Southwest Research Station, Arizona, U.S. — Surrounded by the Arizona desert, the Chiricahua Mountains host a unique array of caterpillar and plant species in a riverside forest. These caterpillars have elaborate defense mechanisms to fend of parasites—such as altering their chemical make-up so they’re unpalatable-- and survival strategies to let them feast on plants. The relationships between predator and prey are complex, and sometimes it can be tough to distinguish between diner and dinner. To examine how these intricate relationships are affected by changing climates, Dr. Lee Dyer compares data collected in Arizona with data from sites in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nevada, and New Orleans.

Meet the Scientists

Dr. Lee Dyer

Tulane University

Lee Dyer, Ph.D., is an ecologist who has worked with a variety of organisms in the tropics for more than a decade and in temperate areas for the past 15 years. He received a B.S. in Biochemistry and English from the University of California at Santa Barbara. After four years of research on the effects of water diversions on the Mono Lake ecosystem, he moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he received a Ph.D. in ecology. His thesis work examined interactions between plants, herbivores, and their natural enemies and included work in Costa Rica, Colorado, and California. Dyer was a professor for 5 years at Mesa State College in Colorado where he established the Western Colorado Center for Tropical Research and received the distinguished faculty scholar award. Dr. Dyer has been a faculty member in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Tulane University since 2001.