MOLECULAR ECOLOGY LABORATORY
LAB NEWS AND VIEWS
DECEMBER 2011
Mark Fox has passed his qualifying exam!
Our paper, led by Ian Mendenhall (now at Duke U), on the genetic structure of Culex erraticus, has just been accepted at the Journal of Medical Entomology!
NOVEMBER 2011
Mike is in Washington DC for the annual SERDP-ESTCP conference to present a poster on genetic assessment of aquatic environmental condition across Pacific islands.
Erick Gagne has passed his qualifying exam!
Travis Haas and Erick Gagne are in Chattanooga for the annual Southeastern Fishes Council meeting to present talks on blacktail shiner responses to flow conditions and the phylogenetics of the genus Semotilus.
Our paper, led by Ryan Walter (now at U of Windsor) on the conservation of amphidromous fish under future climate conditions has just been accepted at Endangered Species Research!
Our paper, led by Dan Lindstrom (now at U of Guam), on the taxonomy and phylogeography of Awaous guamensis has just been accepted at Copeia!
Our paper, led by Jess Ward (now at U of Minnesota), on introgression across the Coosa River red shiner x blacktail shiner hybrid swarm has just been accepted at Evolutionary Applications!
OCTOBER 2011
Our paper on the science policy implications of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, resulting from participation in the NCEAS-sponsored Gulf Ecotoxicology working group, has just been accepted at Bioscience!
SEPTEMBER 2011
Our paper, led by Evon Hekkala (now at Fordham), on Crocodilian
evolutionary relationships and conservation genetics of Nile crocodiles
in Molecular Ecology has been receiving quite a bit of media coverage,
including recent articles in Nature News and Discover Magazine:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110914/full/news.2011.535.html
The fall semester has begun! Mike is teaching Global Change Biology (EEBIO 2050). Several members of the lab are back on campus again, including Erick Gagne who has returned from Hawaii, and Tim Tate who has returned to work on the Hawaii project.
AUGUST 2011
Mike and Liz are having a baby!
Mike is at the ESA conference in Austin presenting on the
New Orleans ULTRA-EX project in a special symposium on
urban stewardship. The symposium was just noted in The
New York Times!
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/as-ecosystems-cities-yield-some-surprises/?src=tp#preview
Mike makes an appearance in “Oil & Water”, a graphic novel about
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, by Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler.
The novel is scheduled to be released in December. Pre-order your
copy now!
Our NSF proposal for the acquisition of a high-throughput DNA
sequencer has been recommended for funding!
JULY 2011
Our paper, led by Evon Hekkala (now at Fordham), on Crocodilian evolutionary relationships and conservation genetics of Nile crocodiles was just accepted for publication in Molecular Ecology (for the cover, no less)!
Mike, Bri and our collaborators at Tulane U. and Columbia U.
are being featured in the “Wonders of the Modern World”
documentary produced by Channel 4 (UK) and Discovery Canada
JUNE 2011
Our paper (DOI: 10.1007/s10592-011-0229-6), led by Evon Hekkala (now at Fordham) on Rana fisheri in Conservation Genetics was just noted in The New York Times and New Scientist!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/science/21obfrog.html?ref=science
Jess Ward is at Evolution 2011 presenting her work on the breakdown of sexual isolation in fishes following exposure to an environmental estrogen
James Meurer-Saavedra has joined the lab to work with Greg Glotzbecker on hybridization of native and non-native fishes in the Coosa River basin
Our paper on genetic estimates of fish dispersal was just accepted for publication in Ecology of Freshwater Fish!
Our paper on parallel patterns of genetic diversity and species diversity in freshwater fishes was just accepted for publication in Oecologia!
Elizabeth Jarrell has joined our group to oversee the molecular
ecology lab (...and to hopefully save us from ourselves!)
Our paper on the conservation genetics of the endangered
Chinese plant Monimopetalum chinense has just been accepted
for publication in Biochemical Systematics and Ecology!
Funded by a grant from the Morris Foundation, Erick Gagne has started his summer field season investigating parasitism and the effects of climate change on native amphidromous fishes in Hawaii
MAY 2011
Brittany Bernik has been awarded a prestigious EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship (!!) to work on the ecosystem effects of genotypic variation in salt marsh plants
Kristine Moody is visiting New Orleans for the better part of the summer to work with us on the population genetics of amphidromous gobies in Hawaii. Her partner in crime, Sabrina Hunter, is set to arrive in June.
Cassie Campbell has joined the lab to carry out a senior honors thesis on salt marsh plant responses to oil exposure
Grace Sprehn is beginning her senior honors thesis (supported by an award from the Newcomb Foundation) on the population genetics of non-native parasites in native amphidromous fishes in Hawaii
Supported by a co-op with the US Forest Service, Rebecca Hazen and Nathan Cooper have begun a second season of field work surveying the urban forest of New Orleans
APRIL 2011
Members of the lab have joined a collaboration involving partners at
UCLA, UC Berkeley, Nicholls State University and industry (including
Kevin Costner, featured to the right) to demonstrate “green” techniques
for remediating oil from Louisiana salt marshes affected by the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Our collaborators on a NSF-funded project investigating “green”
methods for oil spill remediation have been recently noted in
The New York Times and National Geographic!
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/04/20/20greenwire-scientists-brew-green-dispersants-in-gulf-s
pil-37018.html?scp=1&sq=scientists%20brew%20green%20dispersants&st=cse
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110405-nsf-oil-somasundaran-video/
Mike and Liz Derryberry visit the Dept of Biology at Sewanee College (aka The University of the South) to present seminars on fish invasions and the evolution of bird song.
The Molecular Ecology Laboratory at Tulane University, led by Dr. Michael J. Blum, pursues research on contemporary & emerging environ-mental issues including land use impacts on aquatic ecosystems, the spread of non-native species, and climate change. By addressing fundamental and applied questions in ecology and evolutionary biology, members of the lab aim to improve natural resource management and biological conservation.
Interested in joining the lab? Undergraduate students are encouraged to contact Dr. Blum about opportunities to undertake independent or honors research. Prospective graduate students and postdoctoral researchers also should contact Dr. Blum for information about the lab and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Baby :)
Erick Gagne with crew on Molokai
