The Science CORPS 2022 cohort built on the work of the previous summer, repeating the test of the Enemy Release hypothesis and the urban-rural gradient in seed predation while also asking new questions.
They did not find support for the Enemy Release Hypothesis, just like last year. Instead, they found a trend for greater predation on invasive seeds rather than native seeds, the opposite of what is expected under enemy release! They hypothesized that seed predators may have instead been attracted to novel food sources.
They also found that lighter colored seeds were predated more than dark colored seeds, which was their own novel research question.
Check out their poster below!
Dylan, Cieara, and Hannah presenting their Science CORPS research at the Indiana Academy of Sciences Meeting in March, 2023.
One other student co-authored the poster, and 16 more contributed to the research.