Apr 28, 2008

Sherry Harrel was awarded $3,181 from the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute for research comparing eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and hardwood dominated forest stream assemblages in anticipation of the loss of the foundation tree species as a result of hemlock woolly-adelgid invasion.

Please congratulate Sherry when you see her for earning funding for this important research project.

Apr 14, 2008

Dr. Barbara Ramey was awarded $5,000 from the Kentucky Department of Education to support students participating in the 2008 Kentucky Science and Engineering Fair and to provide travel expenses for the winning students to attend the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta.

Please congratulate Barb when you see her for her efforts!

Apr 13, 2008

Dr. Guenter Schuster has a new paper in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington describing a new species of crayfish, Orconectes taylori [please see the beautiful image inset below].

Orconectes taylori

This species was apparently first collected in 1971. Since then and through the course of this study, it has been located in new areas. Despite being found in additional sites, its conservation status may be considered Vulnerable (V) with a G3 global ranking.

Map of locations for Orconectes taylori:

Mar 2008

Nomination/application forms for the annual Department of Biological Sciences' academic honors & awards are available here.

Applications are due by March 31st to the University Development office.

2006-2007 Department Honors & Awards

Mar 2008

Dr. Guenter Schuster has earned a $47,000 grant to survey the crayfish of Alabama. His grant is part of a larger grant acquired by the University of Illinois.

Alabama possesses the most diverse crayfish fauna of any state or province in North America. A recent review of Alabama species held in major museums revealed that many areas of the state have not been thoroughly or recently sampled. The goal of this subcontract is to assist the Alabama Geological Survey in sampling crayfish populations in areas of the state lacking recent data.

Specific tasks to be performed under this subcontract are: 1) field collections of crayfishes from under-sampled regions of Alabama using traditional collecting techniques; 2) taxonomic identification and curation of samples collected by G.A. Schuster and Alabama Geological Survey staff; 4) geo-reference collections made under this subcontract and integrate that data with existing crayfish distribution databases; and 4) help in the preparation of a report summarizing the results of field collections and integrates those data with previously collected data on Alabama crayfishes.

The objective of this project is to collect statewide crayfish data to improve our understanding of the distribution and population status of crayfish species in Alabama. Such data can then be used by state and federal personnel to better manage and protect the aquatic resources of Alabama.

Please congratulate Dr. Schuster when you see him!

February 29, 2008

Jeremiah Alexander, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences under the direction of Dr. Stephen Richter, an Honor's student, and recipient of last year's College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Award, was recently selected to present his research at the annual Posters on the Hill event in Washington D.C. on April 30. His abstract, "Effects of urbanization and habitat fragmentation on spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) populations" was one of 223 abstracts submitted and 60 selected to present. Posters on the Hill is an event sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research.

In an interview regarding his selection, Alexander said his experiences in the Richter lab allowed him to “learn science, not from a textbook, but from experimentation and creative thought.”

“Being invited to the nationally competitive Posters on the Hill event is an honor,” said Alexander. “It is also a great opportunity to represent the Biology department at EKU, as well as the Honors Program.”

This is one of many venues that Jeremiah has or will be presenting his research experiences at EKU. Others include Association of Southeastern Biologists, Kentucky Academy of Sciences (2x), Posters at the Capitol in Frankfort (2x), Kentucky Honor's Program Roundtable, and EKU's Undergraduate Posters Showcase. After graduation, Alexander plans to pursue medical and/or doctoral degrees, allowing him to study the molecular genetic basis of diabetes and find a cure.

If you see Jeremiah in the halls, please congratulate him.

February 2008

Together with a long-time colleague, Dr. Ralph Thompson of Berea College, Drs. Ron Jones and Ross Clark of the Botany Group in the Department of Biological Sciences have published an article in the Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences. This article updates earlier lists of field botany references and includes 874 field botany entries primarily covering the period from 1985 to 2006.

Dr. Ron Jones

Dr. Ross Clark

The full reference to this paper is:

Jones, R.L., R.L. Thompson and R.C. Clark. 2007. A reference list to field botany in Kentucky (1985-2006). Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences 68(2): 145-180.

January 31, 2008

Jeremiah Alexander, Nirmalee Ratnamalala, and Tyler Blythe, from L-R

Jeremiah Alexander, Tyler Blythe and Nirmalee Ratnamalala, undergaduates in the Department of Biological Sciences at EKU, presented results of their research at the annual Posters-at-the-Capitol event in Frankfort. Posters-at-the-Capitol is "hosted collaboratively by Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University, is intended to help members of Kentucky’s legislature and the Governor better understand the importance of involving undergraduates in research, scholarly, and creative work. Undergraduates whose abstracts were selected for participation in Posters-at-the-Capitol 2007, displayed their work in the state capitol and were encouraged, along with their faculty mentors, to arrange visits with legislators from their hometown and university districts ' [link].

Each student presented their work to classmates, faculty and state representatives from across the Commonwealth. Additionally, each student was given 'face time' in a grroup session with a governmental representative. In the case of EKU, the students and their advisors met with Senator Ed Worley, Minority Floor Leader from Senate District 34.

Jeremiah Alexander with his mentor, Dr. Stephen Richter

Tyler Blythe. Tyler is mentored by Dr. Neil Pederson

Nirmalee Ratnamalala with her mentor, Dr. Nicholas Santangelo

Jeremiah Alexander with Senator Ed Worley

Tyler Blythe explaining his research

January 15, 2008

Dr. Neil Pederson has just published a paper in Forest Ecology & Management reconstructing the forest history of a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem in southwest Georgia entitled, "Canopy disturbance and tree recruitment over two centuries in a managed longleaf pine landscape". One novel aspect of the paper is the that the authors found that longleaf pine can respond to the death of neighboring trees despite the ecosystem having lower tree density than many forested ecosystems; it was not so apparent that tree-to-tree competition is important in the forest of study. Evidence supporting the inference that positive changes in the growth rates of living longleaf pine trees was related to the death of nearby canopy trees included: 1) increased seedling recruitment in conjunction with detected disturbance, especially in the number of young trees growing under a relatively low competitive environment, 2) a general agreement between forest history as reconstructed by tree rings and oral and newspaper accounts of local and regional land-use history and 3) the negative correlation between summer drought and disturbance events as detected by tree ring analysis; if a positive correlation between drought and disturbance was detected, the positive changes in tree growth might have been triggered by an improved climate, not a reduction in competition.

The negative correlation between drought and overstory tree mortailty has important implications for climate change and future forest management: increased warming will likely increase the mortality rate of overstory trees, especially if warming is accompanied by increased drought frequency or severity. The significant relationship between climate and disturbance suggests that climatic impacts on stand dynamics should be incorporated into long-term longleaf pine forest restoration and management.

You can learn more about Neil's research by visiting his website.

December 2007

Dr. Stephen Richter is featured in the "EKUcast" focused on the Environmental Research Institute (ERI), which is available here. The mission of the ERI is to serve as an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional approach to understanding eastern Kentucky’s ecosystems by connecting the university’s technical expertise and resources to the region’s needs and linking this research to math and science education at the university and throughout the region. Dr. Richter has been an activbe participant in ERI's mission since arriving at EKU.

You can learn more about Dr. Richter's research by visiting his website.

December 2007

Dr. Nicholas Santangelo has earned a $174,000 a grant from the NIH's Institutional development Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), a program of Kentucky Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (KBRIN). The research proposed in the grant proposal will attempt to determine the role of neuropeptides in modulating social and reproductive behaviors such as aggression, mate choice, and parental care using monogamous biparental fish as a model test system. Other INBRE grant holder in the Department of Biological Sciences is Dr. Pat Calie.

You can learn more about Dr. Santangelo's research by visiting his website. Please say congratulations to Dr. Nicholas Santangelo when you see him!

November 2007

Five departmental students were awarded in undergraduate and graduate student competition at the annual Kentucky Academy of Sciences meeting in Lousiville, KY. Fifteen DBS students made presentations in five different discilplines. Winners of this year's awards are:

Undegraduate Research Competition:

Jeremiah Alexander - First Place in Science Education with a poster entitled: "Modernizing the Science Classroom: An Introduction to RNA interference".

Graduate Research Competition:

Emily Jean Hicks - First Place in Science Education with a talk entitled: "Is song length an important signal of aggression for Blue Grosbeaks?: A playback experiment"

Christine Lattin - Tie for First Place in Ecology and Envrionmental Science with a talk entitled: "Is song length an important signal of aggression for Blue Grosbeaks?: A playback experiment"

Michelle Carder - Second Place in Zoology with a talk entitled: "Tail-wagging by Eastern Phoebes: a Possible Pursuit-deterrent Signal".

Troy Evans - Second Place in Botany with a talk entitled: "Ecological response to landscape level removal of amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) at a nature preserve in Fayette County, Kentucky".

Congatulations to the winners above and all who presented at the 2007 KAS annual meeting.

November 2007

Under the guidance of Dr. Pat Calie, Emily Jean Hicks [DBS graduate student] and Sharon Lee have recently published a paper in The American Biology Teacher. Their paper discusses the use of bioinformatics to describe a set of typical fruit fly (Drosopphila melanogaster) experiments that involve mechanisms such as sex-linkage, Mendelian inheritance, and linkage analysis (gene mapping).  A set of Web-based bioinformatics tools allows students to identify active fruit fly genes, find information regarding the function of these genes, and to eventually find identical genes in other organisms evaluatd as a part of this exercise.  The final activity shows students that four very different organisms (yeast, roundworm, fruit fly and human) all share some common genes, and thus all share a common evolutionary ancestor.

The collaborative research between co-authors Sharon Lee and Emily Jean began in Dr. Pat Calie's lab in 2005.

Full citation: Calie, P., S. Lee and E.J. Hicks. 2007. The Bioinformatic Enhancement of Exercises in Drosophila Genetics. The American Biology Teacher. 69(8):482-487.

October 2007

The Teaching & Learning Center and the Office of Graduate Education and Research announce the GEAR Scholars for Academic Year 2007-08. Dr. Nicholas Santangelo was chosen through a competitive application process. The GEAR Scholars program is an annual competition for pre-tenured faculty interested in enhancing their scholarship. Chosen faculty members will participate in a two-semester faculty learning community led by Dr. Doris Pierce, Endowed Chair in Occupational Therapy.

Please say congratulations to Dr. Nicholas Santangelo when you see him!

October 2007

Drs. Charles Elliott and Robert Frederick were awarded $30,000 from the Bluegrass Army Depot to conduct surveys and monitoring of designated plant and animal populations on the Bluegrass Army Depot.

Give your ongratulations Drs. Elliot & Frederick when you see them!!

September 2007

Dr. Barbara Ramey was mentioned in this month's issue of Kentucky Living for her annual effort in organizing the Kentucky State Science and Engineering Fair. Read the entire article here.

September, 2007

Dr. Guenter Schuster is a lead author on significant publication featured in Fisheries, a publication of the American Fisheries Society, on the conservation of crayfish in the United States and Canada.

The paper was a group effort by ten crayfish biologists from all around the U.S. and Canada. This is the second effort (the first was 1996) to provide the conservation status for all crayfishes in the U.S. and Canada. This paper is an update, which was sorely needed because of the large number of new crayfish species that had been described in the last ten years. One of the major contributions by Dr. Schuster to this paper was to ensure that common names were created for all crayfish species. Prior to this paper only about 40% of crayfishes had common names. This is important because that is how conservation biologists converse with the public and more importantly with politicians and others who are responsible for policy. Most folks don't grasp scientific names very well, but can relate to names like "rusty gravedigger" or "mountain midget crayfish." Obviously, the most important contribution of this paper is the designation of conservation status for all species in North America. This allows conservation biologists and crayfish biologists to set priorities as to which species are in greatest need of protection and help. The finding in this paper is that a full 40% of all crayfishes need some sort of protection.

Please contact Dr. Schuster for more information regarding this publication.

September, 2007

Christine Lattin and Lindsay Rohrbaugh have each secured grant money from the Kentucky Society for Natural History. Lyndsay will study the ecology and natural history of turtles in the Kentucky landscape.

Christine's research will focus on the within-song variation of intra- and intersexual functions of singing by male Blue Grosbeaks (Passerina caerulea). Here is an abstract of her proposal:

Abstract
In birds, song may serve a number of functions, including territory defense and mate attraction. Many males have repertoires of several distinct songs, and use these song types for different communicative purposes. Males in some species add another level of song complexity by introducing variation in individual songs. Although investigators have examined how males in some species use different songs in their repertoire to communicate (Byers 1995, Titus 1998, Burt et al. 2001), less is known about how birds alter the characteristics of individual songs to convey different messages. Rather than a repertoire of songs, male Blue Grosbeaks (Passerina caerulea) have a single song type made up of a sequence of notes or syllables. Each song usually begins with the same combination of four to six syllables, with variation introduced by rearranging or adding syllables in the latter portion of the song (Ballentine et al. 2003). This makes the Blue Grosbeak an ideal study subject for examining "within-song-type" variation. My objective is to examine the possible functions of such song variation using both observational and experimental approaches. I will examine how male Blue Grosbeaks (N = 16) alter their songs in different contexts and breeding stages to convey different messages to females and other males. In addition, playback experiments will be used to better understand how changing the characteristics of songs changes the message conveyed in male-male interactions. My study will be conducted at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. I will examine variation in repertoire sizes, singing rates, and song characteristics among breeding stages and in different contexts. Playback experiments will be conducted to determine if changes in song length changes the message conveyed. Singing behavior among breeding stages and behavioral contexts will be examined using repeated measures analysis of variance. Possible differences in the response of males to playback to songs that differ in length will be examined using analysis of variance. All analyses will be conducted using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS Institute 1989).

Lindsay Rohrbaugh

Lindsay will investigate the effect of pond size on physicochemical habitat characteristics and turtle assemblage in Fayette and Madison County. She completed her research this past summer by trapping turtles, taking water chemistry and taking physical measurements of the ponds.

Congratulations to Christine & Lindsay!

September, 2007

EKU Department of Biological Science students were again busy this summer conducting research or participating in research [or both!]. While it is hard to document all of the summer activities of our students, we would like to highlight a few.

____________

Nirmalee Ratnamalala -

Nirmalee Ratnamalala, currently a senior biology major, received a McNair Scholarship this past summer to explore the effects of a neuropeptide hormone, arginine vasotocin (AVT), on the territorial behavior of the monogamous male convict cichlid. AVT, as well as its mammalian homologue arginine vasopressin (AVP), are known to modulate social behavior in a variety of species. Individuals must modulate behaviors, such as aggression, to conduct themselves appropriately within their society. Thus, the evolution of this hormone across different taxa is of great interest. She explored this in convict cichlids by injecting males who were caring for offspring. Her data suggests that AVT increases aggression. Furthermore, her data also suggests that a related hormone, isotocin (the fish homologue of mammalian oxytocin) also appears to increase parental male aggression. This hormone has not been explored much, but some studies on non-parental fish suggest that isotocin has no role in aggression. Thus, her current data suggests that these hormones work in conjunction in complex societies such as within monogamous biparental ones to modulate aggression and parental care behaviors. Nirmalee intends to pursue a PhD after graduation.

Nirmalee conducted her McNair Scholarship funded research under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Santangelo.

____________

Tyler Blythe -

Tyler Blythe completed an internship at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, which is a part of the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Research Station under the supervision of Dr. Chelcy Ford. As a part of his experience, Tyler cored trees & prepared them for d13C analysis, made leaf elongation measurements, PAR measurements, sap flow measurements (installing & fixing thermal dissipation probes), and even shocked a few fish! At the end of his experience Tyler made a 20 minute presenation to the entire Coweeta community. This experience will become a significant part of Tyler's Honors Thesis.

Tyler is currently a member of Cumberland Laboratory of Forest Science.

_______________

Emily Gustin -

At a joint meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Emily Gustin presented the first results of her research on the distribution of Rana pipiens and R. sphenocephala in Kentucky:

Gustin, E.S., and S.C.Richter. 2007. Genetic Analysis of the Distribution of Rana pipiens and Rana sphenocephala Across a Zone of Sympatry. Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. St. Louis, MO. July 11-16, 2007. Poster Presentation.

Emily is a MS student in Dr. Stephen Richter's lab.

_______________

Emily Gibreath --

Over Summer '07, Emily interend with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Bureau of Environmental Field Services where she performed Use Attainability Analyses three days a week. She spent most of her time seining fish. Despite rips in her waders that always resulted in wet feet, she and her team found some rare and cool fish. Of these fish, the plains killifish and threatened arkansas darter were among the coolest. Emily also found it fun netting huge catfish and gar. Emily got to see parts of her home state that she had never visited before and learned more Kansan trivia than she ever thought possible. Emily even got to visit the largest ball of twine in the world! It was a complete summer!

August, 23, 2007

Dr. Nicholas Santangelo gave an invited seminar at UK's Department of Biology seminar series on August 23rd  entitled “Ecological and Neuroendocrionological Determinants of Reproductive Behavior in Fishes”

August 4, 2007

Dr. Stephen Richter was interviewed for an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the impact of consumer choice on biodiversity. Dr. Richter was interviewed cause of his experience in the conservation of reptiles. An excerpt of the WSJ article is below. Learn more about Stephen's research here.

Accessories
The New Politics of Purses
Python or anaconda? Popular styles fuel
a debate over which species not to skin
By VANESSA O'CONNELL
August 4, 2007

"Snakeskin is slinking into fashion this fall, showing up on everything from $5,000 Jimmy Choo handbags to $750 Michael Kors belts.

Python, which mostly hails from Southeast Asia and is known for variations in color and scale sizes and a supple feel, is the hottest skin of the season for many luxury-goods makers and designers. Others prefer anaconda, a native of the swamps of tropical South America, which has more regular-sized scales and a slightly plastic texture.

What most consumers don't realize is that no matter which bag or shoes they buy this fall -- anaconda or python -- they will be taking a position in a global debate over which species of snake is more at risk of being endangered....

...Exactly which snake species is more at risk of extinction isn't clear, even to those who study them. It's inherently difficult to count how many snakes lurk in wild swamps, experts say. "For many species, we do not have enough data to know how they are doing and how harvesting would affect them," says Stephen C. Richter, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Eastern Kentucky University."

August 1 , 2007:

Kacie Tacket's grant proposal to the Kentucky Society for Natural History was funded to conduct ecology research on the development of eastern hemlock forests in the Daniel Boone National Forest. As the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is swiftly invading and killing eastern hemlock trees in eastern Kentucky, Kacie's work will be valuable in documenting how these stands develop over time. Such information can then be used to restore eastern hemlock once HWA is contained. Kacie is conducting her research under the guidance of Drs. Ross Clark and Neil Pederson.

Congratulations to Kacie!!

Spring 2007

We were remiss in not announcing the swearing in of Dr. Malcolm Frisbie as Faculty Regent on April 23, 2007. Dr. Frisbie won election to this position through balloting by his peers. Please congratulate Malcolm in being recognized as a distinguished leader among the EKU faculty.

July 30, 2007

Dr. Neil Pederson was featured in an Albany Times Union article on the accelerated growth of old trees in the old-growth forests of New York State's Hudson Valley. Learn more about Dr. Pederson's research here. Below is an excerpt of the TU article:

Nation's oldest trees undergo growth spurt
Global warming is called likely reason for increase in size over last century

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer for the Albany Times Union

First published: Monday, July 30, 2007

ESPERANCE -- If a grandmother suddenly started growing, something would be amiss. Now research has found that something similar is happening to the nation's oldest trees.

Clues found in old-growth tree rings from Michigan to Maine show an increasing growth spurt during the last century, possibly from global climate change, according to Neil Pederson, an assistant professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

Normally, trees, like people, slow down growing as they age, said Pederson. But ring patterns in oaks, poplars and cedars -- some up to 400 years old -- instead show trees started growing faster in recent decades.

"It is like my grandmother suddenly growing taller and dunking a basketball or playing football," said Pederson. "It's not supposed to happen."