Dr. Hood's research on insect galls to detect VOCs featured in Entomology Today

Photo by Leslie Mertz, Ph.D.

CLEAR researcher Dr. Glen Hood (Project 1: Field Study) was featured in the latest edition of Entomological Society of America's Entomology Today for his work detecting volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) and other environmental pollutants in insect galls on plants!

Insect-induced galls that appear as lumps on plant stems and bumps on leaves may be excellent pollution detectors, according to Dr. Hood's research. His work has demonstrated that galls accumulated toxic soil contaminants at the sites of two highly publicized, factory-discharge incidents in southeastern Michigan: one in Ann Arbor that released 1,4-dioxane and the other in Madison Heights that released hexavalent chromium and eventually seeped as a bright green ooze onto a busy nearby freeway. Currently, his lab uses plant galls to detect below-ground, anthropogenic (i.e., human-made) volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which have been associated with the city’s high preterm-birth rate, among other health issues. This is a novel, unobtrusive and cost effective mode of detecting environmental contaminants!

Access the full article published in Entomology Today here. 

Dr. Hood is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at Wayne State University. Learn more about his work here.