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UT Tyler Awarded National Science Foundation Grant to Study Leafcutter Ants

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September 9, 2014

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

September 9, 2014

The University of Texas at Tyler was awarded a research grant from the National Science Foundation-Division of Environmental Biology to study leafcutter ant populations, Dr. Michael Odell, vice president for research and technology transfer, announced.

With the three-year $417,000 award, UT Tyler and collaborating biologists from three other universities in Germany, Argentina, Uruguay and Texas will examine the leafcutter ant populations around the Southwestern U.S. and South America in response to climate change.

The project will specifically focus on the insect-fungus mutualism, as these types of ants cultivate fungi as their only food source.

“Many of these ants are ecologically important species and known agricultural pests in the Southwestern U.S.A. and throughout South America,” said Dr. Katrin Kellner, UT Tyler research associate and project investigator. “The research will examine whether temperature stress determines range-limits at the northern and southern distribution limits of leafcutter ants. An improved understanding of how interacting species respond to climate change has scientific and societal benefits.

“For example, this work will contribute to the development of models for conservation of species in marginal habitats and to models predicting whether pest species may become more problematic under climate change.”

Other collaborators are Dr. Flavio Roces from University of Würzburg, Dr. Pablo Schilman from University of Buenos Aires, Dr. Martin Bollazzi from Universidad de la República and Dr. Ulrich Mueller from UT Austin.

Collaborations with researchers in Uruguay and Argentina will provide networking and training of U.S. researchers with international colleagues. The group also will conduct important outreach in East Texas by involving students from Jarvis Christian College, she added.

For more information, contact Kellner, 903.566.7280 or kkellner@uttyler.edu.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler features excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of more than 7,500 high-ability students. UT Tyler offers courses at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine as well as a location in Houston.

NSF Ant Grant: At top: Atexana Leafcutter worker ants. The greyish substance they sit on is the fungus garden. Above: Dr. Katrin Kellner, UT Tyler research associate with the Department of Biology, will collaborate internationally in a study of the leafcutter ants with a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's environmental biology division. Ant photo courtesy of AS Mikheyev.