Evan Preisser

Evan Preisser, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
  • Professor
  • Biological Sciences
  • Phone: 401.874.2120
  • Email: preisser@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Office: Woodward 237
  • Website

Research

Effects of predation risk on community dynamics

Non-lethal interactions between predators and their prey can profoundly affect food webs and alter community dynamics. Many organisms are capable of altering phenotypic traits (behavior, development, morphology, etc.) to reduce their risk of predation; changes occurring via the ‘non-consumptive effects’ of predators on their prey can nonetheless incur significant demographic and fitness-level costs. Previous research in my lab has studied a wide array of risk-related questions; we are presently exploring the impact of acoustic predator cues on invertebrate herbivores and assessing whether playing recordings of these cues (specifically, wasp buzzing) can be used in the field to alter herbivory rates.

Impact of herbivore kairomones on plant growth, defense, and development

Despite substantial research exploring plant defense induction during and after herbivore attack, little is known about whether and how plants use pre-attack cues such as kairomones (herbivore-emitted chemicals not associated with the attack that are detected by – and thus provide benefits to – a plant) to preemptively induce defense. Herbivore kairomones have recently been documented in multiple systems; slug/snail mucus, an easily obtained and manipulable kairomone, can be used to ask novel questions about plant risk perception and induced responses. The fact that slugs preferentially attack seedlings, a highly vulnerable life-history stage, highlights the selective advantage of pre-attack mucus detection and response. I am working with researchers at Tufts University and The University of Wisconsin-Madison on research exploring whether different risk cues affect the growth and defense of different-aged seedlings, how ontogenetic shifts in susceptibility determine patterns of responses and the immediate and legacy consequences of risk perception and ontogeny in the field settings. These questions are asked using the slug Arion subfuscus and the sugar maple Acer saccharum in experiments exploring interactions between risk cue quality and seedling age over both short (~1 month) and long (>1 yr.) time periods. The manipulation of herbivore cues, ontogeny, and differential susceptibility within and across seasons explores whether current plant defense reflects the ‘ghost of herbivory risk past’; present-day defense may often only make sense in light of past information received by plants.

Education

B.A. (Biology and English), 1993, Williams College
M.F.S. (Forest Science), 1998, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
M.S. (Population Biology), 2000, University of California at Davis
Ph.D. (Population Biology), 2004, University of California at Davis

Selected Publications

  • Liu, B.M., Preisser, E.L., Jiao, X.G., Xu, W.H., and Y.J. Zhang. 2021. Lethal and sublethal effects of flupyradifurone on Bemisia tabaci MED feeding behavior and TYLCV transmission in tomato. Journal of Economic Entomology 114(3): 1072-1080.
  • Lee, Z.A., Baranowski, A.K., and E.L. Preisser. 2021. Auditory predator cues affect monarch (Danaus plexippus; Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) development time and pupal weight. Acta Oecologica 111: 103740.
  • Rigsby, C.M., Body, M.J.A., May, A., Oppong, A., Kostka, A., Houseman, N., Savage, S.K., Whitney, E.R., Kinahan, I.G., DeBoef, B., Orians, C.M., Schultz, J.C., Appel, H.M., and E.L. Preisser. 2021. Impact of chronic stylet-feeder infestation on folivore-induced signaling and defenses. Tree Physiology 41(3): 416-427.
  • Liu, B.M., Preisser, E.L., Jiao, X.G., and Y.J. Zhang. 2020. TYLCV infection alters Bemisia tabaci MED (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) vulnerability to flupyradifurone. Journal of Economic Entomology 113(4): 1922-1926.
  • Rigsby, C.M., Kinahan, I.G., May, A., Kostka, A., Houseman, N., Savage, S.K., Whitney, E.R., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. Impact of hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) (Hemiptera: Adelgidae) infestation on the jasmonic acid-elicited defenses of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Environmental Entomology 49(5): 1226-1231.
  • †*Kinahan, I. G., Rigsby, C.M., Savage, S.K., Houseman, N.L., Marsella, A.S., Oppong-Quaicoe, A., DeBoef, B.L., Orians, C.M., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. Seasonal changes in eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) foliar chemistry. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 50(6): 557-654. 
  • Sheriff, M.J., Orrock, J.L., Ferrari, M.C.O., Karban, R., Preisser, E.L., Sih, A., and J.S. Thaler. 2020. Proportional fitness loss and the timing of defensive investment: a cohesive framework across animals and plants. Oecologia 193: 273-283. 
  • †Baranowski, A.K., Alm, S.R., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. Datana drexelii (Lepidoptera: Notododontidae) oviposition and larval survival on highbush blueberry cultivars. Journal of Economic Entomology 113(3): 568-571.
  • Blundell, J.J., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. Editorial: Integrating predation risk across scales: from neurons to ecosystems and milliseconds to generations. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 14:42.
  • †*Kinahan, I.G., Baranowski, A.K., Whitney, E.R., Savage, S.K., Rigsby, C.M., Shoemaker, E.E., Orians, C.M., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. Facilitation between invasive herbivores: hemlock woolly adelgid increases gypsy moth preference for and performance on eastern hemlock. Ecological Entomology 45(3): 416-422.
  • †*Kinahan, I. G., Grandstaff, G., Russell, A., Rigsby, C.M., Casagrande, R.A., and E.L. Preisser. 2020. A four-year, seven-state reforestation trial with eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) resistant to hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae). Forests 11(3): 312. 

*with undergraduate co-authors; †With graduate student co-authors