April 19, 2010

Students, faculty present at S.D. Academy of Science

MITCHELL — Four Dakota Wesleyan students and three faculty members presented at the 95th annual meeting of the South Dakota Academy of Science recently.

DWU’s assistant biology professor Brian Patrick’s ecology class consisted of seven students participating in a North American pilot study to examine the efficacy of a simple trap design to monitor yellowjackets, hornets and bees, including native and honey bees, last fall. Students Jordan Werner, Jake Sathe, Lynn Geuke and James Hansen presented two posters based on this work during the convention in Spearfish April 9-10.

To conduct the study, the students had to choose four habitats, four liquid attractants and hang 128 bottles in two sizes – 20-ounce and 2-liter – in order to lure their test subjects to the party. The study went on for almost a month last fall and the data took about three weeks to collect.

The class worked with Sam Droege at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) office in Beltsville, Md., and with another undergraduate class at Georgia Southern University, taught by Dr. Alan Harvey.

DWU students Jordan Werner and Jake Sathe also presented a poster on the class’s findings during the convention.

The goal was to create a practical protocol to monitor species of bees, wasps, hornets and yellowjackets that could be carried out by citizen scientists across North America, Patrick said.

Sathe’s and Werner’s poster, “Monitoring of Hymenoptera Distribution and Abundance Gets a Buzz,” investigated whether the size of the bottle used on the experiment had any effect on the total number of bees, wasps and yellow jackets captured, as well as the total number of species of bees, wasps and yellowjackets caught.

Their work also investigated whether the way the traps were set in a grid in the field led to more captured on the edge of the grid or the interior of the grid. Their work concluded that the bottle size did not have a significant effect and that the layout of the traps into a grid did not affect the numbers caught.

“However, these results are very significant because the purpose of the entire experiment was to elucidate a simple protocol for trapping bees, wasps, hornet, and yellowjackets to monitor their abundance and distribution,” Patrick said. “Knowing that bottle size and the layout of a grid to sample these groups helps to make the protocol stronger and easier, particularly if citizen scientists are to be relied upon as part of the corps of people helping with this North American monitoring initiative.”

DWU students Lynn Geuke and James Hansen present a poster at the 95th annual meeting of the South Dakota Academy of Science in Spearfish April 9-10 about findings their class discovered during a biology field test last fall.

Geuke’s and Hansen’s poster, “Catching a Buzz: Study of Hymenoptera Attractants for a Monitorial Protocol,” investigated whether the attractant used – Heineken beer, Blue Moon beer with diced apples added, orange juice, or sugar water – affected the number captured, as well as the number of species caught.

Their work indicated that while there was a slight preference for beer overall, orange juice could also be effectively used as an attractant. Sugar water, rather surprisingly, caught very few specimens of anything at all, and was thus determined to not be an effective attractant.

Students chose Heineken because it was used in the European study. They proved that scientists have a sense of humor when they added Blue Moon to see if American insects had more domestic taste.

“Unfortunately, there did not seem to be a significant difference between Heineken and Blue Moon with apple slices, so we cannot conclusively say whether or not American bees, wasps, hornets and yellowjackets prefer American beer. More testing is needed,” Patrick said with a smile. “As with the other poster, these results are important because they help with the design of a simple protocol for monitoring this group of environmentally sensitive insects.”

DWU biology professor Tim Mullican presented “Heat Trapping Ability of CO2 in a Simulated Biosphere.” The data for this experiment were collected by DWU students who were also coauthors on the poster, including: Justin Guzman, Brenda Habermann, Brandon Hislop, Jeanne Krome, Kimberly Mahrt, Marco Moro and Nicholas Unruh. The experiment consisted of students filling one set of balloons with pure air and a second set with carbon dioxide and monitoring the temperature inside the balloons as they were heated by a sun lamp. The experiment showed to be inconclusive due to the insulation of the balloons and the lack of temperature difference noticed.

Patrick also presented at the meeting and gave an oral presentation, “The South Dakota Spider Survey: Inventorying the Distribution and Diversity of Key Predators.” His talk introduced the establishment of the South Dakota Spider Survey, a research initiative designed to document the abundance and distribution of spiders throughout the state.

“Spiders are important for a number of reasons, including agricultural pest management, mosquito control, polymer studies of spider silk for body armor, etc.,” he said. “Moreover, spiders are sensitive to their environment, so monitoring this important group of predators can give insights into ecosystem’s health. For example, if certain species of spiders are always present in certain types of food plots that have been shown to be very good for game populations, then these could be used as indicators of the success of certain types of food plots. Spiders are also sensitive to climate change, and documenting their abundance and distribution, particularly changes in their abundance and distribution, could act as an early warning system for larger, more drastic environmental changes.”

Bob Tatina, faculty emeritus for the DWU department of biological sciences, also presented at the meeting. His oral presentation was titled, “Theory-hypothesis-test: A Biology Teaching Method.” His talk dealt with innovative teaching techniques for biology courses.

Travel for Patrick and the four biology students was paid for through the South Dakota BRIN grant.