- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Aharonson, a friend and colleague of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock of the Department of Entomology and Nematology--and numerous other scientists affiliated with the USDA's Agricultural Research Services--focused on agricultural and environmental chemistry and environmental toxicology at UC Davis, where he received his master's degree in 1964. His thesis: “Micro Methods for Isolation of Natural Fluorescent Compounds.”
“Nadav was one of the first researchers in Israel and worldwide that dealt with distribution, degradation (chemical and microbial), movement and accumulation of pesticides and in plants and the environment and their influence on agriculture crops,” a family spokesperson said. “He developed analytical chemical and biological methods to identify extremely small amounts pesticides or byproducts in agricultural produce, soil, water and air.”
Aharonson published more than 100 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international-leading scientific journals, eight chapters in scientific books and more than 60 papers and publications in Hebrew.” (See Research Gate for some of his contributions.)
“Nadav Aharonson has long been a friend and hero of mine,” said Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Nadav was well known for going far out of his way to assist young researchers in their career and for bringing together international teams to address world problems in agriculture."
"On a personal note," Hammock commented, "he was so kind to my son, in particular, and me when we were in Israel."
Hammock recalled the time that he and his son, Tom, “were wandering in a wild storm through Tel Aviv with massive waves hitting a sea wall. There was only one guy in sight, huddled over a camera and taking pictures of the waves. As I passed, I said ‘Nadav?' And he replied ‘Bruce?' He took us home, dried and fed us, and arranged for Tom to take a tour of architecture in Israel while I was at a symposium at the Weismann Institute."
Aharonson, who died Aug. 6, was born in 1934 in Tel-Aviv. He graduated from high school in 1952 and “then served compulsory military service in a special paramilitary Israel Defense Forces program that combines military service and the establishment of agricultural settlements, often in peripheral areas,” his family said. He later became a member of kibbutz Misgav Am, situated on the northern border of Israel and Lebanon, “where he fell in love with agriculture and preserving earth.”
In 1958 Nadav left the kibbutz to study at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jerusalem, receiving his bachelor's degree there in 1961. After completing his studies at UC Davis, he headed back to Hebrew University for his doctorate in environmental chemistry/toxicology, writing his thesis on "Development of Analytic Methods for Identification of Pesticide Residues and Understanding their Influential Mechanisms.”
In 1965 Aharonson “established and began managing the laboratory for pesticide residues as part of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture,” his family related. “The lab mission was to develop and adapt analytical methods for testing chemical residues in export agriculture produce. This was the first time that such lab was established in Israel.”
In 1971, Aharonson began working at the Agriculture Research Organization (ARO), Volcani Institute, and established the Department of Environmental Chemistry. He managed the lab until 1997. The four-fold focus of the research team: (1) Reduce the amount of pesticide and other contaminants in soil, water and agriculture produce (2) Develop novel nontoxic chemical formulas to replace and minimize the use of toxic pesticides (3) Identify, develop and implement insect pheromones and other volatile plants substances that mediate insect-insect and insect-plant communication and (4) identify and characterize secondary metabolites in plants that provide immunity against insects.
Aharonson's resume includes:
- 1978-1996: Lecturer on environmental toxicology at the Faculty of Agriculture, where he also supervised many graduate students
- 1990: Appointed full professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- 1984-1990: Director of the Plant Protection Institute and part of the management team at Volcani Institute, ARO
- 1988-1996: Founder of the Center for Biotechnology at ARO, where he led research reducing the usage of toxic pesticides in agriculture.
In addition, Aharonson was active in numerous international scientific committees. He spent his sabbatical years at USDA's Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, MD.
“Nadav retired in 1997, and since then had volunteered and led the efforts in his hometown of Ramat-Hasharon to stop the contamination of the local water by industrial water pollutants,” his family said. “His work contributed to the closure of the contaminated local water supply, providing safe water to the residents of his town. Nadav later established the local Independent Water Supply authority and served as the chairmen for eight years."
Survivors include three children and five grandsons. His wife, Ada, died in 2012.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The hybrid meeting (both in-person and virtual) took place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Denver.
Several of the UC Davis highlights, as previously featured on the Department of Entomology and Nematology website:
- UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom, integrated pest management (IPM) specialist and a past president of ESA, was celebrated as an Honorary Member of the ESA, an honor bestowed for his “long-term dedication and extraordinary contributions." (See more here.)
- UC Davis doctoral alumnus Kelli Hoover, a Pennsylvania State University professor internationally known for her research on invasive species, including the Asian longhorned beetle, gypsy moth and spotted lanternfly, was honored as a newly elected Fellow of ESA for her excellence in research. (See more here.)
- Danielle Rutkowski, doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won a President's Prize in a graduate student competition for her presentation on "Fungicide Impacts on Bumble Bees are Mediated via Effects on Bee-Associated Fungi" in the category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Ecology 3." She studies with community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor, and is also advised by community ecologist and professor Rick Karban. (See more here.)
- Maureen Page, with the lab of pollinator ecologist Neal Williams, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won the second-place award in a graduate student competition for her presentation on "Optimizing Pollinator-Friendly Plant Mixes to Simultaneously Support Wild and Managed Bees." She competed in the category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Pollinators. (See more here.)
- Kyle Lewald, with the College of Biological Sciences and the Integrated Genomics and Genetics Graduate Group, but a member of the lab of molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won second-place in a graduate student competition for his presentation on "Assembly of Highly Continguous Diploid Genome for the Agricultural Pest, Tuta absoluta." (See more here.)
At the ESA's annual meetings, students are offered the opportunity to present their research and win prizes. There are several components to the competition: 10-minute papers (oral), posters, and infographics. First-place winners receive a one-year free membership in ESA, a $75 cash prize, and a certificate. Second-winners score a one-year free membership in ESA and a certificate.
"Each year approximately 3,500 entomologists and other scientists gather to exchange scientific information," ESA says on hits website. "A program of symposia, conferences, submitted papers, and continuing education seminars provides attendees the opportunity to hear and present research results. The meeting also provides a chance to interact informally with peers and prospective employers."
ESA, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Annapolis, Md.,, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and others in related disciplines. Its 7000 members are in educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Michelle Smith of Corteva Agriscience served as the 2021 president. The newly elected president is Jessica Ware, assistant curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Below are several images shared by Photography G of Denver at the ESA meeting. More images from the ESA meeting are on Flickr.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Her seminar, dealing with insect biodiversity, ecosystem services, and citizen science approaches in urban gardens, begins at 4:10 p.m., Pacific Time. The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
More than 60 percent of our world's population will live in cities in the next decades, Egerer says in her abstract. "Urban agriculture has great potential to support arthropod biodiversity and thereby potentially enhance ecosystem services such as pollination and pest predation for more sustainable food production. In this talk, I discuss interdisciplinary research on wild bees and natural enemies in urban community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany. Specifically, I examine how urban garden management can play an important role in supporting species diversity and the provision of insect-mediated services. Furthermore, I discuss citizen science initiatives that our group uses to engage the public in scientific research on urban biodiversity and ecosystem services."
Egerer, whose research and teaching interests include ecology, biodiversity, agroecology, urban ecology, insect ecology, climate change, and food systems, holds a bachelor's degree in biology (2013) from Kalamazoo College, Mich., and then received her master's degree (2017) and her doctorate (2019) in environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz, studying with major professor Stacy Philpott.
After research work in Australia, Egerer joined the Institute of Ecology at the Technical University of Berlin in 2019 as an International Postdoc Initiative (IPODI) postdoctoral fellow. In 2020, she was appointed to the professorship for Urban Productive Ecosystems in the TUM School of Life Sciences.
Her most recent peer-reviewed publications include:
- Egerer M and Kowarik I. (2020) Confronting the modern Gordian Knot of urban beekeeping, Trends in Ecology and Evolution 1-4.
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Philpott SM, Egerer M, Bichier P, Cohen H, Cohen R, Liere H, Jha S, Lin BB. (2020) Gardener demographics, experience, and motivations drive differences in plant species richness and composition in urban gardens, Ecology and Society
- Buchholz S and Egerer M. (2020) Functional ecology of wild bees in cities: what we know about trait-urbanization relationships, Biodiversity and Conservation 1-23.
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Philpott SM, Lucatero A, Bichier P, Egerer M, Jha S, Lin BB, Liere H. (2020) Changes in natural enemy-herbivore networks along local and landscape gradients in urban agroecosystems, Ecological Applications 0: 1-13.
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Egerer M, Lin B, Diekmann L. (2020) Nature connection, experience and policy encourage and maintain adaptation to drought in urban agriculture, Environmental Research Communications 2: 1-12.
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Egerer M, Liere H, Lucatero A, Philpott SM. (2020) Plant damage in urban agroecosystems varies with local and landscape factors, Ecosphere 11(3): 1-19.
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Egerer M, Fouch N, Anderson EC, and Clarke M. (2020) Socio-ecological connectivity differs in magnitude and direction across urban landscapes, Scientific Reports 10: 1-16.
- Egerer M, Wagner B, Lin BB, Kendal D and Zhu K. (2020) New methods of spatial analysis in urban gardens inform future vegetation surveying, Landscape Ecology 1: 1-18.
- Egerer M, Cecala JM and Cohen H. (2020) Wild bee conservation within urban gardens and nurseries: effects of local and landscape management, Sustainability 12: 1-10.
The Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars are coordinated by nematologist and assistant professor Shahid Siddique, who may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu for any technical issues.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The “makings,” is now published. It's the first of what is expected to be many in his entomological career.
“A Checklist of Mantodea of Belize, with a Regional Key to Species,” co-authored with UC Davis professor and arachnologist Jason Bond, is now online on ZooKeys.
“Lohit did a great job on this, and there's even an online Lucid identification key,” said Bond, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics and the newly selected associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“This is a great example of undergraduate research opportunities in entomology,” said Bond. Garikipati worked in the Bond laboratory as a lab assistant before and after receiving his bachelor's degree in entomology in June 2019. He is now studying for his master's degree in biology at Towson University, Md., with advisor Christopher Oufiero.
For the ZooKeys publication, Garikipati and Bond updated the list of known Mantodea in Belize, adding 12 new species to the country records, bringing the total known species of Mantodea in Belize to 21. They provided information on habitat and microhabitat observations; and a regional dichotomous key and Lucid interactive key to known species in Belize. They also included a list of other possibly endemic species. In addition, the scientists remarked on the merit of further sampling efforts in central America, based on recent studies.
“Our findings,” they wrote in their abstract, “suggest that our understanding of Central American Mantodean diversity could be vastly improved by further documentation.”
Grateful to Jason Bond. “After a probably too lengthy amount of time, I am extremely pleased to present my first publication,” Lohit wrote on his Facebook page. “I cannot understate how grateful I am to Jason Bond for providing his time and advice to help guide me through this process, it quite literally would not have been possible without his enthusiasm and support. Thanks to the other members of the Bond lab as well for their advice and critique of various parts of the manuscript during its development. Hopefully we can continue to update and document the fauna of the southern Yucatan peninsula and further our understanding of mantis distribution.”
Mantids have long fascinated Lohit, who grew up in Pleasanton, Alameda County. “I first became interested in praying mantises when I was about six years old,” he said. “I found a praying mantis on my aunt's curtain in India and had no clue what the insect was! After a lot of Googling and finding out that people kept various species as pets, I started rearing both native and exotic species.”
“Admittedly, mantises are not the easiest organism to rear; it took me a few years before I bred my first species, Mantis religiosa (Linnaeus),” Lohit said. “I was really fascinated just by their hunting methods and cryptic strategies; I think I could watch them hunt another thousand times and still be as fascinated. Currently, I think I'm pushing 40 or 50 species that I have reared, with representatives from most families. Captive observations have been a large part of fueling my interest and raising questions about these organisms, as they've afforded me the chance to watch organisms that are often rarely found in the wild.”
High Biodiversity. The June 22-July 6 bioblitz, led by biology professors and Bohart associates Fran Keller of Folsom Lake College and Dave Wyatt of Sacramento City College and headquartered at Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S) Field Station and Research Center, spanned four locations. The area boasts "some of the highest biodiversity the country has to offer," according to its website.
“Lohit and Brian Fridie (undergraduate at the University of Florida, Gainesville) captured many more individuals and more species than I ever saw on any of our trips,” said Keller, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, where she studied with major professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. “Granted, I was collecting everything and leading the trip but having specialists on the trip helps us gather and document insect diversity greater than we could do with just Dave and I collecting.”
“Possibly the thing that surprised me the most was the sheer underrepresentation of taxa in the country,” Garikipati said. “I had expected to maybe find one or two new country records, but I did not expect to more than double the number of species recorded from the country! The other thing that astounded me was how numerous and diverse insect populations were as well (this was my first time collecting in the tropics). Despite the sheer scope of the environment there, mantises were not an uncommon find (though they are still as a whole much more difficult to find than many insect groups).”
“It was a real pleasure searching for mantises in Belize,” Garikipati said. “My favorite find was most likely seeing wild individuals of species I'd only be able to see in pinned collections and on iNaturalist. There is something so enchanting about seeing an animal in its natural habitat, and these observations bring up many questions. It was definitely a fun experience and I am very happy to be able to contribute to our understanding of these animals.”
More Than 50 Specimens. He and his colleagues collected more than 50 specimens from 14 genera and 19 species as part of the survey. Using the specimens they collected, they generated a dichotomous key and a Lucid interactive key.
“The aim is to provide both citizens and entomologists unfamiliar with this group with an easy method to identify collected species with high accuracy,” wrote Garikipati and Bond. “Photographs in the Lucid key are included to aid with character determination.”
In their publication, the scientists thanked Julio Rivera (an entomologist at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Lima, Peru) for his assistance, patience, and providing some of his unpublished work to assist in identification. “We also thank Brendon Boudinot (UC Davis doctoral alumnus) for his boundless energy, support, and methodological feedback; Philip S. Ward (professor and ant specialist at UC Davis) for assisting in identification of Formicidae; Brian T. Fridie (undergraduate at the University of Florida, Gainesville) for his assistance in collecting mantises; and one anonymous reviewer for feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript.”
Garikipati's future plans? “I am looking to continue to incorporate ecology into my comparative morphology work,” he said. “Currently, I am investigating diversity in prey capture mechanisms in mantises, which may have implications for prey specialization.” His thesis title: “Diversity of Prey Capture Mechanisms in Praying Mantises: Implication for Prey Specialization.”
“Mantises,” he said, “have long been homogenized--until relatively recently--both in terms of their behavior and morphology by the general public, and I'm hoping by showcasing diversity both in behavior and morphology, the public's perception of these animals will change. “And this research will provide us valuable insight into the impact mantises have in the ecosystems they are in, as well as their potential use as bioindicators for conservation purposes.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Gabriel Zilnik, a researcher at USDA's Agricultural Research Service, in Wapato, Wash. will be the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's next speaker.
Zilnik says the topic is of growing interest for biological researchers around the globe. "In this seminar I will attempt to demystify Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, assuage fears of a robot takeover, and demonstrate its utility in complex but semi-structured systems like North Carolina tobacco."
"While machine learning is based on the idea that machines should be able to learn and adapt through experience, AI refers to a broader idea where machines can execute tasks 'smartly.' Artificial Intelligence applies machine learning, deep learning and other techniques to solve actual problems.--SAS.
Zilnik holds a doctorate in entomology from North Carolina State University (2020), where he also received his master's degree in 2016. He received his bachelor's degree in anthropology from Arizona State University in 2012.
While at NCSU, he founded and hosted, Pints of Science, for two years, ending in April 2015. "I partnered with a colleague in the Department of Communication to develop an outreach program where we could provide a space for graduate students and academics to get out of their comfort zone and interact with the public," he writes on his Linked In site. "We helped our speakers develop their presentations and engage with the public in venues outside of the University."
Nematologist and plant pathologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, coordinates the department's seminars. For further information on the seminars, contact Siddique at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.