Chris Frost
Ph.D. Ecology
cfrost@arches.uga.edu
I like ecological systems. Their complexity is mysterious in
that there is obvious efficiency of organization but puzzling in
how such efficiency could develop among individuals and populations
acting within their physical environment. My background
is fairly broad, though a unifying theme to the majority of
my interests has been the relationship between humans and our
environment. My early training was as a biologist and
environmental scientist with a background filled with biology,
medicinal plants, toxicology, chili peppers, organic gardening,
tropical ecotourism, ethnobotany, protein chemistry, molecular biology,
and environmental education.
Recently, I completed a Master's degree (www.geocities.com/calopogon1974)
with a comparative study of attitudes about forests among
young adults in Peru and Florida. This was a remarkable
opportunity to learn techniques in anthropological, sociological,
and psychological sciences that are relevant to understanding
the relationship between humans and the natural world.
My work at UGA focuses on effects of herbivory on ecosystem
processes in a temperate forest. In 1998, an herbivore
outbreak on one site at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory removed
upwards of 50% of the canopy leaf area and deposited a large
amount of frass (insect feces) on the forest floor. One
month later, there was a "pulse" in nitrate concentrations in
the soil underneath the outbreak area and in the stream draining
the outbreak area. As with other somewhat unexpected
results, we scratched our heads and wondered if small insect
larvae could be responsible for an ecosystem-wide disturbance, and then
designed experiments to test the hypothesis that they just might.
I am working with northern red oak (Quercus rubra)
as the model tree, which is a dominant species at Coweeta.
The white marked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma: Lepidoptera;
Lymantriidae), reared in the laboratory, is the model herbivore.
Using a series of outdoor plant-soil replicated mini-ecosystems,
we will attempt to reproduce the conditions under which the
soil and stream pulses occurred to investigate the mechanisms
underlying the phenomenon.