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Assistant Professor of Zoology
Phone: (405)325-8136
Fax: (405)325-6202RM/Lab:SH308E
Current Research Interests and Subject Areas Available for Graduate Research
I am interested in understanding the causes and ecological consequences of insect behavior. Much of my research has dealt with scolytid bark beetles, using them as a model system to examine how proximal causes such as insect host selection decisions can produce ultimate effects such as bark beetle outbreaks that kill mature trees across large forest areas.
I have worked with the genus Dendroctonus in mixed coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada in California to determine what host tree cues trigger selection and beetle attack. I examined beetle produced pheromones in Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine forests in Idaho and Utah to determine how population stage and beetle quality affect response to aggregation and spacing signals. I worked in Wisconsin red pine forests with Ips bark beetles to examine how subtle differences in pheromone signals can structure a community of tree feeding insects and the predators that use the same pheromone signals to find and consume the signaling beetles.
As a forest entomologist I like to think about chemical ecology and neurophysiology: why some insect or host cues are broadly powerful or narrowly targeted; population dynamics: how to explain, predict and possibly manage explosions of large insect outbreaks; and forest ecology: what is the ecological response of a forest to a bark beetle outbreak and what forest elements: disease, competition, drought or injury make bark beetle outbreaks begin.
I also have broad interests in insect ecology and behavior and have served as principal advisor of six graduate students in New Zealand working on beetle biodiversity in Nothofagus forests and the response to different intensities of forest disturbance; biological control of exotic insect herbivores defoliating eucalyptus; response of soil insects to forest management; host colonizing behavior of an exotic bark beetle on exotic pines; host resistance to pine pitch canker disease; and an analysis of government import/ export law and port quarantine regulations aimed at preventing establishment of exotic insect pests.
Students with interests in insect ecology, insect behavior or forest entomology are welcome to work with me. Students who will do the best have keen curiosity about natural phenomena and good critical thinking that fosters their own creativity.
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
M.S. University of Washington
A.B. University of North Carolina
Selected publications:
Raffa, K.F., K. R. Hobson, S. LaFontaine, B. H. Aukema 2007. Can Chemical Communication Be Cryptic? Adaptations by Herbivores to Natural Enemies Exploiting Prey Semiochemistry. Oecologia. 153: 1009-1019.
Denholm P.M., Hobson K.R. 2000. Impacts of intensive forest management using municipal sewage sludge on the biodiversity of soil and litter fauna in Pinus radiata plantations in Canterbury. In: Eason, C.T., Tremblay, L.A. editors Proceedings of the Christchurch Conference on Biomarkers in Ecotoxicology, Christchurch, New Zealand, 14–16 July 1999.
Hobson K.R. 1996. Interruption of Bark Beetle Aggregation by a Vigor-Dependent Pinus Host Compound. pp. 228-233. In, Mattson, W.J., Niemela, P. & Roussi, M. Dynamics of Forest Herbivory: Quest for Pattern and Principle. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report NC-183; 286 pp.
Hobson, K.R. 1995. Host compounds as semiochemicals for bark beetles. In Salom, S.M. and Hobson, K.R. (eds) Application of Semiochemicals for Management of Bark Beetle Infestations. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report INT-GTR 318. pp 48-51.
Nebeker, T.E., R.F. Schmitz, R.A. Tisdale and K.R. Hobson. 1995. Chemical and nutritional status of dwarf mistletoe, Armillaria root rot and Comandra blister rust infected trees which may influence tree susceptibility to bark beetle attack. Can. J. Botany 73: 360-369.
Hobson, K.R., J.R. Parmeter, D.L. Wood. 1994. Studies of the role of fungi vectored by Dendroctonus brevicomis in xylem occlusion. Canadian Entomologist 126: 277-282.
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