Gary N. Ervin
Plant Ecology Lab​ ~ Aquatic Botany, Invasive Species, Wetland Ecology​
Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University
Ervin Lab Postdocs
Rachel Jolly
PhD from Auburn University
​
Rachel worked at MSU from 2008-2010. She coordinated research and outreach activities on an EPA grant to study ecological and cultural roles of native river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) in natural and human communities of the Pearl River watershed. Rachel worked in both the Biology Department and the Plant & Soil Sciences Department at MSU, splitting time between my lab and that of my collaborator, Brian Baldwin. One of her major accomplishments on that project was the organization of a regional rivercane symposium in cooperation with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
​
Rachel currently (2021) works as a tropical ecologist on the island of Guam. She works with endangered species conservation and on invasive species removal. Much of her work focuses on the infamous brown treesnake invasions of Guam.
Travis Marsico
PhD from Notre Dame
​
Travis worked in the Ervin Lab during 2008-2009. He managed a collaborative research project among my lab and three other labs in the MSU Biology Department, focusing on phylogeography and evolutionary ecology in the prickly pear - cactus moth plant-herbivore system. Notable accomplishments from that work were a native-invasive range genetic analysis of the invasive South American cactus moth and experimental work investigating dynamics among the cacti and both their native and invasive herbivores.
Travis currently (2021) is Professor of Botany and Associate Department Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at Arkansas State University, in Jonesboro, AR.