CNAS Research & Extension

Cycad Seed Tissue Loaded with Carbohydrates

Learning how to make a seed was one of the crucial transitions for the world’s plants. The competitive advantages that seed-producing plants possess has led to their dominance in most contemporary natural habitats. Additionally, the crops that comprise the bulk of today’s human diet are all seed-producing plants. The original plants that learned to make […]

Butterfly Mother’s Food Choice for Offspring Changes with Experience

Plants communicate with animals using a blend of signals that influence animal behavior. The balance of plant attractants and deterrents partly determine the ultimate level of damage that an animal herbivore imposes on a plant. These intricate communications between the herbivore and the plant support sustainable relationships in their mutual native homelands. However, the ease […]

Non-native Insects Change More Than Native Host Plant Survival

When non-native herbivores invade new geographic regions, the consequences can be devastating to the native plants. Epidemic levels of herbivory damage may ensue because the delicate biological interactions that keep everything in balance within the herbivore’s native habitats may be missing in the invaded region. The island of Guam is home to a native cycad […]

Scientists Confront the Threat of a New Type of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Invading Islands in the Pacific

During the XXVth International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Orlando, Florida (September 25-30, 2016), the largest gathering of its kind ever held, scientists met in a special symposium to find answers to the problem of invasive scarab beetles, damaging species that are spreading around the globe. The meeting was timely, with reports of a new, highly damaging biotype of […]

Invasive Tropical Legume Alters Soil Nitrogen Dynamics

As global change continues to be studied, the scientific community needs quantitative assessments to inform mitigation decisions and predict outcomes. Because restoration and management plans designed to address global change issues are resource-limited, decision-makers require empirical information to best prioritize. Invasive alien species comprise one of the components of global change that results from the […]

And One Root Said To The Other Root, “Don’t I Know You from Somewhere?”

The global population of cycad plants is facing increasing threats, but research-driven decisions are rarely achievable for conservationists. The general lack of applied research on cycad plants has been discussed for decades, yet many of the roughly 340 species have never been the subject of ecology or horticulture experimental work. The paucity of empirical information […]

The Greater Banded Hornet Has Found Its Way To Guam

A new species of wasp was recently found on Guam and identified by entomologists at the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS), University of Guam as Vespa tropica, also known as the greater banded hornet. These wasps are large and aggressive which make them a possible health hazard to individuals with allergies to bees […]

Marianas Varroa mites might not carry virus

The College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS) at UOG is uncovering some very interesting information about honeybee health in the Marianas. Chris Rosario, research associate with the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center at CNAS has been surveying bees on Guam and in the region as part of the Honeybee Health Survey funded by USDA-APHIS. […]