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My postdoctoral research has largely focused on the topic of how social insects organize groups of individuals to achieve coordinated collective defense. I have explored this topic in terms of division of labor, morphological worker sub-castes, and variation in worker neurophysiology. I have also been a part of projects using these empirical data for bio-inspired design. As I move forward, I plan to use skills acquired in this behavioral work to add a new layer of complexity to other areas of my work, including individual and group physiology.
To learn more, check out some of our recent publications: Baudier et al. 2019 Behav Ecol. 30:1041-1049. Strickland et al. 2018 DARS. 9:139-151 Ostwald et al. 2018 J Insect Behav. 31:503–509 |
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Individual physiologies can scale to emergent group adaptation in social species. A major area of my ongoing research is the study of how the thermal tolerance of social insects scales from individual to group, and across space and time relative to local climate. I am interested in improving our understanding of the selective pressures of microclimate, elevation, rain shadows, and sociality in setting organismal and group thermal tolerance. The impacts of this work include a better understanding of the abiotic underpinnings of species distributions across landscapes, as well as improved climate change predictions across wide areas.
For more about landscapes of thermal tolerance: Baudier et al. 2018. Am Nat. 192:347-359 Baudier & O’Donnell. 2018. J Therm Biol. 78:277-280 Baudier & O’Donnell. 2017. Curr Opin Insect Sci. 22:85-91 Baudier & O’Donnell. 2016. Insect Soc. 63:467-476 Baudier et al. 2015. J Anim Ecol. 84:1322-1330 |
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Neotropical army ant bivouacs are temporary nests constructed from millions of living ants that coordinately cling to one another as they collectively cradle and incubate the queen and brood. In the past four years, my work has revised our understanding of how army ant bivouacs perform their main physiological function: social thermoregulation. I've studied both above-ground bivouac thermoregulation as well as subterranean bivouac thermoregulation.
For more about bivouac thermoregulation: Baudier et al. 2019. Ecography. 42:730-739. Baudier & O’Donnell. 2016. Insect Soc. 63:467-476 |
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I had the great fortune early in my career to be part of a team that discovered the toxicity of erythritol to certain insects, Our initial discovery was of the insecticidal properties of erythritol to adult fruit flies, but we also went on to study the efficacy of other similar compounds, and found that larvae are particularly sensitive, suggesting that egg-syncs may be an effective application method to lessen mortality of non-target species. Although not a currently active research area of mine, some fantastic new work on this topic is being conducted by the O'Donnell Lab at Drexel University.
Publications from this area of my work: O'Donnell et al. 2018. J Appl Entomol. 142:37-42 O’Donnell et al. 2016. J Insect Sci. 16:1-3 Baudier et al. 2014. PLoS One. 9:e98949 |
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