Headlines at Hopkins: news releases from across
the 
university Headlines
@Hopkins
News by Topic: news releases organized by
subject News by Topic
News by School: news releases organized by the 
university's 9 schools & divisions News by School
Events Open to the Public (campus-wide) Events Open
to the Public
Blue Jay Sports: Hopkins Athletic Center Blue Jay Sports
Search News Site Search the Site

Contacting the News Staff: directory of
university 
press officers Contacting
News Staff
Receive News Via Email (listservs) Receive News
Via Email
Resources for Journalists Resources for Journalists

Virtually Live@Hopkins: audio and video news Virtually
Live@Hopkins
Hopkins in the News: news clips about Hopkins Hopkins in
the News

Faculty Experts: searchable resource organized by 
topic Faculty Experts
Faculty and Administrator Photos Faculty and
Administrator
Photos
Faculty with Homepages Faculty with Homepages

JHUNIVERSE Homepage JHUniverse Homepage
Headlines at Hopkins
News Release

Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920

March 15, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Lisa De Nike
(443) 287-9960
[email protected]


Maryland Resident Wins Johns Hopkins
Research Award

Study revealed that invasive roly-polys might
actually help the soil

A 22-year-old Johns Hopkins undergraduate and native of Ellicott City, Md. is playing an important role in ascertaining the role that terrestrial isopods — bugs commonly known as pillbugs, sowbugs and roly-polys — play in the recycling of nutrients in forest ecosystems.

Katarina Juhaszova

Katarina Juhaszova's original research, focusing on the effect that several species of isopods have on soil nutrients, has been funded with support from a Johns Hopkins Provost's Undergraduate Research Award (PURA). As one of 45 PURA winners this academic year, Juhaszova presented the results of her research at an awards ceremony held at Johns Hopkins on March 10.

Since 1993, about 40 students each year have received PURA grants of up to $3,000 to conduct original research, some results of which have been published in professional journals. The awards, funded through donations from the Hodson Trust, are an important part of the university's commitment to undergraduate research.

Knowing that isopods are not native to the Mid- Atlantic region (they were brought to America during European colonization), Juhaszova wondered what effect — if any — the small creatures were having on the nutritional composition of forest soil, which, over time, can lead to changes in the forests' plant and animal composition.

Working under the guidance of sponsor Katalin Szlavecz, associate scientist in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Juhaszova ventured into local forests, where she studied the impact that six species of isopods had on the rate at which leaf litter (which provides food for the creatures) disappeared. In laboratory experiments, she also examined how the isopods' feeding activity alters the soil's organic matter content and nitrogen availability.

What she learned surprised her.

Katarina Juhaszova and Katalin Szlavecz

"We found that instead of depleting the nutrients in the soil, which is what has happened with some invasive species, the isopods actually are having the opposite effect," Juhaszova said. "Their droppings produce a good source of carbon for the microbes there, promoting their growth."

Szlavecz calls her student's results "certainly interesting and worth investigating further."

"We know that a sudden influx of non-native detritivores (creatures that eat leaf litter and other detritus) is likely to change the nutrient availability of forests over time, and not always for the better," Szlavecz said. "That's the case with earthworms; though they promote the decomposition of organic nitrogen, they do it at a rate that is so high that eventually nitrogen can be lost from the forests. What we are getting from Katy's research is that isopods have the opposite effect. Though it would be far-fetched and pompous for us to draw some big conclusions regarding the whole ecosystem level process based on Katy's data, it certainly is worth further scrutiny."

Color photos of Katarina are available upon request. Contact Lisa De Nike.


Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/
   Information on automatic e-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address.


Go to Headlines@HopkinsHome Page