Dr. Kristine Grayson
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Profile
Dr. Kristine Grayson is field ecologist whose areas of expertise include population ecology, thermal physiology, the spread of invasive forest insects, and the conservation of amphibians and reptiles. The primary goal of her research program is to understand the ecology and physiology of animals in changing environments. She teaches courses in ecology, field biology, data visualization, and animal ecophysiology.
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Grants and Fellowships
USDA Cooperative Agreement Award: Development of molecular diagnostic tools and investigations of population genetics of invasive pest insects and their biological control agents, 2023
USDA Cooperative Agreement Award: Research and Development on a Rearing System for Emerald Ash Borer, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
USDA Cooperative Agreement Award: Box Tree Moth SIT [Sterile Insect Technique] Development, 2021, 2022, 2023
Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research: Forecasting the Spread of an Invasive Forest Pest, 2020
NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE): Applying the CURE Model to Facilitate Multi-institutional Investigations Across Levels of Biological Inquiry using Eastern Red-Backed Salamanders, 2019
NSF MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science: Linking Thermal Tolerance to Invasion Dynamics: Climate and Physiological Capacity as Regulators of Geographical Spread, 2017
NSF Research Opportunity Award Supplement: Using a Spatial Framework to Understand Species Diversity in Rock Pool Communities through Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research, 2017
NSF Research Coordination Network (RCN) Incubator: Designing an Infrastructure and Sustainable Learning Community for Integrating Data Centric Teaching Resources in Undergraduate Biology Education, 2017
Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research: Genome-Wide Association Models to Determine the Genetic Architecture of an Invasive Forest Insect, 2016
US Army Corps of Engineers Cooperative Award: Baseline Surveys for Amphibians and Prothonotary Warblers at Fort A.P. Hill, 2014
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Postdoctoral Grant: Population Persistence at an Invasion Front: Climatic Limitations on the Spread of the Gypsy Moth, 2014
NSF International Research Postdoctoral Fellowship: Population Sex Ratio Bias: Influences of Climate and Consequences for Extinction, 2010
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship: Extreme Turtles: Studying the Biggest, Rarest, and Most Threatened Turtles in Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Seychelles, and South Africa, 2003
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Awards
UR Bonner Center Engage for Change Award (Collaboration for Change), 2020
Finalist: SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award (Early Career), 2019 – 2021
Best Paper in Physiological Entomology, Royal Entomological Society, 2019
Finalist: Sidnie Manton Award (outstanding synthesis paper by an early career author in Journal of Animal Ecology), 2018
University of Richmond Sustainability Leadership Award, 2016
Andrew Fleming Prize, Outstanding Dissertation in Biology, UVA, 2010
Edgar F. Shannon Award for Top Graduating Student in Arts & Sciences, The Z Society, 2010
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Grants and Fellowships
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Selected Publications
Journal Articles
*undergraduate coauthor
Walter, J.A., L.M. Thompson, S.D. Powers, D. Parry, S.J. Agosta, and K.L. Grayson. 2022. Growth and development of an invasive forest insect under current and future projected temperature regimes. Ecology and Evolution 12: e9017. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9017Grayson, K.L., A.K. Hiliker, and J.R. Wares. 2022. R Markdown as a dynamic interface for teaching: Modules from math and biology classrooms. Mathematical Biosciences 349: 108844.
Grayson, K.L. 2021. The invasive emerald ash borer has destroyed millions of trees – scientists aim to control it with tiny parasitic wasps. The Conversation.
Thompson, L.M., S.D. Powers, A. Appolon*, P. Hafker*, L. Milner*, D. Parry, S.J. Agosta, and K.L. Grayson. 2020. Climate-related geographic variation in performance traits across the invasion front of a widespread nonnative insect. Journal of Biogeography DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14005.
Price, S.J., K.L. Grayson, B.D. Gartrell, and N.J. Nelson. 2020. Survival and growth of tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) following translocation from the Cook Strait to warmer locations in their historic range. Oryx 54: 222 – 233.
Hernández-Pacheco, R., C. Sutherland, L.M. Thompson, and K.L. Grayson. 2019. Unexpected spatial population ecology of a widespread terrestrial salamander near its southern range edge. Royal Society Open Science 6: 182192.
Friedline, C.J., T.M. Faske, E.M. Hobson, B.M. Lind, D. Parry, R.J. Dyer, D.M. Johnson, L.M. Thompson, K.L. Grayson, and A.J. Eckert. 2019. Evolutionary genomics of gypsy moth populations sampled from a latitudinal gradient. Molecular Ecology 208: 2206–2223.
Faske, T.M., L.M. Thompson, N. Banahene*, A. Levorse*, M. Quiroga Herrera*, K. Sherman*, S. Timko*, B. Yang*, D. R. Gray, D. Parry, P.C. Tobin, A.J. Eckert, D.M. Johnson, K.L. Grayson. 2019. Can gypsy moth stand the heat? A reciprocal transplant experiment with an invasive forest pest across its southern range margin. Biological Invasions 21: 1365 – 1378.
Banahene*, N., S. Salem*., T.M. Faske, H. Byrne*, M. Glackin*, S.J. Agosta, A.J. Eckert, K.L. Grayson, and L.M. Thompson. 2018. Thermal sensitivity of gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) during larval and pupal development. Environmental Entomology. 47(6): 1623 – 1631.
Novarro, A.J., C.R. Gabor, C.B. Goff, T.D. Mezebish*, L.M. Thompson, and K.L. Grayson. 2018. Physiological responses to elevated temperature across the geographic range of a terrestrial salamander. Journal of Experimental Biology 221: jeb.178236.
May*, C., N. Hillerbrand*, L.M. Thompson, T.M. Faske, E. Martinez, D. Parry, S.J. Agosta, and K.L. Grayson. 2018. Geographic variation in larval metabolic rate between northern and southern populations of the invasive gypsy moth. Journal of Insect Science 18: 1-7.
Grayson, K.L., and D.M. Johnson. 2018. Novel insights on population and range edge dynamics using an unparalleled spatiotemporal record of species invasion. Journal of Animal Ecology 87: 581 – 593.
Thompson, L.M., T.M. Faske*, N. Banahene*, D. Grim*, S.J. Agosta, D. Parry, P.C. Tobin, D.M. Johnson, and K.L. Grayson. 2017. Variation in growth and developmental responses to supraoptimal temperatures near latitudinal range limits of gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar (L.)), an expanding invasive species. Physiological Entomology 42: 181 – 190.
Grayson, K.L., N.J. Mitchell, J.M. Monks, S.N. Keall, J. Wilson, and N.J. Nelson. 2014. Sex ratio bias and extinction risk in an isolated population of tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus). PLoS ONE 9: e94214.
Grayson, K.L., N.J. Mitchell, and N.J. Nelson. 2014. A threat to New Zealand’s tuatara heats up. American Scientist 102: 350-357.
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In the News
How a Warming Climate is Changing Animals. Dr. Grayson's Spider Talk with President Crutcher
Fri., Mar. 20, 2020Learning from the Dead: Interdisciplinary Education in Richmond's East End Cemetery
Tue., Nov. 1, 2022Can Trouble-Making Gypsy Moths Take the Heat? Richmond Times Dispatch
Sun., Jul. 12, 2015Kayla Sherman '16 Spends the Summer Researching Newts and Moths
Fri., Aug. 14, 2015Biology Professor Talks about Research with Tuatara
Wed., Oct. 28, 2015Climate Change Impacts Tuatara Population
Wed., Apr. 9, 2014 - Links