MSc Alumnus – Samantha Bennett recently published the first paper from her MSc. Sam’s thesis was looking at the downstream impacts of novel feed ingredients (seaweed) used to reduce methane emissions from beef cows. In this first paper, she used a combination of choice and non-choice studies.
Choice studies involve giving an organism a couple options of things to choose from (in this case, dung from cows fed a regular diet – or dung from cows fed a diet fed with seaweed). If the dung beetle perceive something as “off” with the dung, they’ll pick the other option. What we found is that the beetles most often turned up their antennae at dung from cows fed seaweed when a less-seaweedy option was available – producing about 50% more brood balls from the less-seaweedy option.
When we ran the no-choice test, beetles that spent their larval development in dung from seaweed-fed cows – tended to be on the smaller side.
For all the details, including a methodology that features *very sparkly cow poop* – check out the article available open access at Agricultural & Forest Entomology!
Congratulations Sam! This is an exciting milestone for the lab – and we are so proud of you!
Insect Biodiversity in Agroecosystems Lab 