Angela Laws
the Post Doc 
Division of Biology
Kansas State University
Ackert Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506-4901
785.532.7053
Ph. D. 2007, University of Notre Dame
Biology
M.S. Utah State University
Ecology
B.S. Utah State University
Fisheries and Wildlife
Research interests: food web dynamics; species interactions; ecological effects of global climate change; life-history studies; Ecology of grasshoppers and wolf spiders; grassland ecology
My research focuses on the factors that regulate food web dynamics. In particular, I am interested in understanding the mechanisms by which global climate change can modify species interactions in an arthropod predator - prey (grasshoppers and wolf spiders) system.
Global climate change will have many impacts on ecological systems, including shifts in species ranges, population sizes, and community composition. However, the potential effects of climate change on species interactions, particularly those involving predators, have received relatively little attention. Given that species interactions are important drivers of many community and ecosystem processes, it is important to understand how global climate change might modify species interactions.
We are conducting large-scale field experiments at the Konza Prairie Biological Station to determine how grasshopper performance and tritrophic interactions in a plant – grasshopper – spider food web respond to manipulations of temperature and food quality, two important factors associated with global climate change.