Colby Tanner Fellow, Department of Biology tanner@biology.utah.edu 694-6765 (home) 585-5478 (office)

I study ecology using biology and math.  This is my third year at the University of Utah, where I am currently working with ants and aphids on Cottonwood trees in the riparian zones of Weber and East Canyons.  The ants protect the aphids from predators and remove most of the aphid’s competitors.  Without the ants, the trees would have no (or very few) aphids.  In return for protection, the aphids supply their bodyguards with honeydew, a sugary liquid that the ants use for energy.  Because the ants like sugar so much, different species compete with each other to ‘tend’ or ‘farm’ the aphids.  I am investigating different strategies that the ants use to find and keep their share of the aphids.