Posts Tagged: genetics

UC Davis Doctoral Student Analyzes Population Genetics of Africanized Honey Bees

A UC Davis doctoral student's newly published research analyzing the population genetics of Africanized honey bees in North and South America details...

Doctoral student Erin Calfee with her collecting net.

Doctoral student Erin Calfee with her collecting net.

This is the cover of PLOS Genetics, featuring the research of population biologist Erin Calfee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

This is the cover of PLOS Genetics, featuring the research of population biologist Erin Calfee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Green Hall: Fitting Tribute to Two Scientists

It's a fitting tribute to see the UC Davis Life Sciences Building recently renamed the Melvin M. and Kathleen C. Green Hall. The building, which...

Photographic illustration shows the Life Science Building's new name as it will appear above the doors. (UC Davis illustration)

Photographic illustration shows the Life Science Building's new name as it will appear above the doors. (UC Davis illustration)

Honey Bee Scientist Amro Zayed at UC Davis Feb. 11

There's a lot of interest building in this seminar. Amro Zayed of the Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Canada, will speak on ...

The queen and her court. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The queen and her court. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's It Like Inside a Bee?

What's it like inside a bee? A honey bee, that is. Research entomologist Jay Evans of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) will...

A honey bee necatring on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee necatring on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Perils of illegal marijuana crops

Rodenticides used on illegal marijuana farms have already been shown to pose serious harm to the fisher—a cat-sized carnivore found in forests across Canada and four regions in the U.S. (Previous news article.)

Mourad Gabriel, a doctoral candidate with the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, provides a more comprehensive look at the situation in the recent issue of The Wildlife Professional, put out by The Wildlife Society. (Article here.)

New information looks at risks to other species and to the ecologists and biologists conducting wildlife research on community and public lands where more of these crops are being cultivated.

Highlights include: 

• Newly documented fisher mortalities (necropsies done at UC Davis’ California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System)
  
  
• New data documenting just a glimpse of potential environmental degradation possibly occurring on our public lands
  
  
• First mention of toxicants like carbamates and organochlorides (DDT etc...) that are being found in California grow sites
  
  
• Provides readers with information on how some of these toxicants are placed at grow sites to maliciously poison wildlife
  
  
• New info and discussion points of "what are" the potential effects of ...such as damming water courses, putting toxic slurry of chemicals in dammed creeks, cutting riparian zones, human feces (affects salmon and many other species)
  
  
• First-hand accounts of ecologists and biologists conducting wildlife research being shot at, chased and threatened
  
  
• Quantifies the loss of project area access, and data from fisher projects in California public lands

There is also a link to a video that offers a first account visual representation of what a fisher looks like, the unfortunate visual effects of toxicosis and the realistic outcome to wildlife from these illicit activities on tribal and public lands.

For more information, contact Mourad Gabriel, mwgabriel@ucdavis.edu or Trina Wood, tjwood@ucdavis.edu 

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