned for building the tomato volatile library and testing the lures using a wind tunnel during the spring 2020 semester. As a result of COVID and not having access to the laboratory, I had to change the experimental design of objective #3 because I was not able to use the laboratory to develop my lures before testing them in the field during summer 2020. The changes to the experimental design of objective #3 apply the same concept of manipulating plant chemistry to test whether unique chemicals and abundance of chemicals either attract or deter herbivores and natural enemies. Instead of using lures, I applied the chemicals directly to the plant using a lanolin paste. These changes did not change the scope of the project and are a reflection of feasibility due to the unavailability of the laboratory. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have developed scientifically and professionally as a result of the USDA fellowship. I developed as a mentor through training undergrads in experimental design and techniques in chemical ecology. I co-taught a chemical ecology class focused on applications of chemical ecology in agroecosystems. I've attended career workshops hosted by the Michigan State University-Postdocs Association. I've communicated my research and listened to the concerns of local farmers in Western Michigan. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I have disseminated the results of this research through a publication, two national conferences, two invited seminars hosted by Louisiana State University, through extension newsletters, and conversations with local growers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Career Development Goals I proposed goals for career development, mentoring plan for myself, and research objectives, and I have made significant strides in reaching those goals. For my career development goals, I have a manuscript in press at the high-impact journal Ecology and am a co-author on a manuscript accepted at Ecological Applications. Even more, I have developed an independent agroecology research program focused on sustainable pest management and have gained experience, knowledge, and skills that I will continue to cultivate. This project has required me to communicate and work with local farmers and so I have learned from them about the management of commercial crops by discovering which techniques are feasible and efficient. In turn, I have had several conversations with them about my scientific perspective and knowledge about multi-trophic interactions between plants, herbivores, and predators. Additionally, I participated in two research spotlight newsletters that were distributed to the agricultural community in Western Michigan and through the extension program at Michigan State University. Finally, I have presented the results of this research at two major conferences hosted by the Entomological Society of America and was an invited seminar speaker at Louisiana State University. Mentoring Plan Goals For my mentoring plan goals, I have successfully learned how to collect and extract plant odors and thereby have added a new skill set to my chemical ecology toolbox. Furthermore, I improved my skillset in critical thinking and statistical analysis by enhancing my knowledge of multivariate statistics. Even more, I personally have mentored a total of five undergraduate students through techniques in chemical analysis, insect identification, experimental design, and professional development during this research project. I have learned how to engage students by taking the time to explain my research goals and welcome their ideas and thoughts to the project. I even hosted a professional development workshop to help undergraduates learn how to apply to graduate school and go over career options. Research Goals Goal 1 - The wind tunnel and field experiment were accomplished. Both experiments consisted of placing pairs of tomato plants depending on low and high chemical similarity and allowing a female mated moth to lay eggs for a set amount of time. Preliminary results from objective #1 suggest that female moths switch their oviposition behavior depending on whether plant neighbors consist of chemically dissimilar sticky acyl sugars or smelly terpenes. Specifically, there was a 38% increase in the number of eggs laid by female moths on plants if neighbors had lower diversity of acyl sugars. Conversely, there was a 44% decrease in the number of eggs laid by female moths on plants if neighbors had reduced amounts of sesquiterpene odors. Goal 2 - We manipulated plant neighborhoods based on chemical dissimilarity and chemotype in an agricultural field. We collected all insects in the field using sticky traps and the beat sheet method and identified them to the functional guild (i.e. herbivore or predator). Preliminary results from objective #2 indicate that the specific identity of the neighboring plant, with its associated chemical phenotype, influenced focal plant arthropod communities and plant performance in distinctive ways. Specifically, terpene dissimilarity increased the abundance of herbivores on the focal plant, while acyl sugar dissimilarity decreased the abundance of predators on the focal plant. For terpenes, when plant neighbors have reduced mono and sesquiterpenes, the focal plant had a lower abundance of predators in the resident community. For acyl sugars, when neighboring plants were of the high diversity acyl sugar chemotype, the focal plant had higher predator abundance. However, when neighboring plants were of the 80% reduced acyl sugar chemotype, the focal plant had higher herbivore abundance. Overall, the neighborhood chemotype matters, and chemical classes have different effects depending on the functional guild of the insect (i.e. herbivore versus predator). Goal 3 - The methods for this objective changed due to the COVID 19 pandemic (please refer to the Change/Problems section for a detailed explanation). Instead of using lures, I applied pure terpene chemicals directly to the plant using a lanolin paste. Chemical terpene treatments included: 1) farnesene, 2) terpinene, 3) beta-caryophellene, 4) linalool, 5) pinene, 6) richness mixture (farnesene + pinene), 7) abundance mixture (beta-caryophellene + linalool + terpinene), and 8) a total mixture of all terpenes (farnesene + pinene + beta-caryophellene + linalool + terpinene). These changes did not change the scope of the project and I was still able to determine which combination of chemicals deterred moth oviposition behavior. Preliminary results from objective #3 suggest that moths avoided ovipositing on the unique farnesene compound and higher concentrations of terpinene. We found that mixtures of chemicals attracted oviposition equally with plants that did not have added chemical mixtures. This suggests that the chemical complexity innate of mixtures is not necessarily a deterrent to moth oviposition and that could be because chemical diversity could mask odors emitted from eggs, dilute toxic compounds, or mask toxic compounds. Another possibility is that chemical diversity creates a new odor that is merely attractive because it's new and unique.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
A.E. Glassmire, L. Zehr, and W. Wetzel (2020). Disentangling dimensions of phytochemical diversity: alpha and beta have contrasting effects. Ecology, 101: e03158.
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Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences reached by my communication efforts include the scientific community, undergraduate assistants, and the local farming community. For the scientific community, results on the consequences of plant chemical dissimilarity on herbivore performance were accepted for publication by the high-impact journalEcology. Additionally, I presented a talk at the annual Entomological Society of America conference in November 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. Furthermore, I am a creator and co-host for a new outreach podcast calledBug Talk. On a recent episode, I promoted my USDA fellowship research and discussed postdoc professional development. For undergraduate assistants, I have provided hands-on laboratory and field experience. Specifically, I havetaught them important skills in experimental design, data management, and chemical extraction techniques. For the local farming community, I have participated in two research spotlight newslettersthat were distributed to the agricultural community in Western Michigan and through the extension program at Michigan State University. I have also taken time to listen to the local growers concerns on implementing sustainable pest management and have provided them information on the natural history of certain insect pests. Changes/Problems:Michigan State University shutdown due to COVID19 during the middle of March and that has created a huge delay with the progress of objective #3. My timeline for objective #3 planned for building the tomato volatile library and testing the lures using a wind tunnel during the spring 2020 semester. As a result of COVID and not having access to the laboratory, I had to change the experimental design of objective #3 because I was not able to use the laboratory to develop my lures before testing them in a natural system this summer. The changes to the experimental design of objective #3 apply the same concept of manipulating plant chemistry to test whether unique chemicals and abundance of chemicals either attract or deter herbivores and natural enemies. Instead of using lures, I applied the chemicals directly to the plant using a lanolin paste. These changes did not change the scope of the project and are a reflection of feasibility due to the unavailability of the laboratory. The experiment manipulating chemical odors using lanolin paste is currently being conducted and has not been analyzed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have developed scientifically and professionally as a result of the USDA fellowship. I developed as a mentor through training undergrads experimental design and techniques in chemical ecology. I co-taught a chemical ecology class focused on applications of chemical ecology in agroecosystems. I've attended career workshops hosted by the Michigan State University-Postdocs Association. I've communicated my research and listened to the concerns of local farmers in Western Michigan. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I have disseminated the results of this research through two publications, a national conference, local seminars, through extension newsletters, and conversations with local growers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?My goals for the next reporting period are to analyze the current data I have, write up two manuscripts, and complete objective #3. My first manuscript will focus on the associational effects of plant neighbors with distinct chemical traits and the consequences on the herbivore and natural enemy community. My second manuscript will focus on the oviposition behavior of a specialist moth and whether moths prefer or avoid chemical traits based on dissimilarity and biological function of those traits. Finally, I plan to finish the tomato volatile library once laboratories open.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
I proposed goals for career development, mentoring plan for myself, and research objectives, and I have made significant strides in reaching those goals.For my career development goals, I have a manuscript in press at the high-impact journalEcologyand am a co-author on a manuscript accepted atEcological Applications. Even more,I have developed an independent agroecology research program focused on sustainable pest management and have gainedexperience, knowledge, and skills that I will continue to cultivate.This project has required me to communicate and work with local farmers and so I have learned from them about the management of commercial crops by discovering which techniques are feasible and efficient. In turn, I have had several conversations with them about my scientific perspective and knowledge about multi-trophic interactions between plants, herbivores, and natural enemies.Additionally, I participated in two research spotlight newsletters that were distributed to the agricultural community in Western Michigan and through the extension program at Michigan State University. For my mentoring plan goals,I have successfullylearned how to collect and extract plant odors and thereby have added a new skillset to my chemical ecology toolbox.Furthermore, I improved my skillset in critical thinking and statistical analysis by enhancing my knowledge of multivariate statistics. Even more, I personally have mentored a total of four undergraduate students through techniques in chemical analysis, insect identification, experimental design, and professional development during this research project. I have learned how to engage students by taking the time to explain my research goals and welcome their ideas and thoughts to the project. Finally, my research objectives were to experimentally test how differences in odors among plant neighbors influence colonization by herbivores and natural enemies. Ultimately, my goal was to determine the specific combination of chemicals that contribute to insect community assemblage in agricultural crop systems. I have accomplished objectives #1 and 2 from the grant. Preliminary results from objective #1 suggest that female moths switch their oviposition behavior depending on whether plant neighbors consist of sticky acyl sugars or smelly terpenes. Specifically, there was a 38% increase in the number of eggs laid by female moths on plants if neighbors had different kinds of acyl sugars. Conversely, there was a 44% decrease in the number of eggs laid by female moths on plants if neighbors had reduced amounts of sesquiterpene odors.Preliminary results from objective #2 suggest that the arthropod community is dependent on the chemical dissimilarity from neighboring plants. Specifically, plant dicultures with significantly lower quantities of terpenes and acyl sugars had the highest numbers of parasitoid Hymenoptera wasps from the superfamily Chalcidoidea.Currently, I am working on objective #3 and have slightly altered the proposed experimental design due to the COVID19 pandemic (see response to Changes/Problems section for more details). These alterations did not change the scope of the project and were a reflection of feasibility due to the unavailability of the laboratory.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
AE Glassmire, LN Zehr, and W Wetzel. Disentangling dimensions of phytochemical diversity: alpha and beta have contrasting effects on an insect herbivore. Ecology.
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