Kayla is a PhD candidate working in Dr. Greenlee’s lab at North Dakota State University. Currently she works on how stress impacts the reproduction of Megachile rotundata the alfalfa leafcutting bee. She is specifically interested in how cold temperatures and flower availability impact reproduction. Her favorite part of the job is the problem solving that…

The response of ectotherms to temperature stress is complex, non-linear, and is influenced by life stage and previous thermal exposure. Mortality is higher under constant low temperatures than under a fluctuating thermal regime (FTR) that maintains the same low temperature but adds a brief, daily pulse of increased temperature. Long term exposure to FTR has…

Assistant Professor of Research Dr. Giancarlo Lopez-Martinez (GC) joined the Fargo ICE group at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester. He moved from New Mexico to North Dakota after accepting an Assistant Professor of Research in the Biological Sciences department at  North Dakota State University. His expertise is comparative stress physiology with a focus…

In insects, prolonged exposure to unseasonably low temperatures can lead to detrimental physiological effects known as chill injury. Changes to active and passive transport across epithelia during chilling likely drive the collapse of ion gradients, metabolic imbalance and potentially oxidative stress. In the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata transcriptomic evidence provides support for these responses…