Please join Wayne State University's Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR) and Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) for their upcoming hybrid seminar, " An invertebrate bonanza and their role in environmental health as bioindicators, vectors and pests," on May 14, 2026 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The seminar is free; registration is required.

The guest speaker will be Adrian Vasquez, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Mercer University. Dr. Vasquez researches the physiology and biodiversity of invertebrates including the interrelationships of vectors, their environment and the possible implications to human health. He is also conducting biodiversity studies on the freshwater ecosystems of Belize and equipping students and faculty with the ability to use molecular technologies to carry out these activities. He has recently described new species of Dipterans from the rainforests of Belize and has collected tick species from forests in middle Georgia. He lectures on varied topics including animal physiology, environmental sciences, parasitology, and invertebrate zoology. Dr. Vasquez hopes to inspire new generations of biologists especially from underrepresented regions such as Belize.

ABSTRACT:

Invertebrate organisms are sentinels of change in multiple habitats. I have documented shifts in environmental health by studying organisms such as copepods, ticks, mosquitoes, water mites, chironomids and phytoplankton. My work starts with exploring the biodiversity and physiology of these organisms using molecular and taxonomic techniques to identify organisms and to assess their health.

Using a One Health approach we can investigate the health of these organisms which in turn sheds light on the potential contaminants that may be in the environment and which may be impacting the health of humans and the environment on a whole. In this talk I will emphasize the following studies: phytoplankton diversity of the Detroit River over the past 100 years, water mite as bioindicators of Point Rosa Marsh, ticks and mosquitoes and the biodiversity of Dipterans and Crustaceans from Belize to the Great Lakes.