klaflamme's blog

Since 1990, there has been a 25% decline in the United States in vertebrate pollinators and 200 vertebrate pollinator species are near extinction . The majority of our staple crops are wind-pollinated and don’t require vertebrate pollinators, but roughly a third of our crops would not exist without vertebrate pollinators (many types of berries, nuts, vegetables, cotton, coffee, around 90 major crops). Vertebrate pollinators provide 30 billion USD of pollination services in the United States alone, and 200 billion USD globally. The impact of the loss of pollinators to the global agricultural system would be great as well as the to plant species that we do not cultivate.

We will be doing an experiment which involves spraying jasmonic acid onto damaged tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum). This tomato plant species belongs to the Solanacaefamily, which includes eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes. The reason this species of tomato will be used is because it has well characterized chemical defenses. However, the nectar-less flowers will require pollination by bees. In order to provide the mechanical damage we want to apply to the plants, we will use the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta). This worm is native to New England and is a well-known crop pest on tobacco and tomato plants.

Figure 1. Scarlet Macaw (Ara Macao) and Blue and Gold Macaw (Ara ararauna). The two different species of Macaw live in the Amazon rainforest. They are a very social and intelligent bird, making them popular as pets.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/timpeartrice/6104560916/sizes/z/

In 1995, Minnesota middle school students sampled frogs in a nearby pond and found that half of them were deformed, and it  was discovered soon after that this was a widespread occurrence. A total of 8 frog and toad species were affected by this. Approximately 0.2% of frogs found in the area were deformed from 1973 to 1993, and that percentage increased to 2.3% by 1996. The cause of this deformity was found to be a species of trematode, Ribeiroia ondatrae, which are flatworm parasites that cause deformities and sometimes death in frogs. Trematode larvae in frogs cause cysts. If the cysts are in a developing tissue, it can cause a deformity; for example, if the cysts are found in a tissue that is developing legs, the cysts can cause extra or truncated legs. The occurrence of deformities in the frogs in the area had increased due to runoff of Atrazine, an herbicide (which is banned in the European Union and other developed countries) which kills plants in a pond, causing them to decompose and ultimately cause eutrophication of the pond. This eutrophication of ponds led to more snails in which trematodes begin their lives. The trematodes then move from the snails into the frogs, causing the deformities.

In order to determine the power of an experiment, the experiment must be conducted several times. If the experiment is successful or shows similar results the majority of the time, the experiment would have a great power. Initially, before conducting an experiment several or dozens of times, the initial experiment must be well thought out. An experiment should have a high (if cost is an issue, then reasonable) amount of replicants. All experiments will have an experimental noise which will cause variation, but if there is an alarming amount of variation in the initial experiment, there is something wrong with the experimental design, there could be another variable interfering in the experiment which isn’t realized, etc. A simple experimental design has more power than a very complex one. The P-value cutoff should be around 0.05, meaning that the majority of the time, the experiment is accurate and the results are more easily proven. Finally, an experiment which shows a strong treatment effect will have greater power than an experiment which does not. 

Jasmonic Acid is the hormone released in plants when they experience damage from herbivores in order to induce defenses. Although damage to plants often results in fewer or less attractive flowers or fruits, recent work has shown that jasmonic acid also induces nectar productions in some systems. When a caterpillar eats a part of a leaf, the plant will produce jasmonic acid to repair itself after the tissue is lost. Simply cutting a leaf will not induce jasmonic acid production because there is an enzyme in the saliva of the caterpillar which induces the production of jasmonic acid. However, spraying jasmonic acid on the plant will increase the production of jasmonic acid, but will not affect the tissue negatively. 

Giving-up density is a theory where animals will leave a place they can feed when the costs of staying in the area are higher than the benefits. An observational study that could be done to measure this is placing 10 feeding stations for a small animal with many predators, perhaps a bird feeding station, in the middle of meadows where predators can easily spot them, and place 10 feeding stations near shrubs. After an appropriate amount of time, measure the amount of food left at each of the stations to see what the giving-up density for birds in that area is. 

It was found in an observational study that women taking hormone replace therapy for treating menopause had a lower than average incidence of coronary heart disease. This belief led to an experiment in which women were randomly assigned hormone replacement therapy. But what was found in the experiment was that women randomly assigned to hormone replacement therapy actually had an increased rate of heart disease. The reason the women from the first study had a lower incidence of heart disease was because they were from a higher socioeconomic status and therefore had access to better health care. 

In a 6-year observational study conducted by Thompson and Cunningham (found in 2002 Nature), it was found that the Greyamoth benefits the Lithophragmaflower by pollinating it only when other pollinators are present. The moth lays its eggs on the flowers and the larvae eat the seeds of the flower, but when other pollinators are present, it provides competition for the moth so that there are not an excessive amount of moths pollinating the flower. In short, the nature of an interaction (mutualism or antagonism) depends on who else is in the community.

Kurt LaFlamme, Smeralda Casimir

This website seems to be valid and reliable, but not for collegiate level research. It seems like a good website to learn a few things about ecology. The website offers dozens of languages, the publication is up to date, has the ability to share on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Google, and the website has its own declaration of principles which includes a code of ethics along with mission and objectives. The resource links are alphabetized and are from around the world. There are also no advertisements on this website. The things that go against the reliability and validity of this website are that it does not have http://, the layout/web design seems immature and a little outdated, the links are old, and the last post on the website's social media account was nearly 4 years ago. Ultimately, it seems like an educational website that a middle or high school student would use for a research paper.