Click the link below for additional information:
http://bio.illinoisstate.edu/phisigma/index.shtml

The Illinois State University Friends of the Fell Arboretum will hold their annual plant sale on Saturday, May 5, from 8 to 11 a.m. behind the Center for Performing Arts on School Street. In the event of inclement weather, the sale will be held on the first floor of the School Street parking deck.

The sale, known for offering a variety of unique and hard-to-find plants, highlights many Illinois prairie plans for sunny gardens as well as several woodland plants for gardeners with shade. In addition, there will be an assortment of heirloom tomatoes and a number of choice annuals.

Michael Brown, executive director of the Ecology Action Center, will be on hand to sell compost and rain collecting barrels.

For additional information on the sale, contact Don Schmidt at (309) 438-3800.

Steven Juliano

Dr. Steven Juliano, Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, is the recipient of a $426,500 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, one of the National Institutes of Health. “A number of the prominent North American mosquitoes that transmit encephalitis viruses (“vectors” of the diseases) develop as larvae in water-filled man-made containers ranging in size from small bottles to large rain barrels. General theory of ecology of aquatic habitats suggests that: 1. Aquatic habitat size, 2. Hydroperiod (the time over which a container is filled with water), and 3. Predation interact to influence success of aquatic species, such as these mosquito vectors” said Dr. Juliano.

“This project investigates how these three aspects of the aquatic habitat determine production of adult mosquitoes, and therefore risk of encephalitis. Because these encephalitis vectors are widespread in the eastern United States, this research is relevant to questions concerning how to target man made containers for mosquito source reduction or larviciding to minimize production of specific vector species. In addition, these experiments will provide a test of this body of ecological theory about organization of aquatic communities,” said Dr. Juliano.

The research will take place in forested habitats at Tyson Research Center, Washington University, near St. Louis, MO. The research team will experimentally manipulate container size, duration of the water-holding period, and the presence or absence of predators of mosquitoes to determine their effects on production of different disease-transmitting mosquito species.

This grant will also “support 3 graduate students who will pursue degrees in biology at Illinois State University and conduct their
thesis or dissertation research on the questions described in the proposal. Graduate student support of $153,927 is included in the
grant. Several undergraduate students from ISU will also be employed as research assistants by the project, and these students will gain experience in conducting ecological research. Undergraduate support of $26,038 is included in the grant,” Dr. Juliano added.

Dr. Juliano received his Ph.D. in Zoology from Pennsylvania State University and his Post-Doctoral training in Ecology at the University of York. His research interests include community ecology, especially the roles of interspecific competition and predation in communities, and the ecology of mosquitoes.