{"id":496,"date":"2025-12-10T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/?post_type=research&#038;p=496"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:40:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:40:37","slug":"eco-evolutionary-dynamics-of-range-expansions","status":"publish","type":"research","link":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/research\/eco-evolutionary-dynamics-of-range-expansions\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-evolutionary dynamics of range expansions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrappper text-block stylized lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <p>Theory and empirical work shows that populations on the front wave of range expansions can have some fascinating dynamics that influence the speed of the expansion, and the fitness of the individuals at the expansion front.\u00a0 Most empirical research on these phenomena, including our own using\u00a0<em>Tribolium<\/em>\u00a0(Szucs et al.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/114\/51\/13501\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2017 PNAS,<\/a>\u00a0Weiss-Lehman et al.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/ncomms14303\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2017 Nat. Comms<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rspb.2019.0231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2019 Proc. Roy Soc<\/a>), has focused on model systems. Now, with USDA NIFA support, PhD student\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eliza-clark.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eliza Clark<\/a>\u00a0is studying how these processes play out in nature. We are using a biological control system &#8211;\u00a0<em>Diorhabda<\/em>\u00a0beetles were introduced for the biological control of Tamarisk about 20 years ago, and are rapidly spreading from north to south in North America.\u00a0 We are working closely with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ellynbitume.weebly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ellyn Bitume\u00a0<\/a>(who lead the writing of the grant proposal), Dan Bean at the Colorado Insectary in Palisade (who is the king of all things Diorhabda, and an amazing applied evolutionary ecologist and entomologist), and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hohenlohelab.github.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Hohenloe and Amanda Stalkhe<\/a>\u00a0at University of Idaho (genomic expertise extraordinaire).<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->\n\n\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrapper video-block stylized lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <!-- component -->\n    <div class=\"video\">\n\n        <!-- image container -->\n        <div class=\"object-container responsive-embed widescreen\">\n\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Diorhabda | Ruth Hufbauer Applied Ecology Lab | CSU College of Agricultural Sciences\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2S9zpB62GxU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/div>\n        <!-- END image container -->\n\n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END component -->\n\n    <!-- text -->\n    <div class=\"text-content\">\n\n        \n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END text -->\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":500,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"class_list":["post-496","research","type-research","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/research"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/hufbauer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}