John Styrsky, Ph.D. |
Experience/Background
I joined the biology program faculty at Lynchburg College in 2006. Prior to earning my graduate degrees, I spent four years working as an itinerant field biologist for various agencies including the USDA Forest Service in Oregon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arkansas, Idaho, and Saskatchewan, a hydroelectric power company in Idaho, and the Nature Conservancy in Texas on projects investigating the ecology of birds, mammals, insects, and plants. Research for my M.S. focused on reproductive investment in songbirds and whether offspring fitness in house wrens is affected more by the quality of eggs from which they hatch or by the quality of the care they receive from their parents. Upon completing my M.S. degree, I was awarded a fellowship from the Max Planck Research Center for Ornithology in Germany to study the influence of genetic and environmental factors on bird migration in the Neotropics. For the better part of the next two years I lived and worked in the Republic of Panama at a rainforest field station operated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. My research involved collecting and hand-rearing nestling yellow-green vireos, and then studying their migratory behavior under specific environmental conditions. My Ph.D. research focused on mutualistic relationships between ants and aphids in agricultural systems in Alabama and how ants can be exploited as a biological control agent to suppress key agricultural pests of cotton and soybean.
Degrees and Certifications
B.S. Biology, 1992 Southwestern University
M.S. Biological Sciences, 1999 Illinois State University
Ph.D. Entomology, 2006 Auburn University
Professional Interests/Research
My research interests are broad and span behavioral ecology to community ecology. I am particularly interested in mutualistic interactions between ants and honeydew-producing insects (e.g., aphids), and the consequences of these interactions to plants and the arthropod communities found on those plants. In recent work, I have studied the potential benefit of a mutualism between aphids and an invasive ant species (the red imported fire ant) to cotton plants and soybean plants. Aphids are typically considered pests of crop plants because they feed on plant sap, which can stunt plant growth and reproduction. Fire ants are attracted to the sugary honeydew that aphids produce and subsequently protect them from their predators. Because fire ants are so aggressive, they attack other insects on the plant, including more damaging plant pests, thereby indirectly increasing cotton and soybean yield. Exploiting this method of biological control may ultimately lead to reduced application of insecticides in some agricultural systems. I am continuing to study the ecological consequences of ant-aphid mutualisms in natural and agricultural habitats in central Virginia. In addition to my interests in insect ecology and plant-insect interactions, I also have a strong interest in reproductive investment strategies in birds. In the past I have investigated the influence of egg quality versus that of parental care on nestling growth and development in house wrens, as well as the relative costs to female birds associated with producing, incubating, and rearing different numbers of offspring. Currently, I am participating in a collaborative project to investigate differences in eggs and incubation periods between house wrens that breed at temperate and tropical latitudes. I also spent two years in Panama studying the relative effects of heredity versus environmental variables on the migratory activity of yellow-green vireos, a bird species that migrates between breeding and non-breeding areas entirely within the Neotropics.Information on Courses Taught
I teach the following courses:
- BIOL 111L - Organisms, Ecology, and Evolution
- BIOL 112L - Cells: Genetic and Molecular Perspectives
- BIOL 210 - Animal Biology
- BIOL 309 - Insects and the Environment
- BIOL 310 - Ornithology
Personal Info/Interests
I met my wife, Jennifer Nesbitt Styrsky, in Panama while she was completing research on spotted antbirds for her Ph.D. in Animal Biology from the University of Illinois. We have one son, Kai, born in May 2005. We love to travel and have explored the wilds of the western U.S., Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, Germany, and Australia. We greatly enjoy camping, hiking, snorkeling, birding, reading, art museums, and SEC and Big 10 football and basketball.
You may contact me at 434/544-8362 or e-mail: styrsky@lynchburg.edu