URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2016_Melissa-McCarthy

of the State’s Woodlands Mass Extinction written by Susanna Pilny ’16

Rhode Island’s forests are facing a huge threat from a small pest, a menace that, despite its tiny size, could lead to mass extinction of the state’s woodlands. But, University of Rhode Island (URI) Associate Professor, Evan Preisser, of the Department of Biological Sciences, is leading the charge to save the forests from an invasive species that threatens the ecosystem at its very foundation.

Broadly, Preisser studies how food webs work, how various organisms interact, and how these interactions affect the community structure of the ecosystem. “You have a lot of potential for species to influence each other, both directly — by eating or competing — and also indirectly through their interactions with another species,” says Preisser. “For instance, predators, even those that would never eat plant material, would

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