June 2012. I am currently developing code for an Ecological Gaming class that I hope to teach in the spring of 2013. This class focuses on teaching the foundations of Ecology through the lens of a computer simulation game. Check out this animation of a simulation of the tri-trophic world.

March 2012. I have just returned from a engaging three day trip out to the University of Idaho to give a talk for their Interdisciplinary Climate Change Seminar. My talk, entitled "Predicting the Effects of Climate Change on Agricultural Pest Incidence: How Secure is Our Food Supply?" discussed some of the possible effects of climate change on the Sunflower stem weevil, the Russian wheat aphid, and then finished with a broad sketch describing the potential impact of increasing temperature on global pest pressure.

January 2012. My work with Sheri Pucherelli, Frank Peairs, and Terri Randolph was published in the journal Arthropod-Plant Interactions. This work entitled "Russian wheat aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) reproduction and development on five nonclutivated greass hosts" discusses host quality and the potential for selection pressure on many of the grass host species that the Russian wheat aphid uses during the oversummering months (and likely year round). http://www.springerlink.com/content/bqmv53526572t087/

December 2011. I have officially landed at the University of Vermont in the Department of Plant and Soil Science. I am excited about getting started.

November 2011. Come see my research posters at this year's Entomological Society of America's meeting in Reno. I will be presenting my work entitled "Climate change and the perils of linear thinking" on Wednesday, November 16 in Exhibition Hall 3, First Floor (Reno-Sparks Convention Center). Also, check out some of the my work with Terri Randolph and others entitled "Suppression of Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia) populations with natural enemies present in the wheat system" which is also presented on Wednesday in Exhibition Hall 3.

November 2011. I am just back from spending a week with Josh Tewksbury at the University of Washington. I think we will have some strong work coming out soon looking at the effects of climate change on pest pressure on a global scale.

October 2011. I am starting a new position as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont in the Department of Plant and Soil Science! There are some really exciting prospects with people out there that I am eager to start working on.

August 2011. Check out my podcast with Dr Jai Ranganathan on Curiouser and Curiouser Podcasts, a Miller-McCune production. We discuss the future of food, some of the crazy pests in agriculture and how the Organic foods label may reduce our food supply resilence. http://www.miller-mccune.com/curiouser/could-organic-farming-threaten-our-food-supply-34734/

June 2011. Our work (SCM, Shawn Walter, Frank Peairs and Jennifer Hoeting) describing the within-field spatial variablility of the Western bean cutworm has finally been published by Enviromental Entomology (entitled "Spatial variability of Western bean cutworm populations in irrigated corn. This work provides a first step towards developing precision pest management tactics for controlling this pest of corn and beans.

June 2011. Assefa Gebre-Amlak did a great job in getting our work on degree-day models for the Sunflower stem weevils out to the farming community through a publication called the Golden Plains Area Agricultural Handbook (this section in the handbook was authored by SCM, Assefa Gebre-Amlak, J. Scott Armstrong and Frank Peairs). This research provides degree day information to help time scouting for Sunflower stem weevil in sunflower crops.

June 2011. I presented my work at two different venues this month. The first was a seminar given as part of the NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis) Ecolunch Seminar Series, and the second was for the Ecosystem Sciences Division of the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) in Brisbane, Australia. I really enjoyed these interactions and felt I was able to communicate the necessity of serious forethought when trying to parameterize the variance signal in spatially explicit climate change modeling of insect pests.

April 2011. Very exciting news! On April 9th, my son Brennan Cole Adair Merrill was born at 7 lbs, 4 oz.

March 2011. I just finished teaching a Kids Do Ecology program with 5th graders from Monroe Elementary School in Santa Barbara. Our project examined how the shape of a birds beak could influence what food it consumes. I will be making a link soon on this website to show our project, including methods, results and the poster that the class created to explain their project. 

December 2010. I will be presenting my research on the potential effects of climate change on the habitat of the Russian wheat aphid at the Entomological Society of America meeting in San Diego at 8:00 am on Tuesday, December 14th in the Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, Grand Exhibit Hall. Research Poster

December 2010. Two of my peer-reviewed Colorado State University Technical Reports will be published this month. The first, entitled "Estimating Russian wheat aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae) overwintering success using weather data", describes development of a predictive model for estimating spring Russian wheat aphid densities using overwintering weather conditions. The second, entitled "Examining the correlation between fall and spring population densities of the Russian wheat aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae)", seeks to illustrate the correlation between the density of Russian wheat aphids before the onset of winter to the density of aphids in the late winter and early spring.

April 2010. I enjoyed giving a talk for the NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis) Ecolunch Seminar Series. My talk discussed the link between Precision Agriculture and Landscape Ecology. I used an example that analyzed different fertilization strategies (a traditional fertilization strategy versus a Precision Agriculture based yield zone strategy) and a Precision Pest Management example to illustrate the importance of Precision Agricultural strategy and the need for quality ecological models to inform management decisions.