UC Davis Doctoral Candidate in Winners' Circle at ESA Meeting

UC Davis doctoral candidate Marielle Hansel Friedman figuratively "lightened the way" to the winners' circle at the Graduate Student Competition for the President's Prize at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting in Portland, Ore.

Her poster,  "Light and Exhaust: Interactive Effects of Artificial Light at Night and Vehicle Pollution on Insect Richness and Abundance,"  scored second place in her highly competitive category, Plant-Insect Ecosytems.  She was honored at the President's Prize Awards Ceremony. (See list of winners) 

Friedman, who studies with major professor Emily Meineke, assistant professor and urban landscape entomologist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, also delivered an invited presentation on the same project, "Illuminating Complexity: How Artificial Light at Night Influences Insect Richness and Abundance across a Vehicle Pollution Gradient" at a symposium on "Insect Biodiversity in Urban Landscapes."  Meineke and postdoctoral researcher Elizeth Cinto Mejia are co-authors.

"Marielle has been very busy and productive in the conference circuit (and in a lot of other arenas)," Meineke wrote in an email. "Congratulations, Marielle!"

The Abstract

The abstract for both presentations: 

"Controlled studies assessing the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on insects have revealed strong effects of the color, strength, and duration of nighttime light on insects and their host plants. These studies suggest that lighting within urban areas is likely to have important but complex effects on biodiversity. Here, we assessed ALAN as a driver of insect community richness and abundance across Sacramento. Originally, the sites used for this study were chosen because focal trees (Quercus lobata) were located in areas that represented a gradient of vehicle pollution. We found in previous studies that these sites also have variable light regimes driven by street lights. This variation in light is not substantially correlated with vehicle pollution, which presents an opportunity to determine their relative effects on insects. Our results indicate that the relationship between ALAN and family-level insect richness and overall abundance depends on the level of vehicle pollution. At sites where vehicle pollution is low, there is a negative effect of ALAN on family-level insect richness and abundance. However, the negative effects of ALAN become less negative as vehicle pollution increases, likely because there is a negative effect of vehicle pollution on certain insects. We found a small but significant positive interaction between ALAN and vehicle pollution, suggesting that ALAN effects hinge on vehicle pollution levels insect communities face. Our study highlights the importance of considering other anthropogenic factors, such as vehicle pollution, when studying the effects of ALAN in urban and rural environments."

Friedman also served as one of 16 panelists in a symposium on "Entomology Outreach on Parade! Bridging Institutions to Share Innovations in Student-Driven Outreach," along with UC Davis doctoral candidates Lexie Martin of the lab of community ecologist Rachel Vannette, professor and vice chair of the department; and Carla-Cristina Melo "CC" Edwards. Martin, who discussed the history of the UC Davis Picnic Day and the role of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA), serves as president of EGSA. Friedman is the secretary.

The day following the ESA meeting,  Friedman presented a pre-recorded "lightning talk"  to the California Invasive Plant Council Symposium on "Evaluating Effects of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on Biological Control Agents of Yellow Star-Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) in California."  Cal-IPC's mission is to protect California’s environment and ecology from invasive plants. 

Anthropogenic Effects on Insects

 "I study anthropogenic effects on insects and ecologically important host plant species in Northern California," she told Cal-IPC, in a project co-authored by Meineke and Pratt. "I am focused on artificial light at night (ALAN) as a driver of changing plant-insect interactions and insect communities. I use historical natural history specimens, natural and field experiments, and community science to explore patterns and mechanisms behind changing plant-insect interactions in the Anthropocene."

"Invasive plants drive biodiversity loss and have enormous economic and ecological impacts in California," Friedman related. "Key interactions involving invasive plants concern those with co-evolved herbivores introduced for biological control. To date, there are few studies quantifying the influence of a rapidly growing anthropogenic stressor, artificial light at night (ALAN), on non-native invasive plant species and their associated herbivores, and none on invasive plant biological control agents. Experiments assessing the effects of ALAN have revealed that it can have significant impacts on insects and their host plants. We investigated the potential effects of ALAN on a prolific, established invasive plant, yellow star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis), and its biological control agents, while controlling for other environmental variables. In particular, we assessed how ALAN influences host colonization and density of biocontrol agents on yellow star-thistle. Preliminary results indicate that ALAN does not have a significant effect on the probability of insect damage or on insect densities on plants. We suspect that this is because ALAN has minimal or no effects on insects that develop within opaque plant tissues, like yellow-star thistle seed heads. The role of ALAN in other biological control systems remains unexplored but may have differing effects depending on the life history of the biocontrol agents and, in particular, on the extent to which agents are exposed to ALAN during development."

 Friedman is a member of the Light Pollution Working Group‐Status of Insects: An International Research Coordination Network, and secretary of the California Invasive Plant Council‐Student Section.

Grew Up in San Francisco Bay Area

Marielle, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, received her bachelor's degree in biology in 2015 from the University of Oregon, Portland. She lived in Portland for a few years before opting to return to the Bay Area.  She served as a 2018‑2019 Energy and Environmental Fellow with the Marin County Office of Education's "Strategic Energy Innovations."

Friedman joined the UC Davis entomology doctoral program in September 2022. She is advised by Meineke and Paul Pratt (retired research leader), Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Unit, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. The title of her dissertation: "Patterns and Mechanisms of Changing Plant-Insect Interactions on Urban Plants in Northern California.”  She worked as a biological science technician in Pratt’s unit from 2019 to 2022, and earlier was a research assistant in the Bill Cresko Lab, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon.

Moths

Keenly interested in moths, Friedman is the lead author of "Life History and Host Range Characteristics of Paracles azollae Berg, 1877 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae), an Herbivore Considered for Biological Control of Invasive Species," recently published in the Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 

In 2024 she designed the “Bugbie”(Barbie) shirt--illustrated with a rosy maple moth,  Dryocampa rubicunda--that the EGSA sells at UC Davis Picnic Day and online at https://ucdavisentgrad.square.site/. She also designed the monarch butterfly, swallowtail butterfly, milkweed bug, and Bugbie stickers. Her website, https://www.mariellehanselfriedman.com/ includes her projects. 

During the COVID pandemic,  Friedman started a small jewelry business named Elytra Jewelry (on Instagram) where "I sell ethically sourced butterfly and beetle wing earrings and polymer clay jewelry, in addition to a variety of sticker designs of native California insects.”