Associate Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
The University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
TEL: (662) 915-6647
FAX: (662) 915-5144
Email: dreed@olemiss.edu
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. 1998. University of Houston, Ecology and Evolution
B.B.A. 1988. Lincoln Memorial University, Economics and Statistics.
Possible Research Projects for students in my lab
Field Work:
There are a large number of potential projects on spider ecology and behavior that a student could undertake in my laboratory (e.g., experiments looking at competition among communities or guilds of spiders, use of generalist predators as biocontrol agents). Evidence from Amy Nicholas’ life history work strongly suggests that competition (including cannibalism) among spiders is shaping their life histories. For Rabidosa punctulata and R. rabida, we know a lot about how they compete and what they are eating. For communities of Hogna sp. and Schizocosa sp. we know far less about how much their diets overlap, how often cannibalism occurs, etc. Studies could vary from simple autecological studies to complex removal experiments.
International
I have built collaborations with Kasetsart University (Department of Forest Biology and Department of Genetics) and King Mongut’s University of Technology (Department of Conservation Ecology) in Thailand. Opportunities are available for students that want to do projects on tropical ecology or the conservation genetics of invertebrates or vertebrates in Southeast Asia. I have collaborators that are particularly interested in mammals and birds in Thailand.
Laboratory
I have recently started collaborating with Chuck Fox (http://www.uky.edu/~cfox/). My laboratory is now equipped to rear the seed beetles Callosobruchus maculatus and Stator limbatus. Chuck and I share common interests in adaptation to stress, the constraints of negative genetic correlations, and inbreeding/outbreeding effects. I also collaborate with Torsten Nygaard Kristensen, Kamilla Sophie Pedersen and Volker Loeschcke at Aarhus University’s Center for Environmental Stress Research (http://mit.biology.au.dk/aces/research.htm).
Modeling
Several of my students are using computer simulations and simple mathematical models to test or expand theory in conservation biology and/or evolutionary biology.
Molecular Genetics
We have developed microsatellite primers for the wolf spiders Rabidosa rabida and Arctosa sancterosae. A number of projects could be developed looking at the population genetics, phylogeography, or phylogenetics of various spider groups using these microsatellites; also lots of room for using spiders as a model system for conservation genetics questions. I am currently collaborating extensively with our newest faculty member, Dr. Brice Noonan (http://bnoonan.org), who provides invaluable help in developing SNPs and microsatellite primers for any species of interest.
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