The Brooks Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University is seeking bright, motivated students to help explore the role that variation in host traits plays in the ecological structure and function of consumer populations. Specifically, my group is focused on identifying host traits that have fitness consequences for associated consumers to ask questions about the invasibility of host community for a novel consumer. Most (but not all) of our work involves the associations between prickly pear cactus (genus Opuntia), native cactus moths and the invasive South American cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum. Past and current fieldwork work in this system has occurred in Argentina and Uruguay, along the Atlantic and Gulf coast of the United States (from South Carolina to Texas) as well as New Mexico and Arizona. Interested students should check out the lab webpage (http://cpbrooks.wix.com/brookslabmain) and then drop me an e-mail (cpbrooks at biology.msstate.edu) that includes a brief statement of your interest in the lab, a curriculum vita and some basic information (such as GRE and/or TOEFL scores, GPA, etc.).
