Jessica Budke helps identify rare aquatic plants for TVA
https://www.tva.com/newsroom/articles/the-race-at-cutoff-reach
by ldutton
Read the article here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0293092
by ldutton
by ldutton
Dr. Susan Kalisz, former head of the EEB department, along with Cary Staples of the School of Design and Tim Arment from the College of Architecture and Design have created the UNDERstory board game based on their long-term research. The game has received a lot of attention, and the creators are finalists for a 2023 James Paul GEE! Award!
Check out the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0fSBNVfiQ
and vote for UNDERstory to win the GEE! Award here: https://forms.gle/R3KEi7AFbDA6NRy49
by ldutton
Read Dr. Keck’s article “Erosion of heterogenous rock drives diversification of Appalachian fishes” here:
by ldutton
Grad students Lauren Lyon and Sebastian Espinoza have both been selected to take part in the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Directorate Resource Assistant Fellows Program. (DFP)
DFP is a special hiring program the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) uses to diversify their workforce. The DFP is for students interested in conservation careers and positions that support the FWS mission to work with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The FWS goal is to promote and maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce that thrives in an environment accessible to all and free of employment discrimination. The DFP program is designed to attract highly talented and diverse students into Fellowships, with particular attention to women and groups underrepresented in our workforce.
In prior years, positions included work on species conservation planning, field surveys and monitoring for species, landscape-scale conservation partnerships, environmental law and policy, education and outreach, community engagement, digital communications, and other areas that support FWS’ mission. Selected students participate in a paid 12-week summer Fellowship program with a week-long orientation and 11 weeks of 40-hour work in remote or in-person positions.
by artsciweb
Assistant Professor Laura Russo is part of a research team that published findings from an experiment to provide evidenced-based recommendations for pollinator-friendly native perennials in eastern Tennessee.
Download the UT Institute of Agriculture Extension Publication: Planting for Pollinators in East Tennessee, authored by Virginia Sykes, Department of Plant Sciences, Karl McKim and Laura Russo, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Amani Khalil, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.
by artsciweb
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.