Bugs from Space: Using Diversity Patterns in Hawaiian Spiders and Insects to Reveal Signatures of Healthy Ecosystems
Rosemary Gillespie, Professor
Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
This project asks, "What defines the "health" of an ecological community, and can the signatures of "health be detected from communities of insects and spiders? And to what extent is that signature captured across scales, from plants, on to imagery – drones, helicopters, and satellites? The work aims to show how sensitive a community is to invasion on the one hand, and the potential for restoration on the other. The work focuses on different areas in the native forests of Hawaii and combines a broad ecological approach based on species assembly and interaction patterns, with an evolutionary approach that examines how a given species group adapts, multiplies, or declines over time. The first approach addresses the diversity and abundance of species at a site and what are the kinds of predator-prey or other interactions between species. The second approach allows assessment of the rate at which a given lineage of organisms can adapt and diverge.
Role: Undergraduates involved in this project would be working on questions of ecological and evolutionary change and adaptation in different groups of Hawaiian insects and spiders, using either molecular or morphological approaches. For the morphological work, they may be imaging or sorting specimens (insects and spiders). For the molecular work, students will be trained generally in the lab, and in particular on Next Generation sequencing technologies, to measure evolutionary change. Techniques include: pcr, DNA/RNA extraction, next-generation sequencing methods, basic bioinformatics, sequence assembly/annotation. Learning Outcomes: This will depend on the part of the project with which the student becomes involved, and may include competency in microscopic work, familiarity with a modern biological laboratory, and/ or computational techniques. We generally require students to participate in the sorting of arthropods by order or size, into DNA extraction plates for at least one semester. Depending on the student's interest, they may become involved in molecular methods.
Qualifications: Students should have completed or be currently enrolled in at least one semester of undergraduate coursework in the biological sciences (e.g. Biology 1B) and should have an interest in evolutionary biology, ecology and/or island biology.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Hannah Warr, Ph.D. candidate
Hours: to be negotiated
Biological & Health Sciences Environmental Issues