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Check out today's Thursday Thoughts video by UC Davis Chancellor Gary May and Leshelle May. They describe the new Graduate Center at Walker Hall, their graduate school experiences, UC Davis and fall reopening, and...fashion.

UC Davis ecologist and EERREC mentor Rachel Vannette has isolated and described two new species of bacteria from flowers that grow at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden  and the UC Davis Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve.

The Ecological and Evolutionary Response to Rapid Environmental Change REU is hiring a GSR to assist with the program this summer. 

Compensation (salary + benefits): $2238.58 per month for two months, i.e., $4,477.16 total.

Responisibilities, application components, and other details here 

The European green crab wreaks havoc in California estuaries by damaging eelgrass beds, preying upon native species, and competing with other invertebrates for space. In 2009, UC Davis faculty member and EERREC trainer Ted Grosholz and colleagues began an intensive four-year eradication campaign that resulted in removal of 90% of the green crabs in the study area. However, a year later, the population rebounded to nearly triple the pre-eradication population size.

Gentle reminder: application review for the EERREC REU begins on 1 February 2021. For full consideration, please apply soon. Questions? Contact Academic Coordinator Carole Hom.

Jennifer Funk studies how plant traits influence ecological processes including drought response, plant invasion, and ecological restoration. Students involved in this work would engage in greenhouse and field projects, with coupled physiological and community-level measurements in a variety of plant communities, from California grasslands to tropical forest understories. 

note: not accepting students in Summer 2023

Applications for the 2021 cohort of the EERREC REU open on 1 December! Application review begins on 1 February. Please see eerrec.ucdavis.edu/apply for full details.

Andrew Whitehead seeks to understand how genomes integrate cues from, respond to, and are shaped by the external environment. Students in his lab examine genomic responses to stress that occur over both physiological timescales (acclimation responses) and evolutionary timescales (adaptive responses).

Many wine-growing regions worldwide are also biodiversity hotspots, including California, which supports an unparalleled endemic insect fauna. However, the insect communities that colonize vineyards are poorly described. A subset of vineyard-dwelling insect species are likely to protect grapevines from pests through biological control.

Behavioral plasticity offers one mechanism through which organisms can immediately respond to changes in their environment. But why are some individuals more plastic than others? What determines the extent and direction of behavioral plasticity? EERREC REU students will study how experience with early-life stress can shape the expression of behavioral plasticity and thus an individual's ability to cope with later environmental change.

Communication plays a central role in the lives of animals, allowing them to defend territories, find mates, and coordinate with offspring and group members. To be effective, animal signals must be detectable in the acoustic, visual, vibratory, and chemical environment in which they are used. Signals may lose their efficacy if the environment changes rapidly due to industrial and urban developments, which may favor plastic responses by individual animals or rapid evolutionary change.

Bee pollinators are critically important for agricultural and natural ecosystems. Together, wild and managed bee species contribute to the pollination of 80 crops with an estimated annual value of >$200 billion globally, >$29 billion for US agriculture, and >$9 billion for California.

Anthropogenic effects, notably, habitat conversion from natural to managed systems, can alter interactions between plants, insects, and microbial communities; but these effects on such complex systems are poorly understood. Bacteria and yeast that live in floral nectar affect pollinator visitation and influence floral characteristics.

Around the world, climate change has caused differences in mean temperature and precipitation, but also variation in the scale and timing of climatic events. The timing of weather events, such as germination-triggering rains, the melting of snowpack, and freeze or thaw cycles often have major effects on organisms that must synchronize birth, growth, and reproduction with favorable conditions. The timing of these events -- phenology -- in turn affects how individuals interact with their abiotic and biotic environment.