Professor Gail Langellotto is the principal investigator in the Garden Ecology Lab in AgSci’s Department of Horticulture. She is also the director of the college’s BioResource Research Program.
How did the Garden Ecology Lab start?
The lab started in 2016 and grew out of my previous work as the statewide program lead for the OSU Extension Master Gardener program, which aims to provide Oregonians with research-based recommendations to support their gardening goals. But after nine years there, it became increasingly apparent to me that many of the recommendations we were providing were derived from research in agricultural systems, which are different in size and scope from gardens. I started to wonder what might be discovered if we were to focus research efforts on gardens. I took a leap of faith and funded my first graduate student with a one-year fellowship from the Department of Horticulture. I started sharing my vision for the lab, and luckily found a strong community of Master Gardener volunteers and associations who believed in this vision, and stepped forward to donate, fundraise and support two graduate students per year. This community has only grown, to the point that we annually support two to three graduate students and five to eight undergraduates per year.
What are your current research projects?
Our major projects are focused on plant-insect interactions in garden systems, as well as garden soil health. We recently finished up a study of pollinator diversity on native plants versus native cultivars (in general, native plants outperformed native cultivars). We are finishing up a study of flower flies in local gardens. We have another study looking at plant communities within Willamette Valley gardens to see if people are making solid choices for pollinators. This summer, we’re launching a field study to see if co-planting lavender with native plants can benefit native bee biodiversity by drawing non-native honey bees away from native plants and towards the lavender. We’re also initiating a study of microplastics pollution in community garden soils, to try and see whether garden management practices or proximity to roadways (for tire particles) are correlated with microplastics abundance.
How do students at different levels contribute to the lab’s research?
The graduate students lead the project that will ultimately become their M.S. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation. The undergraduates help with all aspects of each graduate student's project, including data collection, database entry, pinning and curating insects, mapping and measuring garden sites and literature reviews. If an undergraduate shows interest in independent research, we try to find a side project that they can develop into an undergraduate thesis project.
Have you seen public awareness of the importance of pollinators and native plants change in the past decade or so?
Oh, yes! Not too many years ago, the type of garden that everyone wanted was one that was free of insect life. Now, we recognize that those types of gardens are biological dead zones. When colony collapse disorder hit the news around 2006, it really focused public attention on the importance of insects for the life that we all enjoy on this earth. Around this same time, Doug Tallamy, an entomologist from the University of Delaware, published a book titled “Bringing Nature Home,” which emphasized the importance of gardening with native plants for ecosystem health. Since that time, it has been wonderful to see people embrace biodiversity into their garden. Even though individual gardens might be relatively small in size, our research (and others’) has shown these spaces can host an incredible amount of biodiversity — if you are making solid plant choices and if you're willing to pull back on pesticides.
What are some standout findings from past research conducted by your lab?
For every study we do, we translate our findings into practical applications for local gardeners. You can find a collection of these recommendations on our website: For Gardeners | College of Agricultural Sciences.
What kind of students seek out your lab?
Students tend to seek out our lab because they're passionate about gardening, pollinators, or both.
What might surprise people about your lab?
Sometimes, I feel that we’ve become a victim of our own success. Gardeners get excited about the work that we’re doing, and often want to know the “answer” soon after we launch a new project. Now, I am trying to help folks understand that the scientific process can take years to go from hypothesis to recommendation, in the case of our field studies. We have a blog series tagged Science Behind the Scenes to try and give a peek into the process.
What is the most high-impact facet of the work you do?
We do a lot of outreach in our lab. Doing the research and publishing in peer-reviewed journals is one thing, but getting the results into the hands of people who can put your findings into practice is really meaningful. I remember visiting a beautiful garden that had been featured in multiple gardening magazines, one year after we started getting results in from our native plant study. In this study, we found that goldenrod and Douglas’ aster were two plants that attracted a high abundance and richness of native bees. But many gardeners dislike these two plants, because they can spread beyond planting borders and need a fair amount of maintenance to keep them looking tidy. I was stunned, nearly to tears, to see that this gardener had converted a planting array in their garden to be beautiful mix of goldenrod and Douglas’ aster. The planting looked more “wild” than many other areas of the garden, but still look perfectly at home within overall garden design. I guess that's when I realized that we really can influence gardening practices in a relatively short amount of time.
This series will showcase interesting programs, units, labs and groups at OSU that may have little visibility outside of their specific departments. If you know of a program that fits that description, feel free to send us a note at [email protected].
