Research Summary
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana — Hurricane Katrina dramatically changed the cultural and natural history of Louisiana and it will take years before we fully understand its impact. Dr. Lee Dyer has been compiling data on the effects of extreme weather events on caterpillar populations for more than a decade. Now, New Orleans has had an extreme weather event that allows a direct test of his predictions about decreases in parasitoid populations and resulting increases in caterpillar populations—along with resulting effects on various plant species. As a volunteer on this Expedition, you’ll be at the cutting edge of science’s understanding of how global climate change affects biodiversity in a given region.
In more general terms, this research enriches our understanding of caterpillars as important regulators of plant biodiversity and as an important food source for other animals. The more you help uncover about caterpillars and the species that prey on them, the more resource managers can see them as indicators of ecosystem health in areas where they are desired, and the more farmers and others will be able to employ non-toxic measures to contain their populations in areas where they are unwelcome. The investigators are committed to sharing this information through the caterpillar web pages at www.caterpillars.org and an outreach program for local students in 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.