From: Caleb Gordon <calebg at U.Arizona.EDU>

Subject: ECOLOGY RESEARCH ASSISTANT NEEDED
>
>ECOLOGY RESEARCH ASSISTANT NEEDED
>
>I am interested in hiring 1 student (undergraduate or recent graduate)
for
>the month of July to do field work in Southeastern Arizona. I will pay
for
>room and board (we'll be cooking together mostly) and provide a
$350/month
>stipend. The student(s) will be responsible for getting themselves to
the
>Santa Rita Experimental Range by July 1. I would be most interested in
>someone with a driver's license who can drive standard.
>
>Below I've provided some of the details about the location and the job
>description.
>
>A brief description of the site: The University of Arizona's Santa Rita
>Experimental Range (SRER) is in the Santa Rita Mts. in SE Arizona (about
40
>mi S. of Tucson, 50 mi N. of the border). The plant of interest is a
wild
>relative of cotton that grows on the canyon walls and in the washes.
Some
>of the hiking to get to the plants is rather steep. And the afternoons
are
>incredibly hot.
>
>The research facility was built in the 1920's by the CCC. The cabins are
in
>good shape, running water, indoor bathroom & shower, kitchen, telephone
>access, and probably limited email access. My main field site is a short
>hike out the back door, and the other 2 sites are within 20 - 60 minutes
>drive of the SRER.
>
>SRER is pretty isolated. (Bring a copy of Desert Solitaire.) I am the
only
>researcher there full time, though folks from U of A sometimes stay
>overnight and on weekends. I will have one other field assistant with me
>during the month of July. There is a retired forest service ranger and
his
>wife who run the place and make sure everything is in working order,
help
>get supplies, etc. The nearest town is a 20 minute drive --Green Valley
(a
>retirement community largely centered around the local Walmart).
>
>The field experiments are designed to address the question: Are plants
>traits shaped by selection from the enemies of herbivores? The plant is
a
>wild relative of cultivated cotton. It has structures on the undersides
of
>leaves and under the buds that exude a sugar substance and are called
>extrafloral nectaries. The nectaries attract ants to the plants. The
ants
>appear to consume and interfere with the herbivores (mainly caterpillars
>and weevils).
>
>In the field there is a lot of variation among individual plants in the
>size and number of their nectaries. I am interested firstly whether
this
>variation is genetically based (there's suggestive evidence that it is)
and
>secondly whether the variation translates into variation in plant
fitness,
>with plants that have more and bigger nectaries attracting more ants
>(thereby getting less herbivory) and having higher fitness.
>
>
>The work will involve:
>
>(1) setting up field experiments (gluing extrafloral nectaries, applying
>Tanglefoot, removing insects from plants by hand, setting up cages,
>hand-pollinating plants, etc.)
>
>(2) collecting data (behavioral observations of ants, caterpillars, and
boll
>weevils; estimating herbivore damage using a Li-Cor leaf area meter;
>counting herbivores; counting flowers; counting seeds; counting,
counting,
>counting...)
>
>(3) (possibly) data entry
>
>
>For more information, please contact:
>
>Jenn Rudgers
>4348 Storer Hall
>University of California - Davis
>530-752-8416
>jarudgers at ucdavis.edu
>
>
>-------------------
>
>Judith L. Bronstein
>
>Associate Professor
>Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
>University of Arizona
>Tucson, Arizona 85721
>
>phone 520-621-3534
>fax 520-621-9190
>

Caleb E. Gordon
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Biosciences West room 310
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
520-621-3458 phone
520-621-9190 fax
calebg at u.arizona.edu