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Deborah K. Letourneau Home  Directory Deborah K. Letourneau
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Deborah K. Letourneau
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Title: |
Professor |
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Type: |
Faculty Member |
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Email: |
dletour@ucsc.edu |
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Phone: |
(831) 459-2860 Office |
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Office: |
423 NS2 |
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Office Hours: |
Fall 2009:
Wednesday 2:30-3:00 and by appointment |
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Personal Page: |
Environmental Interactions Lab"><a href="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/~dletour/lab">Environmental Interactions Lab</a> |
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| Courses Taught | |
UC Santa Cruz:
2009-10 courses
ENVS Senior Capstone Course
Graduate Research Group
Graduate Core course in Research Methods in ENVS
General Entomology and Entomology Lab
Other Courses taught:
Field Ecology, Field Entomology
The Ecosystem: Processes and Problems
Advanced Research Topics in Insect Ecology
Key Words and Concepts in ENVS
Modes of Thought in Environmental Studies
Integrated Pest Management, Insect Ecology
Natural Reserves Field Course
Advanced Topics in Agroecology
Senior Research Seminar
Basic Ecology, Future of the Rain Forest
Agroecology and Conservation Biology
Agroecology Graduate Core Course
Costa Rica (through Duke University, Organization for Tropical Studies--
Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach and Agricultural Ecology
Colombia (Universidad del Valle)--
Biodiversity in Agriculture
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| Research Focus | |
Ecology/Entomology
Environmental Interactions Lab Webpage
My laboratory is presently investigating how land-use decisions and cropping patterns affect the potential for conservation biological control of agricultural pests, conservation of threatened insect species, and native bees in a mosaic of crop fields, natural reserves, and residential areas on California’s north coast. We are also completing projects on the potential for insect-resistance traits to increase the invasiveness of wild relatives of Bt-crops and the public policy implications of how science is mobilized to assess environmental risks of biotechnology. Finally, I have a local research program on bottom-up processes in redwood forest understory after selective logging, which combines trophic cascades, biodiversity and invasive species questions. After a recent catastrophic fire, our emphasis will shift to community organization during fire recovery. |
| Interests | |
Agroecology, tropical biology/conservation, insect-plant interactions, biological control as an alternative to chemical pesticides, environmental risks associated with genetically modified crops.
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| Education History | |
B.S., University of Michigan, 1976 (Zoology)
M.S., University of Michigan, 1976 (Biology)
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1983 (Entomology)
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| Selected Publications | |
Selected Publications
1. Dyer, L.A. and D.K. Letourneau. 2009. Diversity cascades: Indirect trophic effects involving biodiversity. In prep.
2. Letourneau, D.K., Jedlicka, J., Bothwell, S.G. and Moreno, C.R. 2009. Effects of natural enemy diversity on herbivore suppression in terrestrial ecosystems. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., In press.
3. Blair, B.C., D.K. Letourneau, S.G. Bothwell, G.F. Hayes. 2008. Disturbance, resources, and exotic plant invasion: Gap size effects in a redwood forest. In prep.
4. Letourneau, D.K. and J.A. Hagen. 2008. Plant fitness assessment for wild relatives of insect resistant crops. Environmental Biosafety Research 8:45-55.
5. Sirrine, J.R., D.K. Letourneau, C. Shennan, D. Sirrine, R. Fouch, and L. Mages. 2008. Impacts of groundcover management systems on yield, leaf nutrients, weeds, and arthropods of tart cherries in Michigan, USA. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 125:239-245.
6. Letourneau, D.K. and S.G. Bothwell. 2008. Comparison of organic and conventional farms: challenging ecologists to make biodiversity functional. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 6:430-438.
7. Letourneau, D.K. and A.H.G. van Bruggen. 2006. Crop protection in organic agriculture. In: Organic Agriculture - a Global Perspective (Publisher: CSIRO Publishing), A. Taji and P. Kristianesen (Eds.).
8. Letourneau, D. K., L. A. Dyer and G. Vega C. 2004. Indirect effects of top predator on rain forest understory plant community. Ecology 85(8): 2144-2152.
9. Letourneau, D. K, J. A. Hagen, and G. S. Robinson. 2004. Bt-crops: predicting effects of escaped transgenes on the fitness of wild plants and their herbivores. Environmental Biosafety Research 2: 219-246.
10. Letourneau, D. K. and L. A. Dyer. 2003. Top-down and bottom-up diversity cascades in detrital vs. living food webs. Ecology Letters. 6: 60-68.
11. Letourneau, D. K. and B. E. Burrows. (Eds.) 2002. Genetically Engineered Organisms: Assessing Environmental and Human Health Effects. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL 456 pp.
12. Dyer, L. A. and D. K. Letourneau. 1999. Relative strengths of top-down and bottom-up forces in a tropical forest community. Oecologia 119:265-274.
13. Dyer, L. A. and D. K. Letourneau. 1999. Trophic cascades in a complex, terrestrial community. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96:5072-5076.
14. Letourneau, D. K. and D. A. Andow (Eds.). 1999. Natural enemy food webs: Invited Feature, Ecological Applications 9(2): 363-385.
15. Letourneau, D. K. and L. A. Dyer. 1998. Experimental test in lowland tropical forest shows top-down effects through four trophic levels. Ecology 79(5):1678-1687.
16. Drinkwater, L. E., D. K. Letourneau, F. Workneh, A. H. C. van Bruggen, and C. Shennan. 1995. "Fundamental differences between conventional and organic agroecosystems in California." Ecological Applications 5(4):1098-1112.
17. Letourneau, D. K. 1994. "Bean fly, management practices, and biological control in Malawian subsistence agriculture." Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment 50(2):103-111.
18. Fisher, K., L. Orsak, D. K. Letourneau, and P. Siaguru. "Research, resource use, and sustainable conservation." In Proceedings of the 25th Annual Waigani Seminar. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, August 1993.
19. Letourneau, D. K. 1990. "Code of ant-plant mutualism broken by parasite." Science 248:215-217.
20. Letourneau, D.K. 1990. "Mechanisms of predator accumulation in a mixed crop system." Ecological Entomology 15:63-69.
21. Letourneau, D. K., and L. R. Fox. 1989. "Effects of experimental design and nitrogen on cabbage butterfly oviposition." Oecologia 80:211-214.
22. Barbosa, P., and D. K. Letourneau (eds.). 1988. Novel Aspects of Insect-Plant Interactions. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
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