Rausser in the News

ESPM alum Peter Oboyski (Ph.D. '11) is featured in this California magazine article on the Essig Museum of Entomology, where he is the collections manager. Oboyski chats about the museum and discusses a dozen or so species from the Essig's vast collection of over 6 million specimens. One of the largest university collections in North America, the Essig’s regional emphasis is primarily on California, but it also expands to the Pacific Rim, including the islands of the central Pacific. Oboyski, a moth specialist who earned his Berkeley Ph.D. in 2011, has identified nine new species himself—seven from Hawaii, and two from Tahiti.

ESPM grad student Colin Carlson is featured in this Democracy Now video segment on recently published research which revealed climate change is driving the mass extinction of parasites that are critical to natural ecosystems. Carlson notes that parasites serve important regulatory roles in ecosystems. With a changing climate, the loss of that stabilitzing role could produce opportunities for new patterns of wildlife in human disease.

ESPM grad student Colin Carlson is featured in this Guardian article on potential impacts of climate change on parasites, which play a vital role in eocsystems. Major extinctions among parasites could lead to unpredictable invasions of surviving parasites into new areas. “If parasites go extinct, we are looking at a potential massive destabilisation of ecosystems [which] could have huge unexpected consequences,” Carlson said, with other parasites moving in to take advantage. “That doesn’t necessarily work out well for anyone, wildlife or humans.”