
Ellyn BitumeUS Forest Service | FS · Pacific Southwest Research Station
Ellyn Bitume
Post-doc
About
23
Publications
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
October 2008 - December 2012
January 2013 - December 2013
Education
December 2012 - December 2013
October 2010 - December 2012
October 2008 - October 2010
Publications
Publications (23)
During range expansion, differences can evolve between populations at the core and expanding edge of a range. While theory and experimental work has focused on range expansions across uniform environments, natural range expansions often occur over environmental gradients, which present novel selection pressures. We seek to understand how genetic va...
Evolutionary theory predicts that the process of range expansion will lead to differences in life‐history and dispersal traits between the core and edge of a population. At the edge, selection and genetic drift can have opposing effects on reproductive ability, while spatial sorting by dispersal ability can increase dispersal. However, the context...
Releasing several biotypes or species of biological control agent is common in many biological control programs. However, the consequences of hybridization for fitness and host use of the resulting hybrids are difficult to predict, especially for hybrids between more than two species and with varying levels of introgression. Hybridization of biocon...
Evolutionary theory predicts that the process of range expansion will lead to differences between core and edge populations in life-history and dispersal traits. Selection and genetic drift can influence reproductive ability, while spatial sorting by dispersal ability can increase dispersal at the edge. However, the context individuals experience (...
With the global rise of human-mediated translocations and invasions, it is critical to understand the genomic consequences of hybridization and mechanisms of range expansion. Conventional wisdom is that high genetic drift and loss of genetic diversity due to repeated founder effects will constrain introduced species. However, reduced genetic variat...
Evolutionary theory predicts that the process of range expansion will lead to differences between core and edge population in life history and dispersal traits. Selection and genetic drift can influence reproductive ability while spatial sorting by dispersal ability can increase dispersal at the edge. However, the context of individuals (e.g., popu...
With the global rise of human-mediated translocations and invasions, it is critical to understand the genomic consequences of hybridization and mechanisms of range expansion. Conventional wisdom is that high genetic drift and loss of genetic diversity due to repeated founder effects will constrain introduced species. However, reduced genetic variat...
Classical biological control refers to the intentional introduction of a natural enemy from the native range of an invasive species into the presumably enemy-free space of the invaded range. The objective of biocontrol is for introduced agents to establish permanently and provide long-term suppression of an invasive species, as well as the restorat...
Egg diapause in Locusta migratoria L. (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) is believed to be influenced by maternal photoperiod. However, the molecular mechanism regulating the phenomenon of maternal diapause induction is unclear. Here we performed transcriptomic analyses from the central nervous system (CNS) of migratory locusts under long and short photoperi...
Novel environmental conditions experienced by introduced species can drive rapid evolution of diverse traits. In turn, rapid evolution, both adaptive and non‐adaptive, can influence population size, growth rate, and other important ecological characteristics of populations. In addition, spatial evolutionary processes that arise from a combination o...
In weed biocontrol, there is a need for pre-release efficacy assessments for potential agents. Genista monspessulana ((L.) L. A. S. Johnson (Fabaceae), French broom) is an invasive perennial shrub in the western U.S. The galling weevil Lepidapion argentatum Gerstaecker is a potential biocontrol agent. The impact of increasing weevil density on gall...
Dispersal is a key ecological process that is strongly influenced by both phenotype and environment. Here, we show that juvenile environment influences dispersal not only by shaping individual phenotypes, but also by changing the phenotypes of neighbouring conspecifics, which influence how individuals disperse. We used a model system (Tribolium cas...
Hybridization is an influential evolutionary process that has been viewed alternatively as an evolutionary dead-end or as an important creative evolutionary force. In colonizing species, such as introduced biological control agents, hybridization can offset losses in genetic variation due to population bottlenecks and genetic drift. Increased genet...
Hybridization is an influential evolutionary process that has been viewed alternatively as an evolutionary dead-end or as an important creative evolutionary force. In colonizing species, such as introduced biological control agents, hybridization can negate the effects of bottlenecks and genetic drift through increasing genetic variation. Such chan...
Non-genetic transmission of information across generations, so-called parental effects, can have significant impacts on offspring morphology, physiology, behaviour and life-history traits. In previous experimental work using the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, we demonstrated that dispersal distances increase with local density an...
The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, is a phytophagous pest that can cause significant yield losses in many agricultural crops, including fruits, cotton, vegetables, and ornamentals. To date, 3877 host species have been reported around the world in both outdoor crops and greenhouses. In this paper, we present the common methods to...
Although dispersal distance plays a major role in determining whether organisms will reach new habitats, empirical data on the environmental factors that affect dispersal distance are lacking. Population density and kin competition are two factors theorised to increase dispersal distance. Using the two-spotted spider mite as a model species, we alt...
Background/Question/Methods
Dispersal is a multi-phase process that influences the genetic demography of populations, the geographic distribution of species, and the success of species attempting to expand their ranges. The distances individuals disperse, and the environmental factors influencing these decisions, deserve the utmost attention in a...
Dispersal distance is understudied although the evolution of dispersal distance affects the distribution of genetic diversity through space. Using the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, we tested the conditions under which dispersal distance could evolve. To this aim, we performed artificial selection based on dispersal distance by choos...