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Department of Biology University of St. Thomas, Minnesota USA

 

Adam D. Kay, Ph.D

Research in Behavioral Ecology

 

Professional Interests:

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in linking trophic interactions, physiological mechanisms and behavioral strategies.  Specifically, I am interested in how the chemical composition of organisms is related to traits that affect performance in competitive, mutualistic, and predatory interactions.  My work builds upon a multiple resource framework, ecological stoichiometry, which is the study of element ratios in living systems.  I also have also several secondary interests, including the consequences of insect herbivory for ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, and the ecological significance of division of labor in social insect colonies. I spend a lot of time thinking about ants, but I also work with a variety of different terrestrial and aquatic insects, including treehoppers, aphids, and mosquitoes.   

 

 
 

 

Current Projects

 

Ants (Formica obscuripes) tending aphids (Hoplochaithophrus quercicola) on a bur oak leaf

 

  • Behavioral strategies and the chemical composition of available resources.  Using ant colonies as a model system, I am exploring how the relative availabilities of carbohydrates, protein, and other nutrients affect investment in traits (such as worker activity) that affect how ants interact with their environment.
  • Ecological stoichiometry of grassland insects.  I am studying how elemental ratios in herbivorous insects are related to shifts in plant composition across gradients in nutrient availability.  I am also investigating how insect elemental ratios vary with body size, sex, life stage, and diet. 

 

 
  • Nutrient availability and the dynamics of conditional mutualisms.  I am studying how the interaction between treehoppers and ants on goldenrod plants can vary between predation and mutualism depending on ecological factors.  I am particularly interested in how the relative supply of light and nutrients for host plants affects the physiological costs and benefits of ant protection for treehoppers.
  • Linking aboveground and belowground processes: Herbivory, litter quality, and N cycling.  I am studying the relationship between herbivory, decomposition, and nitrogen cycling in an oak savanna at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Anoka Co., Minnesota.  Specifically, I am exploring how oak herbivores with distinct feeding strategies (a lace bug, Corythuca arcuata, and an aphid, Hoplochaitopthrus quercicola) differentially affect a) green leaf chemistry and primary production, and b) rates of litter decomposition and nitrogen mineralization.   

 

 

 

Up-coming Projects

Current Projects

Life history adjustments by wood frog tadpoles under phosphorus- and time-limitation.  Tadpoles accelerate development when their pond begins to dry up.  In the spring and summer of 2005, I will explore whether this option is constrained when phosphorus availability is limited, and how tadpoles adjust physiologically to this constraint.

 

 

 

Recent Publications and Presentations

Kay, A.D., I.W. Ashton, E. Gorokhova, A.J. Kerkhoff, A. Liess, E. Litchman. In press. Toward a stoichiometric framework for evolutionary biology. Oikos

Kay, A., and S.W. Rissing. In press. Drinking ability and risk sensitivity can organize division of labor in Formica perpilosa.  Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology   

Lab foraging arena with artificial trees used in Kay and Rissing (in press)

Kay, A., S.E. Scott, J.D. Schade, and S.E. Hobbie. (2004) Stoichiometric relations in an ant-homopteran mutualism. Ecology Letters 7: 1024-1028.

Kay, A.  (2004) The relative availabilities of complementary resources affect the feeding 
preferences of ant colonies. Behavioral Ecology 15: 63-70.

Kay, A. and F.R. Adler (2003) Optimal tempo and defense for consumers of multiple resources. Evolutionary Ecology Research 5: 710-716. 

Kay, A. (2002) Applying optimal foraging theory to assess nutrient availability ratios for ants. 
Ecology 83: 1935-1944.
Wagner, D. and A. Kay (2002) Do extrafloral nectaries distract ants from visiting flowers? An 
experimental test of an overlooked hypothesis. Evolutionary Ecology Research 4:293-305

Kay, A.D. and S. Rostampour. In preparation. Ant stoichiometry: elemental homeostasis in stage-structured colonies. (for Ecology)

Novotny, A., J. Schade, J. Elser, S. Hobbie, A. Kay, and M. Kyle. In preparation. Changes in plant elemental ratios in response to increased diversity and CO2 and nitrogen enrichment. (for Ecology)

Kay, A., J.D. Schade, E.O. Wesserle, M.L. Ogdahl, and S.E. Hobbie. In preparation. Context dependent variation in abundance, body size, and C:N:P stoichiometry of two insect herbivores along a fire frequency gradient. (for Ecology)

 

 

 

 

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