At the Delaware Invasive Species Conference this week two Delaware researchers presented some preliminary findings from research done through the FRAME long-term ecosystem study in northern Delaware. Ph.D. candidate Solny Adalsteinsson is finding more ticks under multiflora rose than uninvaded areas 25 meters away. However, uninvaded forest fragments had more ticks than invaded fragments did overall. She is currently collecting data on Lyme disease infection prevalence and tick burdens on mice.
Dr. Greg Shiver studies birds in the FRAME fragments. He is looking at whether there is a link between invaded sites and the lack of calcium-rich prey important for breeding birds.