Research Roundup at Montana State University (#235) – Loon lookout, June bug times 50, Simpson paradox, Striking birds

Loon lookout

Montana probably has fewer than 100 pairs of loons, says Dave Willey, conservation ecologist at Montana State University. Living on the southern edge of a loon district that extends into Canada, the birds are threatened by motor boats, jet skis and other forms of recreation. To keep track of the adult loons in Montana and see how successful they are at nesting, Willey is studying loons on the lakes around the North Fork of the Flathead River. Others involved in the project are Justin Paugh, an MSU graduate student from Kalispell; Jay Rotella, an MSU ecologist; and Gael Bissell, a wildlife biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Kalispell. The goal is to provide management tools for the FWP.

June bug times 50

A June bug might look like a June bug to most people, but Sardis Medrano-Cabral knows differently. She’s been examining June bugs at MSU for the past 1 1/2 years, and she sees beyond color. She looks at the bugs under microscopes and sketches more subtle differences. Using bugs from the Smithsonian Institution and other collections, Medrano-Cabral expects to describe more than 50 species that are economically important to the Dominican Republic and Haiti before leaving MSU next August. Medrano-Cabral, a research assistant at the Museum of Natural History in the Dominican Republic, came to MSU on a Fulbright scholarship after meeting MSU entomologist Mike Ivie.

Simpson paradox

The Simpson Paradox sounds like an episode in the lives of cartoon couple Homer and Marge Simpson. But Prasanta S. Bandyopadhyay, an MSU philosopher, said the Simpson Paradox actually refers to a phenomenon of contradictions. What’s true in a small group turns out to be the opposite when several groups are combined. Women have a better chance of being accepted at many colleges than men do, for example. But overall, it’s the opposite. In a paper Bandyopadhyay presented recently in Germany, he said people are hard-wired from birth to see things as a whole. They come to incorrect conclusions, because they overlook the contributions of the parts. Co-authors with Bandyopadhyay on the paper were MSU philosopher Gordon Brittan and Davin Nelson, an MSU undergraduate student from Michigan.

Striking birds

Birds cause more than $30 million damage a year to Air Force planes, and the problem is getting worse, said Rob Maher, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MSU. Birds get sucked into engines, break windshields and damage radar equipment. They delay flights and cause crashes. To reduce the incidents, Maher and doctoral student Zhixin Chen are working on a project that involves many companies and will use radar to detect birds and acoustics to determine the species. Air controllers may use noise to scare away the smaller birds, Maher said. They might delay take-offs if the birds are larger species like pelicans. MSU is focusing on the acoustic part of the project and working with Advanced Acoustic Concepts.

Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or [email protected]