Dr. Lara LaDage, PI
Penn State Altoona
Variation in ecological pressures is correlated with a myriad of sensory and behavioral adaptations, with concurrent variation in the brain structures supporting those adaptations. Although variation in brain attributes due to habitat complexity is more commonly studied in vertebrates, ecological variation has also been shown to affect brain size in insects. Mushroom bodies, the brain regions responsible for sensory processing, learning, and behavioral regulation, vary based on sensory processing but it remains unclear if variation in habitat also correlates with changes in mushroom bodies in field-caught individuals. This study will give insight into how the neural architecture correlates with habitat variation in Odonates from Ghana.
Dr. Kofi Adu, co-PI
Penn State Altoona
Spectroscopic investigation of the optical characteristics of Odonata wings
Trait-based mechanistic approaches have recently emerged to understand how environmental change affects insect distributions. When undertaken in a phylogenetic framework, studies reveal the biological mechanisms underlying landscape-level patterns, which affect individual fitness and metapopulation processes such as extinction and colonization. For example, butterfly wing patterns exhibit altitudinal differences across populations, suggesting that environmental abiotic factors can adaptively influence wing characteristics. Similarly, variation in light transmission properties of the wing may confer theromoregulatory benefits in habitats that vary in solar irradiance and air temperature. In this project, students will test if the savanna and agricultural areas with greater solar irradiance and increased temperatures have Odonates with wings with increased optical transmissibility and more hydrocarbons.
Dr. Jessica Ware, co-PI
American Natural History Museum
Effects of environmental variability on Odonata assemblages across ecological zones in Ghana
Climate change can cause shifts in a species geographical range, and this has been modeled specifically in range shifts of Odonata, reflected by predicted colonization of southern species in more northern populations. In Europe, Odonata have demonstrated some of the fastest range margin movements that track with shifting isotherms. However, we know almost nothing about the ecological factors that initiate such shifts. Since the three broad collection zones in Ghana vary in climate, vegetation, and fauna, this project will allow all students to collect, curate, and identify species from collection sites across ecozones in Ghana. This project will be co-led by Drs. Ware and Combey.
Dr. Rofela Combey, international collaborator
University of Cape Coast
Effects of environmental variability on Odonata assemblages across ecological zones in Ghana
Climate change can cause shifts in a species geographical range, and this has been modeled specifically in range shifts of Odonata, reflected by predicted colonization of southern species in more northern populations. In Europe, Odonata have demonstrated some of the fastest range margin movements that track with shifting isotherms. However, we know almost nothing about the ecological factors that initiate such shifts. Since the three broad collection zones in Ghana vary in climate, vegetation, and fauna, this project will allow all students to collect, curate, and identify species from collection sites across ecozones in Ghana. This project will be co-led by Drs. Combey and Ware.
Dr. Laura Cruz, collaborator
Penn State University
Assessment of programmatic and student learning goals
Dr. Laura Cruz at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State will serve as the primary project evaluator. She and Dr. LaDage have worked on several Penn State system-wide projects involving the quantitative and qualitative assessment of undergraduate research. Tracking educational gains associated with programmatic and student learning goals is an iterative process, providing an accurate representation of learning and educational outcomes attributable to the program, benchmarking those outcomes to programmatic goals, and revising programmatic offerings to better reach those goals.