Ellen Lake

I graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1999 with degrees in Biology and Anthropology. My anthropology thesis focused on the development of a community within a seventh grade classroom that integrated the study of traditional classes such as English and science around the investigation of a watershed. My interest in ecological research began when I helped with projects using benthic macroinvertebrates to monitor stream quality and I was first introduced to the field of biological control in college. I spent the summer before my senior year working as a field hand for Bryn Mawr's ecologist researching egg predation of Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla , two biological control insects for purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria . My biology thesis reviewed egg defense mechanisms in chrysomelid beetles.

After college I worked as an environmental educator for the Brandywine and Red Clay Valley Associations (BVA and RCVA), the oldest small watershed organizations in the country. I became BVA and RCVA's Education Director in 2001. Throughout my time at BVA and RCVA I watched the organizations struggle to curtail the spread of invasive plants and to clear areas of invasives and replant with natives. Mile-a-minute weed, Polygonum perfoliatum , was present on the property by the late 1990s and around 2001 started to spread rapidly threatening multiple areas including plantings of native trees. I left BVA and RCVA in 2004 to join Dr. Judy Hough-Goldstein's lab group at the University of Delaware to work on biological control of mile-a-minute weed with the host specific, stem-boring, curculionid weevil Rhinoncomimus latipes Korotyaev.

My research objectives are to track the dispersal and establishment of the weevil and evaluate its impact on mile-a-minute weed in the field. This research is being conducted at three sites where 450 weevils were released in the center of a 50 meter diameter array. The array consists of concentric circles spaced 5 meters apart with the number of monitoring quadrats per circle increasing with distance from the point of release. I am also conducting experiments to determine the number of weevil generations per year and to assess the role of white-tailed deer in mile-a-minute seed dispersal. If the weevil is an effective control agent in the field, my ultimate goals are to answer research questions that will facilitate the application of the biological control weevil as a tool for mile-a-minute control by land managers and others responsible for invasives removal.

In my free time I help to mentor a group of high school students interested in science who volunteer on various environmental projects with BVA and RCVA. I participate in an environmental book club, am a retired ultimate Frisbee player, and enjoy gardening, cooking, quilting, kayaking, waterskiing, fishing and hiking.