|
Dave Onstad
- Affiliate | |||
|
University of Illinois, NRES Champaign, IL 61820 MC–637 Phone: 217-333-6820 Fax: 217-244-1707 Email: onstad@illinois.edu Title: Professional Scientist, Insect Ecologist Office Location: NSRC | ||
| Research |
Research Emphasis Insect and pathogen ecology, modeling, population and systems ecology, systems analysis , population genetics and insect behavior, landscape ecology Faculty Member - Insect Ecology Faculty Member - Quantitative Analysis Faculty Member - Sustainability Courses Taught NRES 219 - Ecological Foundations for Ecosystem Management NRES 327 - Ecological Modeling for Natural Resource Analysis My research has increasingly stressed the theoretical and applied biology of insect and plant populations, especially their diseases, their evolution, and their management in agriculture. I enjoy the challenge of testing theories as much as I like to solve real ecological and agricultural problems. I often choose to make ecological models realistic with respect to insect behaviors, age structure, natural enemies, and dispersal for the same reason ecologists and entomologists choose to perform field experiments instead of only lab experiments. I want to test hypotheses under realistic conditions. Of course, the realism also helps when trying to solve an agricultural problem. I often use the models to perform experiments over time and spatial scales and conditions that cannot be handled in most feasible lab or field experiments. I choose the model structure and analysis that best contribute to accomplishing the goals of a project. Although much of my work has focused on insects, I have studied plant populations and their diseases, and many of the general concepts are relevant to other taxa. These concepts include population dynamics, epidemiological thresholds, risks of exotic pathogens and parasites to native organisms, and adaptation of animal populations to dynamic and heterogeneous habitats/landscapes. Over the past few years, my research has explored the scientifically-complex and politically-charged subject of managing insect resistance to crop rotation and genetically-engineered crops. My focus has been on European corn borer, southwestern corn borer, and western corn rootworm. I have stressed the need to consider the influence of intra-generational dynamics of the insect, sequences and interactions of insect behavior, landscape impacts on behavior, phenological changes in toxin expression in the plant, and mortality interactions that confuse descriptions of toxin dose. My primary department is NRES. I also have appointments in (1) the Center for Economic Entomology, Illinois Natural History Survey, (2) the Departments of Entomology and Crop Sciences, and (3) the Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
||
| Recognition | Educational Project Award in 1998 for publication "European Corn Borer Ecology and Management" presented by Board Certified Entomologists of Mid-America. |
||
| Selected publications |
Onstad, D. W., J. L. Spencer, C. A. Guse, S. A. Isard, and E. Levine. 2001. Modeling evolution of behavioral resistance by an insect to crop rotation. Ent. Expt. Appl. 100:195-201. Onstad, D. W., C. A. Guse, P. Porter, L. L. Buschman, R. A. Higgins, P. E. Sloderbeck, F. B. Peairs, and G. B. Cronholm. 2002. Modeling the development of resistance by stalk-boring Lepidoptera (Crambidae) in areas with transgenic corn and frequent insecticide use. J. Econ. Entomol. 95:1033-1043. Onstad, D. W., D. W. Crowder, S. A. Isard, E. Levine, J. L. Spencer, M. O'Neal, S. Ratcliffe, M. E. Gray, L. W. Bledsoe, C. D. Di Fonzo, B. Eisley, and C. R. Edwards. 2003. Does Landscape Diversity Slow the Spread of Rotation-Resistant Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)? Environ. Entomol. 32:992-1001. Onstad, D. W., and E. A. Kornkven. 1999. Persistence of Natural Enemies of Weeds and Insect Pests in Heterogeneous Environments. Chapter 19 in Theoretical Approaches to Biological Control. B. A. Hawkins and H. V. Cornell, eds. Chapman and Hall, London. pp. 349-367. Carpenter, J., A. Felsot, L. Giannesi, T. Goode, M. Hammig, D. Onstad, and S. Sankula. 2002. Environmental Impacts of Crops Developed Using Traditional and Modern Biotechnology Breeding Methods: A Literature Review and Comparative Analysis for Soybean, Corn, and Cotton Crops. Council for Agric. Sci and Tech. Onstad, D. W. (1996) Database of Viral Diseases of Insects in the Literature. (http://insectweb.inhs.uiuc.edu/Pathogens/VIDIL/) Onstad, D. W. 1997. Ecological Database of the World's Insect Pathogens. (http://insectweb.inhs.uiuc.edu/Pathogens/EDWIP/) |
||
| Program Affiliates |
Ph.D. Student Charles Guse M.S. Students David Crowder Lisa Knolhoff Research Associates Kris Carter Stuart Tarr |
||
| Professional society involvement and activities |
I am a member of the: American Institute of Biological Sciences Ecological Society of America Entomological Society of America Society for Invertebrate Pathology Co-Editor of Environmental Entomology, 2000-present Chairman of Society for Invertebrate Pathology Web site and Database Committee, 1998-2000, and Publications Comm., 2000-present. Cofounder of Subsection Cf on Quantitative Ecology in Entomological Soc. of America, 1997-98 Secretary, Chair-elect, and Chair of Subsection Cf in Entomological Society of America, 1998-2000. |
||
| Education | PhD, Entomology, Cornell University, 1985 MS, Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, 1982 BS, Biology, California State University, 1979 | ||