Environmental Internship Program - 2019 Booklet

BIODIVERSITY AND
CONSERVATION
Ian Johnson ’22
MATHEMATICS
Certificates: European Cultural Studies,
Humanistic Studies
PROJECT TITLE
Go to the Ant Thou
Sluggard, Consider Her
Ways Be Wise: Buffelgrass
Seed Preferences,
Predation and Dispersal in
Kenya Home Range by
Messor Harvester Ants
ORGANIZATION(S)
Mpala Research Centre
LOCATION(S)
Nanyuki, Kenya
MENTOR(S)
Dino Martins,
Executive Director, Mpala
Research Centre, Lecturer
and Visiting Research
Scholar, Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology,
Princeton University;
Robert Plowes,
Research Scientist,
Department of
Integrative Biology,
University of Texas-Austin
I studied the relationship between harvester ants
and buffelgrass, a wheatlike grass native to Kenya
that’s invasive in Arizona and southern Texas.
My team wanted to determine if harvester ants
suppress buffelgrass by eating its seeds, or if they
help it spread by dispersing its seeds. I mapped
the ants’ trail networks and measured traffic on
different dates and times to better understand
their foraging behavior. We took samples of seeds
from along the trail networks, the environment,
and the refuse piles the ants form outside their
nests. We compared the composition of seeds
from various plant species in our samples, but
did not find enough correlation to answer our
initial question. Our findings did show that
harvester ants forage in fantastically complex,
dynamic and unpredictable (yet, not random)
ways. My work greatly improved my abilities to
interpret data, observe wildlife, collect samples,
and organize measurements. If I’m to be a
scientist, field zoology is the way to go.
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