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Help us map and study the activity of Joshua trees’ specialized pollinators, yucca moths!

Yucca moths interacting with Joshua tree flowers. Left, a female Tegeticula antithetica lays eggs in the pistil of an eastern Joshua tree flower before pollinating the flower with the yellow ball of pollen collected under her “chin” (Cole et al. 2017). Right, two yucca moths perch on the pistil of another Joshua tree flower, possibly after mating (Chris Smith).

Joshua Tree Genome Project researchers need your help observing Joshua trees to figure out where their specialized pollinator moths are active. Skip down to the three steps you can follow to help us, or read more background here:

Joshua trees need our help. These icons of the southwestern desert face mounting pressures from climate change, development, and wildfires. Conservation organizations and agencies are working hard to make sure the trees have a future by preserving Joshua tree woodlands and replanting damaged populations. But there are important things we still don’t know that could be important — like how Joshua trees’ specialized pollinators will fare in a climate-changed future.

Yucca moths (Tegeticula antithetica and T. synthetica), exclusively pollinate the eastern and western Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana). The moths emerge when the trees are flowering to meet and mate in the flowers. Each female moth then gathers pollen in specialized mouthparts and carries it from one flower to another, where she lay eggs inside the floral pistil and pollinates the flowers by stuffing pollen into receptive tip of the pistil. As pollinated Joshua tree flowers develop into fruit, the moth eggs inside them hatch, and the moth larvae eat some of the seeds developing inside the fruit before tunneling out and burrowing into the sandy soil to form a cocoon.

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Joshua Tree Genome Project PIs offer field research experience this spring

Chris Smith explains the survey protocol to volunteer leaders. (Photo by Jeremy Yoder.)
Chris Smith explains the survey protocol to volunteer leaders. (Photo by Jeremy Yoder.)

The Departments of Biology at Willamette University and California State University Northridge are pleased to announce a unique field course opportunity for undergraduates in the biological sciences and allied fields: Field Research in Desert Evolutionary Ecology. Professors Christopher (Chris) Smith (WU) and Jeremy Yoder (CSUN) will lead a two week class from Monday, May 22 to Friday, June 2, focused on the population ecology of the Joshua tree, an archetypical species of the Mojave Desert that is threatened with extinction due to climate change. Working from the Zzyzx Desert Studies Center in Baker, California, students will participate in primary research on the population ecology of Joshua trees, will learn surveying and data analysis techniques, and will complete focused research projects culminating in a research symposium. Click through for more details, and a formal course description.

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Seeking Partners For Community Science

Volunteers set out for a survey of trees in Tikaboo Valley, Nevada (Photo: Chris Smith)

Volunteers set out for a survey of trees in Tikaboo Valley, Nevada (Photo: Chris Smith)

The Joshua Tree Genome Project and its partners are excited to announce a new community science program: Mapping Joshua Trees for Climate Change Resilience.

Working with local conservation organizations and teams of community scientists, we will develop a comprehensive map of the current distribution of Joshua trees, and assess population health through on-the-ground demographic surveys. The results of this study will allow us to develop a conservation plan for Joshua trees in the face of climate change. We are currently seeking local leaders from communities across the Mojave Desert to assist us with the project, and will hold a series of training events beginning in November, 2018.

To request more information, or become involved as a community scientist or a conservation leader click here and fill out the registration form.  For more information, keep reading.

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