This fellowship will fund Kim’s ongoing research into the impacts of climate change on the Cascades frog. Congratulations Kim!

New papers are out! Our new paper in Ecosphere investigates how of island size and seaweed deposition influence the effect of lizard predators on spiders and wasps, while the PNAS paper documents rapid change in gecko morphology on newly-created islands in Brazil. See the Publications page for links to these articles.

Jonah, Kim, and John all attended the ESA Annual Meeting in Portland this August. Jonah gave a talk about seaweed subsidies and trophic cascades, Kim presented a poster about variation in Bd virulence, and John presented a poster about beavers and amphibians. Great job team!

Lab associates recently received small grants from WSU to initiate two new projects. The first project, led by postdoc John Romansic, examines the effect of beavers on amphibians in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (near the WSUV campus). This project will be carried out in collaboration with Kevan Moffett (an ecohydrologist at WSUV). Lab associate Michelle Devlaeminck (WSUV undergraduate) received a summer research grant to evaluate the use of storm water infrastructure as breeding habitat by native amphibians.

Andrew McIntyre will be joining the lab as an M.S. student this fall. His master’s research will focus on the effects of forest management treatments on pond-breeding amphibians. Welcome Andrew!

Delia Basanta, a PhD student in Gabriela Parra’s lab at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, is visiting our lab this month. She will be learning techniques related to the isolation and culture of a chytrid fungal pathogen from live amphibians. Welcome Delia!

Jennifer, a WSUV undergrad working in the lab, recently presented a poster at the 2017 WSUV research showcase entitled “The impact of air temperature on fungal pathogen infection rates in Cascades frog populations”. Congratulations Jennifer on a job well done!

Nicolette Nelson will be joining the lab as a PhD student in Fall 2017. She recently was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship by the National Science Foundation. Congratulations Nicolette!