Megan S. Reich- Doctor of Philosophy
- Postdoc at University of Ottawa
Megan S. Reich
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Postdoc at University of Ottawa
Always looking for new collaborators and interesting projects
About
19
Publications
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Introduction
I develop and apply techniques to track the long-range movements of animals, clarify the genetic basis of migration, and explore how environmental conditions influence migratory behaviour, among other things.
Skills and Expertise
Current institution
Education
September 2018 - March 2024
September 2011 - May 2015
Publications
Publications (19)
Some insects, such as the painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui, exhibit complex annual migratory cycles spanning multiple generations. Traversing extensive seas or deserts is often a required segment of these migratory journeys. We develop a bioavailable strontium isoscape for Europe and Africa and then use isotope geolocation combining hydrogen a...
The extent of aerial flows of insects circulating around the planet and their impact on ecosystems and biogeography remain enigmatic because of methodological challenges. Here we report a transatlantic crossing by Vanessa cardui butterflies spanning at least 4200 km, from West Africa to South America (French Guiana) and lasting between 5 and 8 days...
Strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) have shown promise for tracing the geographic origin of animal tissues because they have high‐resolution and show discrete spatial patterns independent and complementary to those of light isotopes. In this study, we provide a complete quantitative framework to apply ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr for tracking migratory animals using...
Forest pest insects cause major socio-economic impacts, global losses of millions of dollars, and ecosystem changes. A key challenge for their management is tracing regional dispersal events critical to outbreak dynamics. We developed an integrated tracing framework for pest insects by combining isotope geolocation, ecological data, and atmospheric...
Bioavailable strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) distribution across the landscape mainly follow the underlying lithology, making ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr baseline maps (isoscapes) powerful tools for provenance studies. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr has already been used in Eastern Canada (EC) to track food and human remains origins, or to reconstruct animal mobility. While bioavai...
The painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui is renowned for its virtually cosmopolitan distribution and the remarkable long-distance migrations as part of its annual, multigenerational migratory cycle. In winter, V. cardui individuals inhabit breeding grounds north and south of the Sahara, suggesting distinct migratory behaviors within the species as...
Migratory insects may move in large numbers, even surpassing migratory vertebrates in biomass. Long-distance migratory insects complete annual cycles through multiple generations, with each generation’s reproductive success linked to the resources available at different breeding grounds. Climatic anomalies in these grounds are presumed to trigger r...
Rationale
Many insect species undertake multigenerational migrations in the Afro‐tropical and Palearctic ranges, and understanding their migratory connectivity remains challenging due to their small size, short life span and large population sizes. Hydrogen isotopes ( δ ² H) can be used to reconstruct the movement of dispersing or migrating insects...
The painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui is renowned for its virtually cosmopolitan distribution and the remarkable long-distance migrations that are part of its annual, multi-generational migratory cycle. Recently, V. cardui individuals were found north and south of the Sahara in the autumn, suggesting distinct migratory behaviours within the spe...
Rationale: Many insect species undertake multi-generational migrations in the Afro-tropical and Palearctic ranges, and understanding their migratory connectivity remains challenging due to their small size, short life span and large population sizes. Hydrogen isotope ( δ H) can be used to reconstruct the movement of dispersing or migrating insects,...
Migratory insects are key players in ecosystem functioning and services, but their spatiotemporal distributions are typically poorly known. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) may be used to predict species seasonal distributions, but the resulting hypotheses should eventually be validated by field data. The painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) perf...
Eastern spruce budworm moth (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) mass outbreaks have widespread economic and ecological consequences. A key explanation for the large-scale spread and synchronization of these outbreaks is the long-distance dispersal (up to 450 km) of moths from hotspots (high-density populations) to lower-density areas. These events h...
Anthropogenic activities are exposing insects to elevated levels of toxic metals and are altering the bioavailability of essential metals. Metals and metal isotopes have also become promising tools for the geolocation of migratory insects. Understanding the pathways of metal incorporation in insect tissues is thus important for assessing the role o...
Hydrogen isotope geolocation of insects is based on the assumption that the chitin in the wings of adult migratory insects preserves the hydrogen isotope composition (δ²H) of the larval stages without influence of adult diet. Here, we test this assumption by conducting laboratory feeding experiments for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) includ...
Anthropogenic activities are exposing insects to abnormal levels of toxic metals, with unknown implications for migratory insects. Simultaneously, metals and metal isotopes have become promising tools for the geolocation of migratory insects. Furthering our understanding of metal cycling in insect tissues is essential, both for the development of m...
Eastern spruce budworm moth ( Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) mass outbreaks have widespread economic and ecological consequences. A key explanation for the large-scale spread and synchronization of these outbreaks is the long-distance dispersal (up to 450km) of moths from hotspots (high-density populations) to lower-density areas. These events h...
Abiotic change can alter species interactions by modifying species’ trophic roles, but this has not been well studied. Until now, bromeliad-dwelling tipulid larvae were thought to positively affect other macroinvertebrates via a facilitative processing chain. However, under drought, we found the opposite. We performed two microcosm experiments in w...
