Congratulations to Abby Potts, who successfully defended her Master’s Thesis in April. Abby’s thesis was entitled, “Unraveling the roles of genotype and environment in the expression of plant defense phenotypes” and explored the factors that generate variation in milkweed defenses agains their herbivores.  Abby is heading to Denver, where she will be working for the National Forest Foundation.  Best of luck, Abby!  We’re all so proud of you.

On Sunday, March 17, Mark spent the afternoon with some budding scientists at Forsyth Middle School.  Students learned why some caterpillars are brightly colored and why others use camouflage to hide from predators.

Congratulations to Kristel Sanchez whose paper, “Toxins or medicines? Phytoplankton diets mediate host and parasite fitness in a freshwater system” has just been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.  Kristel’s research shows that the toxins produced by some phytoplankton, like Microcystis, can protect Daphnia from infection by their fungal parasites.  Moreover, spore production by bacterial pathogens declines when Daphnia consume certain algal toxins.  It appears that some phytoplankton can serve as medicines for Daphnia – Kristel’s future work will explore whether Daphnia can actually increase their consumption of medicinal phytoplankton when they get sick.  You can read more about the research in this news release.  Many congratulations, Kristel!

More bad news for monarch butterflies. Rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reduce the medicinal quality of milkweed leaves, thereby reducing the tolerance of monarchs to their protozoan parasites.  Published in the journal Ecology Letters, research by Leslie Decker in our lab suggests that monarchs could get sicker as CO2 levels continue to rise. You can read about Leslie’s findings here, and watch a short video here.

Leslie’s results could have implications far beyond monarch butterflies. Many species of animal, including humans, rely on plants for medicines. If elevated CO2 reduces the medicinal quality of milkweed leaves, it might also reduce the potency of other medicinal plants. Do we really want to take that risk by continuing to emit such high levels of CO2 into our atmosphere?

Congratulations to Katherine Crocker, Leslie Decker, and Amanda Meier – they all successfully defended their doctoral dissertations in spring or summer of this year.  All three are pursuing post-doctoral research. Katherine has moved to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Leslie has joined the Department of Biology at Stanford University. Amanda now works in the Department of Entomology at Washington State University.  Three amazing scientists – many congratulations.

In fall of 2017, Mark was awarded a Distinguished University Professorship, named for UM Professor Emeritus, Earl E. Werner.  Earl has had a distinguished career at UM, including pioneering studies of how predators influence prey population dynamics through changes in prey behavior.  Earl has been a hero of Mark’s for a long time, and it’s an honor to hold the Professorship in his name.

Three undergraduates from our lab presented the results of their research this spring, with support from their grad student mentor, Amanda Meier.

Isabelle Katz was chosen to give an oral presentation at the Michigan Research Community Spring Symposium on how mycorrhizal fungi influence aphid populations by altering plant traits.

Tori Varnau presented her research at the UROP Spring Symposium on how mycorrhizae influence plant traits and affect natural insect colonization in the field.

Hannah Fuller also presented her research at the UROP Spring Symposium on how mycorrhizae and aphids interact to affect plant traits and was awarded a blue ribbon for her poster presentation.

Congratulations Isabelle, Tori, and Hannah on your excellent work.  We’re proud of you.

Katherine Crocker’s star power as a research mentor was recognized in April 2017 at the Annual UROP Research Award Ceremony.  Katherine was nominated by her students and recognized for her outstanding contributions to their academic development as young scholars and her interest in the students’ personal success.  Fantastic job, Katherine.  Many congratulations.

Kristel successfully defended her Master’s thesis in April.  Her research has shown that Daphnia can gain some protection from fungal and bacterial parasites by exploiting certain toxins in their algal diets.  Kristel is joining Meg Duffy’s lab this fall to explore medicinal diets in more detail as she enters our doctoral program.  Kristel has received both an NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and a Rackham Merit Fellowship to support her doctoral work.  Congratulations Kristel!

On September 20, Mark gave the inaugural lecture for the Henry A. Gleason Collegiate Professorship at the University of Michigan.  Mark was awarded the Gleason Professorship back in 2010, but the inaugural lecture was delayed until this year.  The topic of the lecture was, “The Phytochemical Landscape: Linking Trophic Interactions and Nutrient Dynamics.”  You can see a video of the lecture here.