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Providing more equitable pedagogies to all students, including those who are traditionally underrepresented, is a high priority of science education. In this paper, we outline how we coupled Indigenous Ways of Knowing with investigations about plant phenology, or the timing of plant development, a trait that is expected to shift with a warming climate. We paired the investigations with lessons that allow secondary students the opportunity to explore the cultural significance of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), a host plant for the iconic and threatened monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). In our teaching, we specifically investigate the effect of milkweed phenology, or the timing of development, on species interactions. From teaching students in a variety of contexts about milkweed phenology and species interactions, we have learned that the topic is engaging and accessible to many students. We find that coupling inquiry with explorations of the cultural significance of milkweed deepens students learning and generates opportunities to compare Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Western Science and to learn how they can work together to assess the impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed‐methods research focused on the implementation of a coordinated distributed experiment (CDE) investigating local adaptation in common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), a host plant for the monarch butterfly population. Faculty participants were recruited from the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) who recruited their former undergraduate students. Quantitative data were drawn from the Milkweed Local Adaptation (MLA) CDE database across the three project years. Qualitative data included faculty survey responses, semi‐structured interviews of faculty and former undergraduates, and review of undergraduate research posters, papers, and curricula using rubrics aligned with 4DEE and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) benchmarks. Analysis of the MLA CDE database illustrates a decline in both participating institutions and in counts of milkweed stems over the project (2018–2020). Qualitative data analysis revealed that CDEs: (1) offer opportunities for higher education faculty and their students to be part of research including developing skills of data collection, analysis, and interpretation; (2) have unexpected challenges; and (3) can inspire undergraduate students to develop independent research projects or curricular modules for use in formal 6–12 classrooms. Broader ecological educational implications of our outcomes for higher education faculty and their undergraduate students include: (1) recommendation that faculty members involved ought to be proactively informed about potential challenges and provided with guidance on how to mitigate them; (2) mitigating challenges with model studies to try to estimate the sample size and redundancy likely to produce robust data; and (3) proactive use of the educational network to understand institutional use of the CDE project with undergraduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overwintering monarch (Danaus plexippus) populations have declined since the 1990s. In response, restoration of milkweeds, including Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed), an important host plant in their breeding grounds, has become increasingly common. However, latitudinal variation in milkweed populations suggests the possibility of regional adaptation and the potential for seed provenance to affect restoration success. Using seeds from 20 populations throughout the range of A. syriaca, we tested whether seed mass, germination success, and germination time in the greenhouse demonstrate geographic clines consistent with available evidence for this species from other studies. In addition, we tested for patterns in germination traits consistent with adaptation to spring thermal conditions by planting seeds from 10 populations in growth chambers simulating Minnesota and Kentucky spring temperatures. Even after accounting for seed mass, seeds from higher latitudes germinated faster on average under all conditions. Elevated temperatures accelerated germination time and leaf development time; however, we did not detect geographic patterns in leaf development time, indicating that the processes underlying the latitudinal cline in germination time may be unique to the germination stage. In the thermal adaptation study, high‐latitude populations produced larger seeds and seeds that germinated at a higher rate; however, neither latitudinal trend was observed in the geographic clines study, even though individual seed mass predicted germination success. High‐latitude populations express more favorable germination traits in every setting measured, perhaps due to reduced dormancy. Consequently, we conclude that latitudinal clines are more consistent with adaptation to growing season length than to spring temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The host range of a given parasitoid species is shaped by host acceptance and suitability traits of the host and parasitoid species, which can themselves be influenced by the parasitoid genotype. However, during biological control introductions, relatively few parasitoid individuals are introduced into a new geographic region and the resulting founder event may alter their ability to attack and parasitize various host species. The aphid parasitoid Lysiphlebus testaceipes is native to the Nearctic region and was introduced from Cuba to Southern Europe in the early 1970s to control two aphid pests of Citrus. We compared parasitoid preference and performance between members of introduced (French) and native (North American) populations of L. testaceipes on 16 aphid species and found differences in various aspects of host specificity. Individuals of the French population exhibited lower virulence overall than individuals of the North American population did. In particular, French L. testaceipes exhibited a lower capability to complete development within five aphid species than North American L. testaceipes did. F1 offspring of crosses between the two parasitoid populations demonstrated significant improvements in virulence on an aphid species on which members of the French parental population exhibited poor virulence. This suggests a relatively simple genetic basis of these performance traits in L. testaceipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the population decline of the monarch butterfly as a central phenomenon to support data analysis and scientific argumentation skills and to motivate inquiry and content learning m intermediate college-level biology courses. Students practice analyzing population trends, critically evaluate scientific articles that debate the causes and implications of those trends, and interpret data using key biological concepts in evolution and ecology. Students learn how to evaluate and reconcile conflicting information and use evidence and scientific reasoning to develop arguments about how communities should respond to the decline. Many of our students find the phenomenon engaging, probably because many of them come from the Upper Midwest and have witnessed or even reared monarch butterflies at home or in previous schooling. However, we draw upon ideas from culturally relevant science teaching to engage more of our students in critical analysis about the relevance of these topics to their communities, and we propose strategies for teaching about the monarch decline phenomenon in diverse contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Although preference–performance relationships in insects are typically studied in a bi‐trophic context, it is well known that host plants can affect both the preference and performance of natural enemies of herbivorous insects. 2. This study presents evidence from field and laboratory studies that two species of milkweeds, the putatively less defended Asclepias incarnata and the putatively more defended Asclepias syriaca, differentially affect adult oviposition and larval performance in Aphidoletes aphidimyza, an aphid‐feeding predatory midge, independent of aphid density. 3. Host plant species affected predatory fly larvae abundance by a factor of 50 in the field and a factor of 8 in the laboratory. Larval and adult emergence rates in our laboratory studies provided strong evidence for reduced performance on A. syriaca. Oviposition in choice and no‐choice settings provided some evidence for preference for A. incarnata, and a potentially suppressive effect of A. syriaca. 4. The results provide limited support for the hypothesis that natural selection can lead to positive correlations between adult oviposition preferences and larval performance upon various food sources, even when predatory insects oviposit onto host plants of their herbivorous prey. 5. Preference and performance are not perfectly aligned in this system, however, because ovipositing females do not reject A. syriaca entirely. Potential explanations for mismatches between preference and performance in this system include the neural constraints associated with being a generalist, adaptive time‐limited foraging strategies, and unique evolutionary histories of laboratory colonies compared with wild insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers suggestions for teacher to use rubrics to integrate crosscutting concepts. Topics discussed include using the Next Generation Science Standards to teach science concepts in classrooms to increase learning outcomes; potential stages of a student's conceptual understanding about energy, matter, and systems; and making students to trace energy flows and changes of matter.

Trophic cascades occur when predators benefit plants by consuming herbivores, but the overall strength of a trophic cascade depends upon the way species interactions propagate through a system. For example, plant resistance to, or tolerance of, herbivores reduces the potential magnitude of a trophic cascade. At the same time, plants can also affect predator foraging or consumption in ways that either increase or decrease the strength of trophic cascades. In this study, we investigated the effects of plant variation on cascade strength by manipulating predator access to aphid populations on two species of milkweed: the slower-growing, putatively more-defended Asclepias syriaca and the faster-growing, putatively less-defended Asclepias incarnata. Predatory insects increased plant growth and survival for both species, but the strength of these trophic cascades was greater on A. incarnata, which supported more aphid growth early in the season than did A. syriaca. More predators were observed per aphid on A. incarnata, and cage treatments generated significant patterns consistent with predator aggregation on A. incarnata, but not A. syriaca. Although predators strongly affected aphids, this effect did not differ consistently between milkweed species. Plant tolerance to herbivory may therefore be the primary driver of the difference in trophic cascade strength observed. Importantly, we observed that the timing of predator exclusion affected plant growth and survival differently, indicating that measures of 'cascade strength' may change with phenology and plant physiological responses. Together, our results suggest a mechanism by which differences in resource allocation patterns could explain differences in growth, phenology, and cascade strength between species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how arthropod pests and their natural enemies interact in complex agroecosystems is essential for pest management programmes. Theory predicts that prey sharing a predator, such as a biological control agent, can indirectly reduce each other's density at equilibrium (apparent competition). From this premise, we (i) discuss the complexity of indirect interactions among pests in agroecosystems and highlight the importance of natural enemy-mediated indirect interactions other than apparent competition, (ii) outline factors that affect the nature of enemy-mediated indirect interactions in the field and (iii) identify the way to manipulate enemy-mediated interactions for biological control. We argue that there is a need to increase the link between community ecology theory and biological control to develop better agroecological methods of crop protection via conservation biological control. In conclusion, we identify (i) interventions to be chosen depending on agroecosystem characteristics and (ii) several lines of research that will improve the potential for enemy-mediated indirect interactions to be applied to biological control. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of a trade-off has long played a prominent role in understanding the evolution of organismal interactions such as mutualism, parasitism, and competition. Given the complexity inherent to interactions between different evolutionary entities, ecological factors may especially limit the power of trade-off models to predict evolutionary change. Here, we use four case studies to examine the importance of ecological context for the study of trade-offs in organismal interactions: (1) resource-based mutualisms, (2) parasite transmission and virulence, (3) plant biological invasions, and (4) host range evolution in parasites and parasitoids. In the first two case studies, mechanistic trade-off models have long provided a strong theoretical framework but face the challenge of testing assumptions under ecologically realistic conditions. Work under the second two case studies often has a strong ecological grounding, but faces challenges in identifying or quantifying the underlying genetic mechanism of the trade-off. Attention is given to recent studies that have bridged the gap between evolutionary mechanism and ecological realism. Finally, we explore the distinction between ecological factors that mask the underlying evolutionary trade-offs, and factors that actually change the trade-off relationship between fitness-related traits important to organismal interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of a symposium held at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) titled "Entomology: Partnering With Small Liberal Arts Colleges." Topics covered include the benefit of getting a job at a liberal arts college to entomologists and the opportunities for connecting with liberal arts colleges which can reveal the types and nature of interactions between students and faculty.