Conservation & Molecular Ecology @Brown - News

Conservation & Molecular Ecology @Brown

Joint EEB/oSTEM Seminar

12/5/2019

The lab was thrilled to host a special set of seminars by Prof Karen Warkentin this week. The special seminars were co-organized by EEB and oSTEM, Brown's chapter of the national non-profit professional society that aims to empower LGBTQIA+ folks working in STEM fields. At Brown, 24% of undergraduates and 18% of graduate students reported that they identified as LGBTQ+, according to the 2018 climate survey.

The EEB-hosted seminar focused on adaptive variation in hatching time by tropical frogs -- "Proximate and ultimate causes of plastic hatching timing" -- a classic system in evolutionary ecology, and a connection to our lab's research roots in the wet tropics of Central America.

The oSTEM-hosted seminar told -- in part -- Prof Warkentin's personal story and perspective on the value of diversity in STEM. It was modeled after the Opening Plenary at the 2019 ESA meeting, and entitled "Different people ask different questions: A queer perspective on studying diversity in life history and behavior." Videos of the ESA plenary and related talks can be viewed here.

Both seminars were attended by a broad cross-section of folks at Brown. Thank you, Prof Warkentin, for making the visit! Thank you, oSTEM, for partnering with our group and EEB to make this special visit such a success!

Diamondback Terrapin Working Group Meeting

10/28/2019

Amanda Lyons presented a poster at the recent 2019 Diamondback Terrapin Working Group meeting in Wilmington, NC. The presentation shared information about Amanda's innovative turtle-trapping methods, the benefits of capture-mark-release studies for understanding the ecology of the species, and new work in the Kartzinel Lab to apply molecular tools to our understanding of terrapin biology. The presentation was co-authored by grad-student mentor Bianca Brown, and earned a prize as one of the best student presentations--a testament to the impacts of our conservation research and Voss Undergraduate Fellows programs. Congratulations to Amanda and Bianca for this excellent contribution!

New NSF Award

8/5/2019

Testing predictions of the core-satellite and resource-breadth hypotheses in small mammal communities: field tests of a macroecological pattern. Together with collaborator Jake Goheen, the lab earns NSF support to study the relative influences of dietary generalism/specialism and dispersal limitations on the diversity of small mammal communities in Kenya. This research leverages Project BASEPAIR, the UHURU experiment, and our new DNA sequencing facility at Mpala Research Centre. Grant: 1930820.

Of note:
Colleague Dr. Jake Goheen from U. Wyoming is recruiting a grad student (MSc or PhD) to collaborate on our NSF-funded research on small mammal communities and food webs in Kenya. This is an outstanding new opportunity (application deadline: October 1, 2019); Dr. Goheen is a fantastic mentor.

Paper featured on the cover of Nature & in media

6/5/2019

New research combining large field experiments and molecular ecology published today in Nature. The paper is featured in a Nature News & Views article by Oswald Schmitz, a 3-min Nature Video, a great PBS NOVA article by Katherine Wu, among others.

Ashley Bang Recognized for Excellence in Women's Leadership

4/24/2019

Ashley Bang has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the Susan Pilch Friedman '77, P'08 Excellence Award in Women's Leadership in recognition of her leadership and support of women in multiple student organizations at Brown University. Ashley will be recognized at Brown's Women's Leadership Council in May. Congratulations to Ashley on all of her accomplishments and her upcoming graduation!

Two seniors from the lab are awarded Fulbright Scholarships

4/18/2019

Ashley Bang

Moly Magid

We could not be more proud of Ashley Bang (DEEPs, left) and Molly Magid (EEB, right), two seniors completing Honors theses in the lab: both recipients of the 2019 Fulbright Scholarship! Ashley is destined for Singapore and Molly for New Zealand. We have been lucky to work with rising stars, and we look forward to seeing them amplify their research and conservation impacts around the world!

2019 Diamondback Terrapin Conservation Genetics Field Season

4/16/2019

Last week, Amanda Lyons (left) and Bianca Brown (right) braved the rainy weather to kick off our terrapin field season. Diamondback terrapins are the only "critically imperiled" reptile in Rhode Island, and a major conservation priority for the state. Amanda and Bianca were joined by our collaborators from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and The Roger Williams Park Zoo. Our research goal is to understand how genetically interconnected are the remaining few terrapin populations in the state, and relatedness to populations from neighboring states. This research is supported in part by a 2019 Voss Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Environmental Science and Communication to Amanda Lyons. Congratulations Amanda, and thanks IBES for supporting this research.

If only the weather had been better for setting up the study sites!

Patrick Freeman presents on collaboration with the National Park Service

4/15/2019

Patrick Freeman presented a poster at the IBES Blue Sky that focuses on our ongoing collaboration with Yellowstone National Park. We are working with the National Park Service to elucidate changes in the diets of GPS-collared large-mammal species over the course of their annual migrations. The research that Patrick presented was the culmination of our semester-long research project in BIOL 1515/2015 last fall (he was an amazing TA!). Class participants received dietary samples from the park, extracted DNA from them, performed DNA metabarcoding to analyze animal diets, and prepared reports for the patterns at the park. In this CURE-formatted course, students have a real-world conservation impact. Thanks, Patrick, for your leadership on this project and for presenting your work. This class will be even more exciting and impactful when we offer it again in 2020, thanks to support from HHMI and The Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning.

Courtney Reed wins big: IBES Research Grant AND Flash Talk

4/12/2019

Congratulations to Courtney Reed for winning big -- two awards in one week! Courtney won first place in the flash talk competition at the IBES Blue Sky event. She also won an IBES Graduate Student Research Training and Travel Award. These awards highlight he importance of Courtney's research on how defaunation impacts ecosystems in Kenya. Thanks to IBES for supporting our work and helping amplify our research -- and way to go Courtney!

Welcomes, fieldwork, and research updates

10/7/2018

As the fall semester gets into swing, the lab is having a lot of fun and making progress on research. Several milestones should not go unnoticed, and there are photos to boot. In no particular order:

A big WELCOME to the lab for PhD student Courtney Reed! Courtney joined us this summer, having recently completed a Masters at Harvard in Hopi Hoekstra's lab.
CONGRATULATIONS to PhD candidate Bianca Brown, who passed her qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy last week!
We had a wildly fun and successful field team representing our lab and others from Brown University in Kenya this summer, including Loren Albert (Voss postdoc fellow, Kellner lab), Patrick Freeman, Courtney Reed, Jesse Tarnas (Mustard lab), and Molly Magid (Voss undergrad fellow).
Ashley Bang's summer research was featured on the NOAA website for Estuary Week in September.
Brian Gill spent a month interfacing with Conservancy managers to address conservation challenges in Kenya, where he lost count of rhino sightings and yet still managed to submit an excellent manuscript for publication while on the road.