Journal archives for
August 2022
August 1, 2022
Although Milkweeds (Asclepias) have classically been associated with the valuable and endangered Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus), this genus is an actor in a complex community of organisms. They provide habitat and act as a food source for many other species found in New York City. The Oleander Aphid (Aphis nerii) is a non-native aphid that feeds on the sap of milkweed plants and whose population distribution is increasing worldwide. They can now be found in every state in the US including Hawaii. Although they share a host plant, their effects on monarch success is unknown. Some studies suggest they increase the success of monarchs by acting as preferential prey for predators that would normally feed on monarch eggs. Other studies suggest the presence of A. nerii may indirectly increase parasitism on monarchs. Help us understand the connection between the Oleander Aphid and Monarchs by documenting their presence on Milkweeds! You can browse past observations of Milkweeds, Monarchs, and Oleander Aphids here
August 2, 2022
This month's seminar features Dr. Kevin Vega and his work exploring the interplay between human action and biologically driven patterns in urban wildflowers and pollinators in Zurich, Switzerland. Much like The New York City EcoFlora Project, Dr. Vega conducted this research using community science. These community-based projects achieve two things: they reveal the importance of the distribution of small green spaces for supporting wild pollinators, while simultaneously bringing volunteers into dialogue about wildflowers in cities, their pollination, the role of design in ecological connectivity, and the perception of wilderness in a city. Dr. Vega's work also uncovered patterns associated with tiny green “islands” spread throughout a sea of concrete. These small spaces are shown to be instrumental in urban biodiversity provided that they are sufficiently linked together. Dr. Vega states that "While cities represent a system in constant flux due to human actions, they also present an opportunity to directly engage with and influence the system’s key shapers and drivers."
Dr. Kevin Vega was born in Bronxville, NY living most of his life in an apartment near White Plains. He loved escaping to the little bits of “wilderness” like Ridge Road Park or the Greenburgh Nature Center, but trips to the Bronx Zoo or Botanical Gardens were clear highlights and instrumental in shaping his passion for nature. He loves urban spaces, and the wilderness in and around them always held a special place in his heart and scientific interest. He then decided that he needed to study “real ecology” and spent the next years in South Africa and Peru studying species interactions and human disturbance. It wasn’t until he was finishing his Masters in Zurich, Switzerland that he realized his limited vision of ecology. It dawned on him that the importance of these questions of human disturbance and ecosystem functions aren’t limited to the “wild” places left on Earth, but rather are vital to making a wilder Earth through building better cities within which both we and the wild things can live. His doctoral and postdoctoral work have focused on working with the city to monitor urban green spaces and understand their capacity to promote biodiversity as well as the ways in which urbanization is affecting our soils, the bedrock of any conservation effort.
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August 26, 2022
This month's seminar features Dr. Gema Trigos Peral (Museum and Institute of Zoology of Warsaw) and her work on use of ants as bioindicator tools to analyze different aspects of the urbanization in order to gain a better understanding of the urban environments.
Drastic changes in the habitat through urbanization has been described as a major threat against biodiversity. Notwithstanding, new studies have shown that the arthropods diversity in cities might be richer than expected. However, the effectiveness as refuge for the biodiversity varies among greeneries and the number of species present in a green patch will be strongly linked to the structure and complexity of this urban greeneries. Another effect of urbanization is changes in the abiotic factors - for example, temperatures are higher in urban areas (“urban heat island effect”). This scenario also affects arthropods at different level through the modification of their activity or development. Through the use of ants as bioidincator tools, we will analyse different aspects of the urbanization and their effect on arthropods in order to gain a better understanding of the urban environments.
Dr. Gema Trigos Peral is an assistant profesor at the Department of social and myrmecophilous insects in the Museum and Institute of Zoology (PAS) in Warsaw (Poland). Born in Campillos (Málaga, Spain), she studied Biology at the University of Córdoba (Spain) and later carried out my PhD studies under the program “Natural resources and sustainability” at this same university. Her PhD thesis focuses on the use of ant species as bioindicators to study the role of the urban greeneries in the global strategies of conservation. In the 2014, she moved to Poland were I started to work at my current working department. "It gave me the chance to keep studying the effect of urbanization in a wider range of habitat types. But it also allowed me to participate with my colleagues in a series of projects related with ant personality, vibroacoustics and forests ecology; a knowledge that greatly help to understand the social structure of the ant colonies and their relationship with the surrounding habitats." She is deeply in love with ants, and her main area of research focuses in urban ecology using ants as model species with the aim better understanding the function of urban ecosystems to find the balance between development and biodiversity conservation.
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