StFX grad student wins national scholarship for research on beech tree pest

MSc biology student Mélina Chicoine is exploring how natural enemies could help stop a tiny weevil that is killing Nova Scotia’s American beech trees. A tiny weevil is killing Nova Scotia’s American beech trees and Mélina Chicoine, an MSc biology student at StFX, wants to know how natural enemies and the role of winter survival could help stop this. Ms. Chicoine, who is supervised by Dr. Jen Perry and Dr. Jantina Toxopeus, has been awarded a $3,500 Frances Elizabeth Hilder Scholarship in forest conservation from the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Her research focuses on the beech leaf-mining weevil ( Orchestes fagi ), a forest pest attacking Nova Scotia’s beech trees ( Fagus grandifolia ), and on ways to use the insect’s natural enemies to limit its populations. Temperature represents a second potential constraint she’s investigating.