Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The decomposition of large vertebrate carcasses and human cadavers is a complex operation that has largely been studied within the framework of forensic science because of the legal applications of the information derived from an understanding of this phenomenon. However, the applied nature of forensics has meant that little effort has historically been devoted to exploring the fundamental aspects of decomposition and only recently has the ecological study of this phenomenon gained momentum. However, one ecological aspect that has not been addressed in forensics, other than from a theoretical perspective, is how the ecological succession of decomposers on cadavers and carcasses is structured in space and time. If investigated for their spatiotemporal properties, multivariate successional datasets are likely to provide new insights for fundamental and applied branches of decomposition ecology as their analysis could shed light on the nature of the variability of successional processes in space and time and provide a robust means of establishing the seral position of species. The objectives of this research program are (I) to test a series of predictions about the spatiotemporal structure of successional dynamics of decomposers on large vertebrate carcasses, (II) to identify preferential aggregation of insects as a function of carcass decay, (III) to use machine learning algorithms to link arthropods to the postmortem interval or period of insect activity on human cadavers and (IV) to improve our mechanistic and probabilistic understanding of succession on necromass. This research program involves field studies and modeling based on existent databases of forensic insects on human and surrogate animal carcasses. I expect to make substantial new contributions through this research program, to advance our understanding of the relative role of causal mechanisms during ecological succession on necromass, and to document the effects different factors have at different scales on successional dynamics. I also expect to test some fundamental assumptions of forensic entomology, to improve modeling of ecological succession, and to provide practical knowledge and guidelines for death scene investigations.