M. Carmen Hall
mchall@arches.uga.edu
Ph.D. Ecology Graduation: 2005
BS - Wildlife Biology Southwest Texas State University
(1997)
MS - Biology Southwest Texas State University (2001)
Thesis: Community Structure of Parasitoids Attacking Leaf
Galls of Belonocnema treatae on Quercus fusiformis
Ph.D. Topic: The exploration of complex interactions
among atmospheric CO2, foliar quality, insect herbivores,
and the decomposition processes.
Ecosystems are dynamic and are constantly influenced by environmental
variability. As the global climate is altered local ecosystem
affects will be seen in the concentrations of atmospheric
CO2, which in turn may be expected to have a cascading effect
in chemical composition of plants, behavior and abundance of
insect herbivores, and the decomposition process. Such environmental
changes would favor some species over others thus changing
ecosystem composition. It is important to have
a better understanding of ecological and physiological effects
of increasing concentrations of CO2 and plant communities taking account
of complex interactions among atmospheric CO2, foliar quality,
insect herbivores, and decomposition.
My study proposes to look at the complex interactions among atmospheric CO2, foliar quality, insect herbivores, and decomposition in the following manner:
1). Explore the effects of CO2 on oak foliar quality.
2). Define links between foliage quality and litter quality.
3). Determine the influence of CO2-mediated changes in litter quality on decomposition and soil nutrient dynamics
4). Determine the influence of foliage quality on the specialized structures of gall-forming insects.
5). Determine the influence of gall-forming and leaf-mining insects on foliar and litter quality, and subsequent decomposition.