Summer Environmental StudyGigi Lu
2025 The Mary T. Carothers Summer Environmental Studies Scholarship
Can Stronger Predation Enhance the Survival of Prey? Investigating the Implications of the Predation Paradox for Biological Pest Control Through Modelling, Experiments, and Field Observations on a Puerto Rican Coffee Agroecosystem
My project aims to understand how a newly discovered invasive fly will impact an ant-coffee-pest system. I will do this using mathematical modelling of a hypothetical coffee farm and sampling on a real coffee farm in Puerto Rico. The ant communities of Puerto Rican coffee farms are instrumental in controlling coffee-destroying pests such as the coffee leaf miner and coffee berry borer. Therefore, it is extremely important to grasp how the fly, which predates on perhaps the most important of the pest-controlling ants —Solenopsis invicta— could potentially alter the ability of the ants to control coffee pests.
The Mary T. Carothers Summer Environmental Studies Scholarship
To encourage studies and careers in the environmental field with the opportunity to gain knowledge and experience beyond the regular course of study.
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