Rachel Strecker

Louisiana State University | LSU · Department of Environmental Sciences

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194941.].

Terrestrial arthropods play an important role in saltmarsh ecosystems, mainly affecting the saltmarsh’s primary production as the main consumers of terrestrial primary production and decomposition. Some of these arthropods, including selected insects and spiders, can be used as ecological indicators of overall marsh environmental health, as they ar...

Oil observation on ground NOAA/NRDA data 2010/2014 in Louisiana coast (Source: NOAA/NRDA 2015, http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/oil-spill/gulf-spill-data/). (TIFF)

The average concentrations of total PAHs (ng/g) in Barataria Bay sediments impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (TIFF)

Mean (±SE) abundance of individual group of arthropods collected per sweep net sample in reference, light oiled and heavily oiled sites in 2013(blue) and 2014 (orange). (TIFF)

The average concentrations of total PAHs (ng/g) in reference sites (Delacroix) sediments. (TIFF)

Field sampling of terrestrial arthropods using sweep net in Barataria Bay in 2014. (TIFF)

Insects that live in the saltwater and brackish marshes, which fringe the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, are largely unstudied. During 2011–2013, a survey of insect fauna of the coastal salt marshes of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana was conducted. We present the species of terrestrial representatives of Heteroptera and Auchenorrhyncha co...

Many previous studies have focused on the foraging behaviors and strategies of the red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren on solid food or granular bait, little attention has been paid to how liquid sugar is fed upon. In the present study, behavioral responses of S. invicta to 25% sucrose water droplets were observed. Five foraging patter...

In the present study, the repellent effects of essential balm, a traditional medicine product in China, was tested against foraging and defending red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, under laboratory and field conditions. The laboratory study showed that both band- (width = 1 cm) and patch-smearing of essential balm at each concentrati...

The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, is a significant urban and agricultural pest with a global distribution. However, the food transport patterns of S. invicta are poorly understood. In the present study, food of different sizes were provided to S. invicta colonies and transport for a short distance was observed under laboratory co...

Transport of food item (10 × 10 mm deli meat) in the field with slow progress and long deadlocks. (a) Location of food after placement, and (b) location of food 50 min after food was presented.

Saltmarshes are one of the most productive ecosystems, supporting high abundance of different species. Terrestrial arthropods play an important role in the ecology of saltmarshes, affecting primary production and decomposition. Terrestrial arthropods provide food to terrestrial and marine vertebrates and act as an important tropic link to other ver...

Coastal dunes have a worldwide distribution. They protect inland ecosystems and support high ecological diversity. However, dunes are fragile ecosystems and suffer from many kinds of natural and anthropogenic disturbance. In this study, we examined ant community composition and used ants as indicators to reveal the effects of multiple stresses on c...

Undergraduate research experiences are important components of undergraduate degrees in science that are frequently overlooked because they are often unrequired. We developed an undergraduate research program that trains undergraduates in all parts of the research process from grant writing to laboratory or field research to publications. This 1-2...

We mapped the density and distribution of Acrobat ants in the saltmarshes that fringe the northern Gulf of Mexico. Because they inhabit the hollow stems of the cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, have a series of satellite nests that make up a colony, and are aggressive to non-colony members, we hypothesized that acrobat ants would have a regular dis...

Our research has shown that insects and spiders are good bioindicators of environmental pollution from catastrophic oil spills. Even when environmental toxicologists are unable to measure volatiles in samples of the oil pollution, we observed impacts that indicated that volatiles were active on insects and spiders during times when the marsh sedime...

The sounds of a healthy salt marsh community include buzzes, clicks, chirps, and splashes. Healthy ecosystems can handle small disturbances or stressors such as small pulses of oil from deep seeps in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Stressed ecosystems such as the saltwater marshes that fringe the northern GOM experienced a huge pulse of additional distur...

Acrobat ants live in the hollow stems of the marshgrass, Spartina alterniflora. Before we studied the insect food web in coastal ecosystems, little was known about these ants. These ant colonies are often in multiple rooted, upright dead stems but sometimes occupy unrooted, dead stems. The total nest is made up several “satellite” nests in several...

Pyramica epinotalis is an arboreal dacetine ant previously known only from Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and southern Mexico. Here we report the first records of P. epinotalis for the United States. Collections were made in three parishes across southern Louisiana in cypress-tupelo swamps using floating pitfall traps placed in floating vegetation an...

The raft behavior of the invasive red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), has been documented for over a century. However, no rigorous tests have been performed elucidating the structure, limits, and important characteristics of this behavior. Rafting makes S. invicta competitive in both native and foreign environ...

Red imported fire ants are an alien invasive species that invaded North America from the Pantenal area of South America. These polymorphic ants are able to raft when their colony is flooded, thus allowing Solenopsis invicta to survive this change in environment. Flooded fire ants have been shown to increase defensiveness; they deliver higher doses...

D-Limonene is a substance derived from citrus rinds that is widely used for many different applications such as cleaning solutions or as an organic replacement for other solvents such as mineral spirits, acetone, and glycol ethers. One product that uses d-Limonene is Orange Oils XT-2000 which is currently marketed as a treatment for drywood termite...