Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

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Darwin Day events begin

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Darwin Day Tennessee has begun its three days of festivities celebrating Darwin and the importance of his theory of evolution for science. The first event is a public outreach table, running over the next three days. There will also be lectures, a discussion, a teacher workshop, and many other events. See the Darwin Day Tennessee website for full information.

PNAS paper on extinction risk

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Alison Boyer, Research Assistant Professor in the UTK EEB department, recently coauthored a paper in PNAS on the drivers and hotspots of extinction risk in marine mammals.

Abstract:
The world’s oceans are undergoing profound changes as a result of human activities. However, the consequences of escalating human impacts on marine mammal biodiversity remain poorly understood. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identifies 25% of marine mammals as at risk of extinction, but the conservation status of nearly 40% of marine mammals remains unknown due to insufficient data. Predictive models of extinction risk are crucial to informing present and future conservation needs, yet such models have not been developed for marine mammals. In this paper, we: (i) used powerful machine-learning and spatial-modeling approaches to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of marine mammal extinction risk; (ii) used this information to predict risk across all marine mammals, including IUCN “Data Deficient” species; and (iii) conducted a spatially explicit assessment of these results to understand how risk is distributed across the world’s oceans. Rate of offspring production was the most important predictor of risk. Additional predictors included taxonomic group, small geographic range area, and small social group size. Although the interaction of both intrinsic and extrinsic variables was important in predicting risk, overall, intrinsic traits were more important than extrinsic variables. In addition to the 32 species already on the IUCN Red List, our model identified 15 more species, suggesting that 37% of all marine mammals are at risk of extinction. Most at-risk species occur in coastal areas and in productive regions of the high seas. We identify 13 global hotspots of risk and show how they overlap with human impacts and Marine Protected Areas.

Science article on beta diversity

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A recent paper by Kraft, Comita, Chase, EEB faculty member Nate Sanders, Swenson, Crist, Stegen, Vellend, Boyle, Anderson, Cornell, Davies, Freestone, Inouye, Harrison, and Meyers on “Disentangling the Drivers of ? Diversity Along Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients” appeared in today’s Science. This was work done as part of an NCEAS working group.

Abstract:
Understanding spatial variation in biodiversity along environmental gradients is a central theme in ecology. Differences in species compositional turnover among sites (? diversity) occurring along gradients are often used to infer variation in the processes structuring communities. Here, we show that sampling alone predicts changes in ? diversity caused simply by changes in the sizes of species pools. For example, forest inventories sampled along latitudinal and elevational gradients show the well-documented pattern that ? diversity is higher in the tropics and at low elevations. However, after correcting for variation in pooled species richness (? diversity), these differences in ? diversity disappear. Therefore, there is no need to invoke differences in the mechanisms of community assembly in temperate versus tropical systems to explain these global-scale patterns of ? diversity.

Jaime Call named “Most Courteous Employee”

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Jaime Call, a staff member in the EEB main office, has been named as UTK’s most courteous employee for Sept. 2011. Note that UTK has roughly 15,000 employees, so the competition is fierce.

Below is some of the information used in her nomination:

  • “Jaime is always a huge help in the EEB office. I collaborated with another peer to start the EEB undergraduate club and I don’t think that it would have been established if it were not for Jaime Call. She’s always energetic and willing to drop everything she is doing just to lend a hand. If anyone is deserving of roses it is definitely Jaime.”
  • “She is incredibly helpful whether it’s your first time in the office or you see her every day. She never brings any personal issues into the workplace and always greets you with a smile no matter what her day has been like.”
  • “I am a new research faculty member at UT. Jaime Call has been extremely helpful over the past few months as I have moved to UT. She has repeatedly exceeded my expectations and gone out of her way to make sure that my grants, classes, and office were set up correctly. She has recently proved to be even more vital in the workings of the department as a senior member of the office staff has just retired.”
  • “Jaime is always so helpful with any administrative problems. All of us in EEB are pretty much guaranteed that she’ll do all she can to help solve a problem and also do it with a smile.”
  • “Jaime is the most helpful person in our department. She is always cheerful and willing to help anyone, from undergraduates, to graduate students, to faculty and staff. She goes out of her way to find solutions to problems and does so with a smile. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of roses than Jaime!”
  • “Every time I see Jamie, she always has a smile on her face, and she is always willing to go the extra mile to help out a student or co-worker. I personally cannot think of a better person to receive roses, she truly is an inspiration to me each and every day. Thank you for the consideration.”
  • “Jaime is one of the best, most efficient and friendly administrative assistants I have ever worked with! Coming from ORNL to UT she was always there for me, answering silly to very difficult questions! Please send the roses to her, she would be so happy!”
  • “Jaime is always very helpful and friendly whenever you enter the EEB office. She might be juggling a phone call, some computer meltdown, and photocopying tons of papers for a professor, but she always greets you with a smile and gets whatever you need done!”“I can’t even begin to expound upon what a pleasure it is to work with Jamie Call. She greets everyone who comes to the EEB department & manages to juggle a million different jobs. She is always happy to help and if she can’t figure out your problem, she can point you in the right direction. I see her helping graduate students with submitting NSF grants (and faculty as well), helping undergrads figure out their class schedules & other random problems, ordering equipment, dealing with difficult (and happy) faculty…. She makes my life, and the lives of many in our department and the university, much easier. She also is in charge of fielding email & visits from the public (“I found this in my yard, what it is”) — which are not infrequent. She interacts with us all with good humor and a smile. I know that EEB is lucky to have her as the face of our department & I know the undergraduate students, graduate students, random people wandering by, and people with ecological questions! Our faculty is lucky to have her as a member of our university. Jaime deserves a bigger thank you than we could give her individually — and I think this award would mean a lot to her.”
  • “Jaime is the first face you see when you walk into the EEB office every day. She is always happy and cheerful. Throughout my 4 years as a graduate student, Jaime has helped me numerous times even though she isn’t required to. She’s helped me navigate the University grant system, the graduate school requirements, and my own departmental requirements. I know when I’m having a problem I can go to Jaime for help. She definitely deserves roses.”
  • “Jaime has been extremely helpful to faculty, post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students in our department. Jaime never hesitates in helping anyone and goes beyond the call of duty to ensure you get what you need.”
  • “Jaime is always helpful and super cheerful about doing her job. She goes the extra mile to help everyone that comes by her desk.”
  • “Jaime is always helpful and has a fantastic eye for knowing when you have no idea what you’re doing or where to look for things.”
  • “Jaime is the most friendly and helpful person in the world. She is always ready to help with anything she knows about and help to find answers if she doesn’t already know them. She is approachable and a great smiling face for everyone to see as they come into the EEB office. She is a great problem solver and even though she puts up with a lot from people in the department she is always in a good mood.”
  • “Jaime is always willing to help students that stop by the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department office, no matter what she is working on and no matter what the student needs. She is very knowledgeable about the department and office workings, and if she doesn’t know the answer to the problem, she is always quick to find somebody who can help.
  • In addition to her helpfulness, she’s always positive and willing to lend a friendly ear. Jaime is simply an outstandingly positive and necessary part of the EEB department, and she is truly deserving of being recognized by the Positive Recognition Committee.”
  • “She is one of the best people that I have met. Last year I was traveling overseas and I got one of my bags stolen. In my bag I had my passport and ID. I am an international student, so I needed to get a new visa to come back to the US. She personally takes care of all the paper work to get documentation from UT. Finally, she is always ready to help you, and always with a big smile.”