Photo courtesy of W.R. Tschinkel.
Insect Ecology
Photo courtesy of W.R. Tschinkel.
Joshua R. King Laboratory
Community Ecology, Invasion Biology, Social Insects, Science
Education
Central Connecticut State University
In my lab we study community assembly and species invasions at multiple scales in the context of natural and human-altered landscapes. One of the overarching themes of the research program is to understand the fundamental mechanisms that drive species invasions associated with land-use changes. In so doing, we hope to improve our understanding of the consequences of land-use change and how events such as species invasions can be prevented or their impacts can be diminished. To accomplish all of this, we use experiments and comparative approaches to better understand the ecology of one of the most abundant groups of organisms on earth, the insects. We focus on ants as model organisms because: (1) they are among the most abundant and diverse families of animals, and therefore very important ecologically, (2) they are tractable study subjects at almost any latitude, (3) numerous species are important terrestrial invaders, and (4) a range of levels of social organization and life history strategies can be found within the ants.
Lab news:
Winter 2009
The "Ants of Connecticut" project is a go for next summer.
Size-abundance patterns of Florida ant communities are revealed in Ecological Entomology!
Rob Clark is refrigerating ants.
Entomology, the course, was a smashing success and the collections are excellent!