Kojo Quaye is a student researcher in our lab this summer. He graduated from high school this year and will be attending Princeton University in the fall, studying Chemical Engineering. This summer Kojo conducted predation studies in the Cleveland community garden and vacant lot plots we have been blogging about. He examined the activity of above ground predators by placing corn earworm eggs in two treatments (shown in picture above) an "Open" treatment where predators could consume the eggs and a "Caged" treatment that exposed the eggs to environmental conditions but excluded predators. After 48 h in the field, Kojo counted the number of eggs remaining in both treatments. He is currently analyzing this data. So far, it appears that predation increases throughout the season, particularly in gardens where very low predator activity was measured in the early summer when vegetation and the pests that attack garden plants are sparse.
No comments:
Post a Comment