Building a DNA library for Hawaiian Insects and Spiders
Rosemary Gillespie, Professor
Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
Hawaii is well known for its unique biodiversity – rather like the Galapagos, but much more extreme. This is particularly true of insects and spiders, where almost all the native species are unique to the islands. However, the environments of Hawaii are suffering at the hand of invasive species and climate change. Many – perhaps most – species will go extinct before they are even described. To understand how the environment is changing and – most importantly – to figure out what to do about it, we need a way of assessing arthropod diversity. And for this, we need a DNA reference library in which each species has a DNA “barcode”. With the library, land managers and researchers can sample an area and then match what they find with a known barcode. In this way, we can look at how species’ ranges have changed over time, identify habitats that need protecting, see how diets are changing, etc.
Role: Students that take part in project will help image insects and spiders and engage in molecular work such as DNA extraction and Sanger sequencing methods to generate data.
Qualifications: Applicants should be organized, detail-oriented, and able to work independently. Some background in molecular methods is recommended but not required.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Cristian Gruppi, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Biological & Health Sciences Environmental Issues