Not as many people are aware of the crucial role that honeybees play in maintaining agriculture. But Dennis vanEngelsdorp, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland and director of its Honey Bee Lab, is doing what he can to highlight their relationship to crop production — and why their large, global die-off in the past few years is such a major concern.
Vegetation as a Climate Indicator: Modeling Malaria in the Punjab Region The devastation malaria has wrought on humanity cannot be overstated. On the wings of mosquitoes, this disease has long evaded eradication while preying disproportionately on our developing world. Malaria relentlessly suppresses societies in arid environments by exploiting the interplay of human behavior and ecological dynamics that drives poverty in these areas. Dr. Andres Baeza intimately understands the challenges to sustainability in these regions because he spent his formative years basking in the Chilean sun. Visiting from SESYNC, Dr. Baeza described to the Entomology department colloquium how he’s using his expertise to understand and empower disease intervention in the Northwest region of India.
Dr. Baeza was quick to point out the precedent of his work in Gujarat and Rajasthan, India, with a graph (figure 1) representing fever (malaria) cases as they correlate with rainfall from a 1911 study by Sir Rickard Christophers. University of Maryland entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp explains to Cantor, and us, how he and others in the field are trying to keep colonies — and ultimately our kitchens — stocked. Click to Watch The VideoThough your first instinct after traveling may be to unpack and put your belongings away, a University of Maryland entomologist suggests tossing your clothes in the dryer to prevent bed bugs from making your bed their new home.
A new international study found the bed bugs who bite humans evolved from bugs who fed on bats 250,000 years ago. |
Categories
All
Archives
March 2023
|
RSS Feed
