Archives for December 2013

Update: New Grad/ Undergrad Publication

December 30, 2013 by wpeeb

A new paper by Gorman et al. has come out in AoB Plants, with 11 graduate and undergraduate student authors from EEB!

AoB PLANTS Chief Editor has designated this paper as an ‘Editor’s Choice’ article. The ‘Editor’s Choice’ section of AoB PLANTS highlights articles that the Chief Editor finds especially impressive and of broad interest to the scientific community. The article will be featured prominently on the website as one of a select group that have achieved this recognition.

This paper was the result of a class project in Field Ecology and is entitled “Species identity influences belowground arthropod assemblages via functional traits.” Click here to view the pdf.

NSF Grant for O’Meara and Gilchrist

December 28, 2013 by wpeeb

Congratulations to Brian O’Meara and Mike Gilchrist, who were recently awarded a new grant from NSF for “Population genetics-based codon models.” They will be developing new methods of phylogenetic reconstruction using protein coding sequences of DNA. Unlike most work in this area, their methods will be based on evolutionary models that explicitly include the forces of mutation, natural selection and genetic drift. Their work will result in more accurate inferences of the evolutionary relationships between different taxa and, simultaneously, estimates of the strength of natural selection on the coding sequences.

DOE Grant for Classen

December 3, 2013 by wpeeb

Aimee Classen has received more than $880,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate often-overlooked carbon cycle players.

She and her team will examine factors that influence carbon cycling below the ground and are not included in today’s carbon-cycle models, such as bacteria and fungi.

For more information about Classen’s proposed research, read the full TN Today article. Her research was also picked up by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.