 Laura Timms, MSc.F., PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Northern Biodiversity Program Lyman Entomological Museum Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Macdonald Campus laura<dot>timms<at>utoronto<dot>ca I am an entomologist with interests in both the ecology and management of insects. During my graduate career I worked on problems in invasion biology, a field where it has been possible to integrate both theory and application into my research. Specifically, I addressed questions on the biology and detection (MScF.) and ecological impacts (PhD) of two introduced forest insect pests. In my Doctoral research I used the gypsy moth as a case study to ask questions about the impacts of invasive species establishment on native forest insect food webs. I found that both native caterpillar communities and host-parasitoid food webs were generally resilient to gypsy moth invasion, despite the fact the invasive numerically dominated the communities by orders of magnitude. These findings motivated me to learn more about the effects of disturbance on insect diversity; in particular, I am interested in the effects of disturbance caused by climate change, insect outbreaks, invasive species, and agriculture and forest management. Current Research I am currently a postdoc with the Northern Biodiversity Program, a collaborative research initiative that uses insects and spiders as models for monitoring environmental change across the boreal, sub-arctic, and high-arctic eco-climatic zones. As part of this program my research focuses on biogeographical and historical variation in communities of parasitic wasps, in particular in a few subfamilies of the Ichneumonidae. Ichneumonid parasitoids are a diverse and important group of organisms in northern climates. They play essential roles in ecosystem function; in addition to regulating their herbivorous insect hosts, parasitoids can act as pollinators and as prey for vertebrate wildlife. Changes in the identities and abundances of parasitoids in an area may in turn cause feedback into host population dynamics, creating the potential for community-wide consequences. My research focuses on identifying these changes in parasitoid diversity, making comparisons across both ecological and temporal gradients. Left: Tundra near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, summer 2011 Middle: Malaise trap near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, summer 2011 Right: Tundra collecting transportation, summer 2011 Last edited: July 26, 2011 |
