- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) Graduate Student Organization newsletter (Feb. 2024)
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Deniz Inci, Ph.D. Candidate with the Al-Khatib Lab at UC Davis, is the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) graduate student of the month.
What university do you attend and what is your research focus?
I am at the University of California, Davis, where I have focused on evaluating a suite of tools to improve season-long weed management in California rice while providing best management practices to control herbicide-resistant weeds. I am also involved in characterizing novel herbicides and assessing their off-target impacts on fruit, nut, and vine crops.
What drew you to weed science?
I have always been interested in weeds in agronomical, horticultural, and rural settings. During my first weed science course as an undergraduate, I realized that weed science was the career pathway I wanted to pursue. Since then, nearly all growers I have met have told me that weeds are their biggest challenges, which fascinates me and has led to my decision to study weed science.
What is your favorite thing about the WSSA or your regional society?
My favorite thing about the WSSA is networking with peers, colleagues, and friends who are ambitious about weed science. Meeting with folks from public and private industries who speak the same scientific language is always great.
What is your favorite weed and why?
My favorite weed is barnyardgrass, one of the most significant challenges of rice systems worldwide, including California. Since the beginning of my Ph.D., I have been dedicated to sustainable watergrass management, focusing on barnyardgrass in the Sacramento Valley. I cannot express how beautiful looking a barnyardgrass-free rice field is.
What is your long-term goal?
I am highly interested in herbicide discovery, development, and stewardship processes. My long-term goal is to have a career in an industry that allows me to be part of innovative solutions for growers and stakeholders. I feel honored to be part of the University of California, where stakeholders from diverse backgrounds collaborate to address challenges in California agriculture. As an applied science person, I would be happy to be part of an innovative team that brings solutions to modern agriculture, which would be my dream job.
To contact Deniz Inci, email him at inci@ucdavis.edu.
The story also appears on the UC Davis Plant Sciences Dept. NEWS website.
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- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) Graduate Student Organization newsletter (Oct. 2023)
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Graduate Student of the Month
What is your long-term goal?
My long-term goal is to land a career in industry or the public sector that enables me to work with growers and stakeholders and help address the issues they face. I have been fortunate to see the positive impacts on growers while working in the industry as well as working with extension professionals of the University of California throughout the state, and would be honored to serve my local stakeholders in either setting.
What drew you to weed science?
My introduction to weed science was through an internship during my undergraduate degree doing applied research for a chemical company. The applied nature of weed science was very appealing to me, as well as the intricacies of managing weeds in the various specialty cropping systems we have in California.
What is your favorite weed and why?
Branched broomrape, and broomrapes in general, are a very unique and challenging species to work with and I really enjoy the dynamic challenges they present. My least favorite weed by far is field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis.)
What is your favorite thing about the WSSA or your regional society?
My favorite thing about WSSA is its ability to connect scientists from all over the world. Working with a unique weed in a unique cropping system, it is often hard to meet with folks regionally with experience studying or managing branched broomrape in tomatoes. Attending a WSSA conference enabled me to meet with researchers from across the nation and the globe who have experience working with branched broomrape, and our discussions and connections were invaluable to my research and career in weed science.
What university do you attend and what is your research focus?
I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, and my research focus is on in-season management of the invasive noxious weed, branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa). It is a parasitic plant that attaches to a host plant's roots and presents a major threat to the California processing tomato and seed industries.
To contact Matt Fatino, email him at mfatino@ucdavis.edu.
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- Author: Dong-Hwan Choe
Mark Dery in Choe lab has successfully defended his PhD on December 1, 2021. Now it is official, Dr. Dery!
Mark's PhD dissertation title is:
"Wash-Off Potential of Pyrethroids After Use of Total Release Foggers and the Chemical Ecology of Bed Bugs (Heteroptera: Cimicidae)".
Congratulations!!
- Author: Dong-Hwan Choe
Kevin Welzel in Choe laboratory has successfully defended his PhD today.
It is now official - Dr. Welzel!
Congratulations.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Scampavia's poster, “Farming Practices Affect Nest Site Selection of Native Ground Nesting Bees,” won her the $1500 prize. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation generously provided the funding.
Two other graduate students in the Neal Williams' lab won second and third place. Jennifer Van Wyk placed second for her poster on “Wet Meadow Restoration Buffers the Impact of Climate Change: Pollinator Resilience During the California Drought” and Leslie Saul-Gershenz, who also works with professor Steve Nadler, placed third for her poster on “Native Bee Parasite Shows Multitrait, Host Specific Variation and Local Adaptation.” Van Wyk received a $1000 prize and Saul- Gershenz, $500.
“Availability of foraging and nesting habitat potentially limits native bee range, which affects where pollinator services occur,” Scampavia wrote in her introduction. “Prior studies focus on how foraging habitat influences bee distribution, but few consider nesting limitations. Understanding how different soil properties affect native bee nest site preference can help predict where these nests will be found in agricultural landscapes, as well as whether particular farming practices could affect the health of nesting bees.”
Her objective: “to determine whether tillage, irrigation and application of pesticides impact nest site selection using a controlled choice assay.”
She examined the nests of bees in four genus categories: Lasioglossum, Halictus, Svastra and Melissodes.
Scampavia concluded “The two soil treatments that positively influenced nest initiation (tillage and irrigation) would be found in actively farmed areas, rather than fallow fields or field margins. If the presence of insecticide residues or tillage affects offspring survival, these results suggest that bees nesting in agricultural areas are faced with an ecological trap that could negatively affect development and overwintering survival. Providing strips of bare, tilled and irrigated soil in early spring in field margins or hedgerows could be one way to create attractive pesticide and late-season tillage-free shelters in which native bees could nest.”
Her current research deals with isolating and identifying specific soil attributes that affect nest site selection in bee species, and how these attributes impact offspring success. “I mostly focus on native ground nesting bees, but also study the impact of chlorpyrifos leaf residues on nesting alfalfa leafcutter bees,” she said. “I am also interested in how nesting habitat availability shapes bee community composition and distribution across the landscape. My current focus is on sunflower fields, alfalfa seed production, and mosaic landscapes in serpentine chaparral.”
In addition to her PhD research, she participates in a variety of education outreach and conservation projects. She has presented lectures for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Schoolyard Habitat Project; worked for the California Native Plant Society, documenting bee diversity in a threatened portion of Knowland Park in Oakland; and co-taught an undergraduate course focusing on current threats to pollinator populations and how to educate the general public to effect positive change.
Scampavia writes a bee blog, “Diadasia, The Lives of Other Bees,” at https://diadasia.wordpress.com/ that she launched in February 2012.
The Bee Symposium, sponsored by the Honey and Pollination Center and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, featured keynote speaker Marla Spivak, Distinguished McKnight Professor, University of Minnesota and a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, who discussed "Helping Bees Stand on Their Own Six Feet." The symposium drew 360 people.
Entomology doctoral candidate Matthew Prebus of the Phil Ward lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, video-recorded the presentations and uploaded them today.
They are all on YouTube.
Marla Spivak: Protecting Pollinators
Amy Toth: Combined Effects of Viruses and Nutritional Stress on Honey Bee Health
Elina Niño: Best Management Practices to Support Honey Bee Health
Neal Williams: Enhancing Forage for Bees
Jake Reisdorf: Getting into Beekeeping- Thoughts from a 12-year-old Beekeeper
Katharina Ullmann: Project Integrated Crop Pollination
John Miller: Keeping Bees Healthy with Forage
Benjamin Sallman: Bee Informed Partnership
Gretchen LeBuhn: The Giant Sunflower Project
Christine Casey: Introduction to the Häagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven