Stellenbosch University (SU) entomology lecturer Prof John Terblanche's passion to find out just how insects are able to cope in extreme environments and handle changing climates has earned him a President's Medal from the International Society for Experimental Biology.
The 36-year-old associate professor in the SU Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology was one of four leading young scientists worldwide to receive this honour at the recent SEB Annual Main Meeting in Valencia, Spain.
According to the SEB website, four President's Medals are awarded annually "to young scientists of outstanding merit" who have made significant contributions to animal, plant or cell experimental biology, or science communication. Prof Terblanche was commended in the category for animal sciences. The other recipients work at Cambridge University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, and the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Spain.
Woolly bear caterpillars, dung beetles, tsetse flies and malaria-causing mosquitoes count among the species studied by Prof Terblanche and his postgraduate students to find biochemical links that can explain how insects survive environmental stresses.
Prof Terblanche recently was also listed on the SU Top 25 list of researchers. However, his research career didn't start off in either entomology or animal sciences. He completed an undergraduate degree in Sports Science and a MSc in human physiology from Stellenbosch University.
"My background has provided me with an interest in the range of flexibility that an organism possesses and that allows it to change its physiological ability over the course of its lifetime," explains this avid rock climber and white-water kayaker whose research has taken him on trips to countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Germany and Austria.
It was his first trip to the Antarctic that changed the course of his career. In the summer of 2002/2003 he spent three months in Cape Hallett to study the ecophysiology of springtails. Three years later, he also visited Marion Island to research how terrestrial invertebrates cope with extremely low temperatures.
"I became fascinated with finding out how animals are able to physically adapt and overcome the diverse environmental challenges of life on Earth."
As a PhD student in Zoology, his attention turned to the hotter extremes to investigate how tsetse flies cope at excessive temperatures and in dry environments, and how their metabolic systems adapt accordingly. Notably, Prof Terblanche showed that differences in physiology within populations in Africa are because of phenotypic plasticity. This refers to an organism's ability to change its phenotype or traits in response to changes in the environment.
There is of course always an exception to the rule, and in this case it is the relationship between metabolic rate and temperature. "This relationship evolved very specifically hand-in-hand with climate," this focused researcher summarises the findings of his PhD dissertation.
"While it's clear that climate change will impact insects through changes in temperature and water supply, there's surprisingly little agreement about how it works or what the effects are," he says. "For example, some scientists argue that climate change will increase the risk of vector-borne diseases, while others believe that such risks are reduced insect mortality will be more at higher temperatures.
Data from Prof Terblanche's research contributes to this on-going debate. He suggests that the geographical range of some disease-causing insect species will decrease, but it could be offset by disease transmission risk that becomes higher in specific locations.
Much of his research is funded by Stellenbosch University and the South African National Research Foundation. Prof Terblanche has produced more than 80 peer-reviewed publications to date, several book chapters and currently mentors 10 postgraduate students. His work has been cited more than 1800 times.
- For more information on the SEB awards and previous recipients, see http://www.sebiology.org/meetings/Pres_Meds.html
- For more information on Prof. Terblanche's research group and interests, see http://insectphysiologicalecology.blogspot.com/
Photo caption
Prof John Terblanche (left) received the President's Medal in Animal Science from the President of the Society for Experimental Biology, Prof Anthony P Farrel. Photo: Martin Watson from the SEB
