Backyard Orchard News
Former Kearney intern lauded for outstanding Ph.D. dissertation
Leslie Roche of Orosi, who served as a high school intern at Kearney, received the 2012 Shapiro Family Award for Excellence in Science for the quality of her doctorate dissertation and outstanding academic and research record at UC Davis.
"She did a bang-up job with us, continued through her undergraduate studies at UC Davis, and ended up doing a great Ph.D. dissertation," Mitchell said.
Roche's dissertation is titled, "Cattle Grazing and Provisioning of Ecosystem Services in Sierra Nevada Mountain Meadows." Working with UCCE specialist Ken Tate, Roche explored livestock grazing on U.S. Forest Service public lands and the conservation of the Yosemite toad, a sensitive species proposed for listing as endangered.
“Dr. Roche’s research was conducted in this charged political environment, filling a crucial gap in our basic understanding of toad-livestock interactions and providing direct translation for conservation of the Yosemite toad,” said Tate, Russell L. Rustici endowed chair in rangeland watershed science.
Roche is now a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis California Rangeland Watershed Laboratory, completing research and publications from additional projects she pursued during her doctoral program.
It's the Nature of Things
The thing about predators and prey is that it's the nature of things. Take spiders. The many...
Orbweaver eating its wrapped prey, a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two spiders ganging up on a honey bee. One is administering a fatal bite. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dining Where They're Not Wanted
If your hummingbird feeders are filled with that oh-so-tantalizing sweet sugary syrup, you may be...
Honey bees licking the surface of a hummingbird feeder. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hummers can reach this syrup but the bees cannot. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Piling on the Pollen
It's a native bee. It's a pollinator. And it's a leafcutter. This morning we admired this female...
Female leafcutting bee, Megachile fidelis, foraging on a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Note "the brush of hairs on the underside of her abdomen where she is packing pollen for the trip back to her nest," says native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This female leafcutting bee, Megachile fidelis, is loaded with pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
New Staff Researcher Hired at Lindcove
Rock Christiano was raised on a small orange orchard farm and his passion for horticulture has...