Ticks & Lyme Disease
Biology professor Jory Brinkerhoff is an expert on ticks, tick-borne diseases, and host-parasite relationships.
A disease ecologist, Brinkerhoff researches ticks and their effects on humans, including tick-transmitted diseases like Lyme disease. His scholarship includes analyzing causes of Lyme disease, tick behavior, and various tick repellants.
“Tick-borne disease cases are increasing rapidly in the United States,” said Brinkerhoff. “Different species of ticks live in different environments, and the time to be most vigilant is early spring through late fall.”
Brinkerhoff says you can minimize the risk of tick bites with a few simple steps.
“Wear long pants and shirts outside, especially in heavily wooded areas; search yourself, your children, and your pets for ticks after spending time outdoors; and use a repellant containing DEET or other CDC-recommended compound,” he said.
Urban Rats
Biology professor Jonathan Richardson is an urban ecologist whose research focuses on rat populations in urban settings, as well as other urban wildlife species.
Richardson is frequently invited to present his research, including data on how tracking rat numbers over time can be used to design control programs, at major urban pest management events, including the first-ever National Rat Summit in New York City in 2024 and the National Pest Management Association’s PestWorld conference.
“Things are moving the way they haven’t for decades,” Richardson said about new and significant changes to the way NYC is mitigating their rat populations.
He can discuss rat species, methods used to control rat populations in urban environments, and how rats impact humans. He also explores global trends in urban rat populations, what impacts lethal control efforts have on those populations, and how we can create predictive models of rat habitat to target where control interventions are most needed.
“My team looks at data from local block-level research all the way to global analysis of rat populations, including both demographic and genetic research into urban rats,” Richardson said.
More about Jonathan Richardson
Spiders
The University of Richmond is the only college in the U.S. to have Spiders as a mascot. Jennifer O’Donnell, a biology instructor and animal care expert, cares for and studies a variety of tarantulas. It all started in 2014 when she agreed to care for Tarrant, a live mascot for the Spider men's basketball team.
“Caring for Tarrant and our other spider friends has been a rewarding experience for the biology department, for me, and for the University of Richmond community as a whole," said O’Donnell. “We are grateful for the opportunity to keep learning about them and sharing our love of all spiders.”
She is available to discuss spiders and the valuable purposes they serve for the environment and scientific research.
“Spiders help control the overall populations of various insects, including disease carriers, like mosquitos, and they can help maintain a balanced and healthy local ecosystem in our yards and gardens,” said O’Donnell. “Spiders are also an important food source for birds and fish, and their venom and silk is studied by various scientists for applications in medicine and technology.”
More About Jennifer O'Donnell
Wildlife & Climate Change
Biology professor Kristine Grayson is a field ecologist who studies how future climate changes will impact the population and spread of certain species, including invasive forest pests such as the spongy moth and the emerald ash borer. She also specializes in amphibian and reptile conservation, including the eastern red-backed salamander and the tuatara, a reptile only found in New Zealand.
“Amphibians, unfortunately, are a group in severe decline,” explains Grayson. “Over 40% of species are threatened. My research group is hoping to detect population trends in these species as well as think about how climate change plays a role. Our hope is that we can take lessons from a more common species, like the salamander, and apply it to more endangered ones.”
“Tuataras have temperature-dependent sex determination like many reptiles, so whether male or female offspring is produced is determined by the temperature of the nest. And, of course, under climate change we're studying whether there's the potential for this population to become more male-biased in the future,” Grayson said.
Freshwater Fishes
Eugene Maurakis is an evolutionary biologist who specializes in environmental sciences. His research focuses on freshwater fishes and aquatic fauna in Virginia. One of his major projects includes a documentary focusing on breeding behaviors of cyprinid nest-building minnows in Virginia.
Maurakis says three crucial issues have resulted in a need to educate the American public about freshwater environments in the U.S.
“U.S. streams are degraded due to the impacts of agriculture, habitat loss, and other factors, which have resulted in more species of freshwater fishes in North America to becoming imperiled, endangered, or extinct. There is also a narrow perception of freshwater biodiversity. For example, non-sporting fishes like minnows are often considered bait, yet these native fish are critical to the ecosystem.”
Additionally, Maurakis says studies show that today’s generation is more likely to know more about wildlife in Africa than they do about the environment and its biodiversity where they live.
Wildlife Trafficking & Animal Conservation
Jennifer Sevin, teaching faculty of biology, is a conservation biologist and an expert in the protection of threatened species. She has a particular interest in preventing wildlife trafficking.
“People may associate the wildlife trade with ‘The Tiger King,’ which drew a lot of attention, but it’s more widespread than most people realize, and it includes native wild animals, everything from turtles to bears,” Sevin said. “In fact, over half of the world’s turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered, and overharvesting of wild turtles is a major cause.”
Sevin engages her students in real-world issues. She led a project to install pollinator gardens on campus and also raised and released monarchs with her students as part of an international conversation effort. Her students have also taken part in the national camera trapping effort called SnapshotUSA with the Smithsonian Institution to address the increasing issue of human-sloth bear conflict.
More about Jennifer Sevin
Squirrel Behavior
Biology professor Peter Smallwood, an ecologist who specializes in conversation and biodiversity, has studied squirrel behavior, including some surprising observations.
“Many people associate squirrels with acorns, but they are amazingly omnivorous and will pretty much eat anything they can find. I’ve seen them eat eggs, small birds, the buds of flowers, bark, you name it. They are excellent scavengers,” Smallwood said.
Another lesser-known fact about squirrels relates to how they store food.
“One squirrelly behavior many may not be aware of is what’s called deceptive caching, which means they will pretend to bury an acorn in one spot but really leave the hole empty,” said Smallwood. “This behavior often happens when other squirrels are in the area. Squirrels find their acorns through smell and won’t hesitate to steal from others. Part of what they smell is disturbed dirt, so the deceptive caching could be an attempt to fool a fellow acorn hunter.”
Birds & Light Pollution
Stephen Ferguson is a biology professor with expertise in stress physiology and behavioral ecology. He studies the effects of changing environments and how animals respond.
"Artificial light at night is a ubiquitous pollutant worldwide. Exposure can induce immediate behavioral and physiological changes in animals, sometimes leading to severe health consequences," said Ferguson. "Nevertheless, many organisms persist in light-polluted environments. Whether and how animals are affected by these conditions are important questions for future conservation and for answering questions about human biology."
Ferguson is also interested in animal communication and the regulation of biological timing, including seasonal timing and circadian clocks, which he studies in both birds and blind cave beetles.
More About Stephen Ferguson
Invasive Species
Biology professor Priscilla Erikson is an expert on invasive species. Specifically, her research examines the evolution of an invasive African fig fly.
“This species is interesting to study because it comes back to Virginia every year after going extinct in the winter,” Erickson said. “Our research has shown that in every year we sampled, there were predictable genetic changes in the invasive population after they colonized Virginia, which suggests that the populations are rapidly evolving and adapting to the new Virginia environment.”
Erickson’s team, which includes UR students also found that flies collected in Florida and Virginia have differences in gene expression, suggesting that they show different adaptations to different environments. They are also studying parasitoid wasps — tiny wasps that lay their eggs inside fruit fly larva and eat the larva from the inside out — related to how the affect the African fig fly.
“We found that the wasps preferentially attack other native species of fruit fly over the invasive species,” Erickson said. “This helps give the invasive species a competitive advantage because they are not attacked by the wasps at the same rate.”