Reed Scott

Reed Scott

PhD Candidate at the University of Vermont studying disease ecology.

Publications

Spatially explicit habitat selection: Testing contagion and the ideal free distribution with Culex mosquitoes.

Published in The American Naturalist, 2022

Since its inception, attempts have been made to improve ideal free distribution (IFD) theory to make it better fit real-world data. Spatial contagion is a newer ecological concept that suggests that the perceived quality of a patch can be affected by the quality of its neighbor patches. Here, we present a series of experiments testing for potential contagion effects, examining how contagion can interact with the IFD and determining whether spatial context affects assessment of habitat quality. First, we tested whether the presence of conspecific competitors negatively impacts oviposition habitat selection by female mosquitoes (Culex restuans). We then used a more complex spatial landscape to determine whether competition can create a spatial contagion effect. Finally, we examined whether the density of conspecifics can adjust the contagion effect of nutrient availability. While females avoided patches containing conspecifics, there was no effect of competition/density on neighboring patches. Additionally, we found that resource availability was a significant predictor of where egg rafts were laid, but resource availability did not have a contagion effect. These results provide further support for the utility of the IFD, as individuals were able to accurately assess patch-level habitat quality.

Recommended citation: Scott Jr., RC and Resetarits Jr, WJ.. "Spatially explicit habitat selection: Testing contagion and the ideal free distribution with Culex mosquitoes.." The American Naturalist. 200(5). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/721009

Island biogeography at the meso-scale: distance from forest edge affects patch size preferences in ovipositing treefrogs.

Published in Ecology, 2022

Diversity in habitat patches is partly driven by variation in patch size,which affects extinction, and isolation, which affects immigration. Patch size also affects immigration as a component of patch quality. In wetland ecosystems, where variation in patch size and interpatch distance is ubiquitous, relationships between size and isolation may involve trade-offs.We assayed treefrog oviposition at three patch sizes in arrays of two types,one where size increased with distance from forest(dispersed) and one with all patches equidistant from forest, testing directly for an interaction between patch size and distance,which was highly significant.

Recommended citation: Resetarits JR, WJ, Potts KM, and **Scott JR, RC**. 2022. Island biogeography at the meso-scale: distance from forest edge affects patch size preferences in ovipositing treefrogs. Ecology. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3766

Patch size drives colonization by aquatic insects, with minor priority effects of a cohabitant

Published in Ecology and Evolution, 2021

Patch size is one of the most important factors affecting the distribution and abun-dance of species, and recent research has shown that patch size is an important niche dimension affecting community structure in aquatic insects. Building on this result, we examined the impact of patch size in conjunction with presence of larval anurans on colonization by aquatic insects. Hyla chrysoscelis (Cope’s gray treefrog) larvae are abundant and early colonists in fishless lentic habitats, and these larvae can fill mul-tiple ecological roles. By establishing larvae in mesocosms prior to colonization, we were able to assess whether H. chrysoscelis larvae have priority effects on aquatic insect assemblages. We conducted a series of three experiments in naturally colo-nized experimental landscapes to test whether (1) H. chrysoscelis larval density af-fects insect colonization, (2) variation in patch size affects insect colonization, and (3) the presence and larval density of H. chrysoscelis shift colonization of insects be-tween patches of different size. Larval density independently had almost no effect on colonization, while patch size had species-specific effects consistent with prior work. When larvae and patch size were tested in conjunction, patch size had numer-ous, often strong, species-specific effects on colonization; larval density had effects largely limited to the assemblages of colonizing beetles and water bugs, with few ef-fects on individual species. Higher larval densities in large mesocosms shifted some insect colonization to smaller patches, resulting in higher beta diversity among small patches in proximity to high density large mesocosms. This indicates establishing H. chrysoscelis larvae prior to insect colonization can likely create priority effects that slightly shape insect communities. Our results support the importance of patch size in studying species abundances and distributions and also indicate that colonization order plays an important role in determining the communities found within habitat patches.

Recommended citation: Scott JR, RC, MR Pintar, and WJ Resetarits Jr. 2021. "Patch size drives colonization by aquatic insects, with minor priority effects of a cohabitant. " Ecology and Evolution 11(23): 16817–16834. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8313. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ece3.8313</p> </article> </div>