Collaborative: RUI: IRES: Birds, Beans, and Bugs - Modeling a Warming Climate's Effect on the Natural Enemies Hypothesis

Missouri Western State University, Saint Joseph MO

Investigators

Abstract

In this project small groups of graduate and undergraduate students from Humboldt State University and Missouri Western State University will engage with faculty in applied ecological research in Kenya. The research will extend work from a previous IRES award and launch new collaborations with foreign partners. The program has a unifying theme of investigating the effect of rising temperature on insect pests and their natural enemies in coffee farming landscapes. Specific research questions will involve field sampling, computer modeling, and molecular analyses in the lab, thereby training students in several scientific methodologies. Students will take courses in the fall and spring semesters that will prepare them for, and aid their analysis of, field research conducted over 5-week field seasons in Kenya. Students and professors will work in coordination with ornithologists and entomologists from Kenya's National Museums of Kenya and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. The work will be integrated with classroom instruction, extending the benefits of the project to other students at our predominately undergraduate institutions. Students will be fully immersed in the international research process, they will collaborate with foreign and U.S. mentors, and they will benefit from the program's unique integration of field- and classroom-based learning.