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Budke Receives NSF Collaboration Grant to Digitize Lichens and Bryophytes

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Across the planet’s terrestrial surface lives a layer of organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Lichens and bryophytes are hosts to these cryptobiotic communities that play a critical role in stabilizing soil, preventing erosion, absorbing rainfall, and providing nutrients for the growing plants around them. This hidden life creates a critical miniature forest that serves as an important habitat for tiny animals and forms a “living skin” found throughout the world, from canyon deserts to polar icecaps.

Budke

Jessica Budke, director of the UT Herbarium (TENN) and her colleagues from 25 institutions across the United States received a grant from the National Science Foundation to image and digitize associated metadata for close to 1.2 million lichen and bryophyte specimens housed in their collections.

“Natural history collections are a physical record of our planet’s biodiversity across space and time,” said Budke, who is also an assistant professor in the UT Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “These specimens not only serve as records of the past, but they are a critical resource for our future. They help us to answer important questions surrounding invasive species, conservation biology, and help us to describe species that are new to science.”

The project, Building a Global Consortium of Bryophytes and Lichens: Keystones of Cryptobiotic Communities (GLOBAL), will enable researchers from around the world to access specimen metadata and photos of the plants. Budke is the lead principal investigator for the project.

“For the first time we will be taking photos not just of the label information, but also the physical organisms, which will enable researchers to digitally peek inside the packet to collect data from these specimens remotely,” Budke said. “The more data about these specimens that is available online enables researchers to expand the scope and impact of their research questions.”

plantsThe UT Herbarium is one of the largest plant natural history collections in the southeast with more than 640,000 specimens, including more than 180,000 mosses and lichens.

“Digitization is a game changer,” said Eric Tepe, curator of the Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati, one of the institutions involved in the project. “For centuries, natural history collections have been locked up in museums, available only to a handful of visitors. Large-scale digitization efforts, like this project, open the museum doors to the world, making specimen data and, in many cases, images freely available to everyone.”

Researchers with the project will partner with Zooniverse, a citizen science web portal, to develop an online platform for citizen scientists to make observations on character traits that can improve the information and fill in some of the gaps not covered by the scientific labeling process.

These integrated data will form a critical resource for evolutionary and ecological studies that researchers hope will lead to a deeper understanding of the role bryophytes and lichens play in carbon and nitrogen cycling, the evolution of biodiversity, and more.

In addition to collecting information about the specimens, undergraduate students at the partner institutions will have an opportunity to receive funding for professional training in image capture and processing, digitization, and collections management. Researchers will leverage local resources to promote underrepresented students in STEM fields and integrate a public outreach component to K-12 science classes and other science youth groups.

“This project represents a collaborative effort of 25 major research institutions,” Budke said. “It will push the field of organismal biology forward by leaps and bounds, enabling us to tackle large-scale biology questions that none of us could answer alone.”

Partner Institutions

Kwit, Graduate Students’ Research Featured in Science

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Charles KwitCharles Kwit, assistant professor of ecology, and his graduate students Chloe Lash and Chelsea Miller studied the microbial communities of seeds to discover what role ants play in seed dispersion. They looked at wild ginger, bloodroot, and twinleaf.

Read more about their research and the role ants play in forest ecology in a recent Science article, Don’t crust that ant – it could plant a wildflower. 

Kalisz Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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susan kaliszSusan Kalisz, the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence Professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is a newly elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences class of 2020.

“I am honored to join such a distinguished group of scholars and leaders in the arts and sciences,” Kalisz said. “It’s still a bit of a shock, but a wonderful piece of good news during the uncertain time we are all experiencing.”

The Academy announced its newest members April 23, 2020, with the election of 276 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors.

“The members of the class of 2020 have excelled in laboratories and lecture halls, they have amazed on concert stages and in surgical suites, and they have led in board rooms and courtrooms,” said Academy President David W. Oxtoby. “With today’s election announcement, these new members are united by a place in history and by an opportunity to shape the future through the Academy’s work to advance the public good.”

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and others who believed the new republic should honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good.

Two hundred and forty years later, the Academy continues to dedicate itself to recognizing excellence and relying on expertise – both of which seem more important than ever.

“We congratulate these incoming members of the Academy for excelling in a broad array of fields; we want to celebrate them and learn from them,” said Nancy C. Andrews, Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy. “When Academy members come together, bringing their expertise and insights to our work, they help develop new insights and potential solutions for some of the most complex challenges we face.”

The Academy’s projects and publications are focused on the arts and humanities, democracy and justice, education, global affairs, and science.

Current Academy members represent today’s innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.

The new members join the company of Academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell in the nineteenth; Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth; and – in the past two decades – Antonin Scalia, Michael Bloomberg, John Lithgow, Judy Woodruff, and Bryan Stevenson.

International Honorary Members include Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, Mary Leakey, John Maynard Keynes, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson Mandela.

The complete class of 2020 is listed here.

Gavrilets Receives Army Research Grants

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Sergey Gavrilets, a distinguished professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has received more than $1.1 million in grants from the Army Research Office for study into societal resilience using evolutionary models and theories of revolution.

Gavrilet’s research is funded by the Department of Defense’s Minerva Program, which is dedicated to predicting future socio-political crises in the world and societies’ resilience to various political, economic, environmental, and health-related shocks.

“I work with mathematical models to develop a theory that hopefully will be useful to predict or identify certain problems or uncover gaps in our knowledge,” Gavrilets said. “I used to work a lot in biology and biological evolution, but lately I’ve shifted towards social and cultural evolution and behavior.”  

By using new and improved modeling tools, analysts will be able to assess political stability risks, improving predictions and explanations for societal unrest.

“The reason why we want to do this is because life is getting pretty complicated, especially over the last 10 to 20 years,” he said. “Conflicts are popping up in different places and usually come completely unexpected. Naturally, everyone wants to understand them better and hopefully predict them.”

Gavrilet’s research will also yield theoretical and modeling approaches with applications in fundamental sciences such as psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology.

–By Kelly Alley

The University of Tennessee wishes to acknowledge Lisa Troyer at the Army Research Office for supporting these projects.

Kivlin Coauthors Article on Fungal Aerobiota

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Stephanie KivlinStephanie Kivlin, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, coauthored a paper titled “Fungal aerobiota are not affected by time nor environment over a 13-y time series at the Mauna Loa Observatory,” published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers used 13 years of collected air samples from Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii Island to determine if local or global environmental factors influence fungi composition.

“One of the big questions in microbial ecology is trying to figure out how microbes disperse around the world and if they can disperse everywhere,” Kivlin said.

Kivlin and other researchers from the University of Hawaii initially genetically sequenced fungal spores and studied their traits, such as size and shape, before discovering the role wind patterns play in fungal spore dispersal.

“What we found was that we could trace back wind patterns to try to understand where the wind was coming from that deposited the fungal spores on the filters,” Kivlin said. “We saw some that were coming from Asia, bringing fungi that are never found in Hawaii. The wind patterns are really what’s blowing the fungi around.”

The researchers also discovered that some airborne fungal spores are still viable after traveling long distances.

“Because we found a couple of fungi that were dispersing all the way across the Pacific Ocean, we need to really consider how far fungi can go and what that means for dispersal of new pathogens into new areas,” Kivlin said. “We need to have better theory about how often those dispersal events occur, which fungi are coming, and if they are beneficial or harmful.”

Coauthors on the paper include Laura Tipton, Anthony Amend, and Nicole Hyson from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Erin Datlof from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Geoffrey Zahn from Utah Valley University, and Patrick Sheridan from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Division.

By Kelly Alley

Faculty Honored at College Awards Banquet

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The 2019 College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Awards banquet took place Thursday, December 5 at the Holiday Inn Downtown. From Diversity Leadership to awards in research, advising, and teaching, the annual awards banquet honors faculty excellence in all areas of the college mission.

Elizabeth Derryberry, Charlie Kwit, and Beth Schussler received awards for their work in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

“As we recognize particularly outstanding faculty this evening, I want to thank all of our faculty in the college, individually and collectively, for everything you do— your teaching, research, service on college and university committees, thesis committees, and tenure and promotion committees, and service to the public through community engagement,” said Theresa Lee, dean of the college and emcee for the awards ceremony. “A college can be no greater or stronger than its faculty and the College of Arts and Sciences is a college of excellence because each of you has a passion for our profession and you work selflessly to make our students, departments and university the best they can be.”

derryberry

Elizabeth Derryberry, associate professor, received a Mid-Career Award for Research and Creative Achievement. Derryberry’s research focuses on passerine bird evolution and bird songs – important topics that are notoriously difficult to study. Her exciting project on the effects of human-mediated noise in urban environments on bird song demonstrate both changes in song parameters in response to noise and consequences for ecosystem fitness. Derryberry is the author of more than 50 highly cited papers and an associate editor for two prestigious journals: Evolution and Journal of Animal Behavior. Her work is top-notch, broad-thinking, impactful science at its best. She is an outstanding student mentor and passionate about her outreach to increase opportunities for girls and women in science.

kwit

Charlie Kwit, professor and joint faculty in EEB and the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries in the Herbert College of Agriculture, received the Academic Outreach Award for Teaching. His work to promote natural history knowledge in the Southeast exemplifies academic outreach in teaching. This year, he received a grant to increase HBCU representation to the Southeastern Chapter of the Ecological Society of America and support students engaged in the work of the Society. He also organized a session at the annual ESA meeting that spotlighted the biodiversity of the Southeast and the challenges we face in maintaining that rich biological heritage. Kwit also fosters UT students in outreach through clubs and courses. Students in his class experience the very best of what is intended as part of the new Experience Learning efforts. They see the utility of what they are learning, enriching their engagement with the material, while also helping to build relationships between UT and the community that strengthen the institution.

schussler

Beth Schussler, professor, received the James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Teaching Award, the college’s highest teaching honor. There are no specific requirements listed for the award, but there are some things that are typical of the winners. One, excellence in the classroom. Schussler is highly praised by students and peers for her work in some of the more demanding biology courses. Two, contributions to excellence in others. Schussler supervised the lecturers and GTAs in the general biology courses, and helped train the GTAs, which came from all three of the departments in the Division of Biology. Finally, contributions to teaching beyond their courses and department. Schussler has organized workshops on teaching for STEM departments, and continues to be involved with nation-wide efforts and grants helping to improve biology and STEM instruction.

Congratulations to our Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology faculty award winners.

Gaoue Coauthors Article about Medicinal Jungle Plants

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Ourou Gaoue, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, coauthored a paper titled “Non-random medicinal plants selection in the Kichwa community of the Ecuadorian Amazon,” published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

Researchers analyzed data collected on indigenous people’s uses of non-random medicinal jungle plants at the local level, rather than at the national level. This is the first time a village-level study has taken place, better ensuring the consistency of plant availability in certain areas.

“When people are doing this study, they are usually doing it at the national scale,” Gaoue said. “If you’re doing the analysis at the national level, you are overestimating the number of plants from which the indigenous people actually find that have medicine.”

The study is also one of the most diverse in research of non-random medicinal plant selection, analyzing gender, age, and exposure to outside influences, such as ecotourism projects, to determine overuse and underuse of medicinal plants in jungle communities.

“Village level analysis provides a different result than at the national level,” Gaoue said. “A plant is not medicine for everyone. Men and women know different kinds of plants. An older person will see a plant with medicine in it that a younger person will not see. People who are educated would not see medicine in a plant that someone in a rural area would be able to see.”

Other authors on the paper include Daniela Robles Arias of Florida Atlantic University, Daniela Cevallos of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Maria Fadiman of the University of Parakou, and Tobin Hindle of the University of Johanesburg.

-By Kelly Alley

Budke Publishes Paper on Spore Dispersal of Fern

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Jessica Budke, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of UT’s Herbarium, published a paper titled “Evolution of Perine Morphology in the Thelypteridaceae” in the International Journal of Plant Sciences, that looks at the dispersal of fern spores.

Researchers focused their study on Thelypteridaceae, a family of ferns that includes more than 1,000 species. Their research focused on spore ornamentation, or shapes and structural characteristics of the outside of the spores.

Researchers then used different spores from across the family to better understand relationships between the species, using a technique called ancestral character state reconstruction.

“We used a lot of molecular data to build a phylogenetic tree, and then mapped on the spore characteristics onto the tree,” Budke said. “By mapping them on the tree, we can look at the evolution of those features.”

The study used resources like the UT Herbarium, a repository of native and naturalized plants and fungi of Tennessee, for dried samples of previously collected ferns.

“We have more than 600,000 plant specimens on campus,” she said. “It saves time and money and resources because you’re not having to run around collecting everything.”

Other coauthors on the paper include University of Connecticut post-doctoral research assistant Nikisha Patel, University of Vermont graduate student Susan Fawcett, and University of Vermont research assistant professor Michael Sundue.

-By Kelly Alley

Underground fungal relationships key to thriving plants

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Stephanie Kivlin

For a plant to thrive, it needs the help of a friendly fungus–preferably one that will dig its way deep into the cells of the plant’s roots.

Plants live in symbiosis with root-associated, or mycorrhizal, fungi. The fungi provide up to 80 percent of the nutrients and water a plant needs to grow, and the plants produce up to 30 percent of the photosynthate–a food substance made through photosynthesis–that the fungi need.

There are two main types of mycorrhizal fungi – arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal. An arbuscular mycorrhiza penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a plant. Ectomycorrhizal fungi do not penetrate the plant’s cell walls, instead forming a netlike structure around the plant root.

A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and co-authored by ecologist Stephanie Kivlin, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, shows that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are especially helpful to the plants they colonize.

“Mycorrhizal fungal associations below the ground are one of the largest influences on plant tissue nutrient concentrations,” said Kivlin. “To optimize plant nutrition, we need to incorporate mycorrhizal associations into our agricultural and management frameworks.”

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increase plant nutrient concentrations in plant leaves, litter, and roots more than ectomycorrhizal fungi. The type of root-associated fungi present has more influence on a plant’s nutrient levels than plant leaf traits or plant associations with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Kivlin’s co-authors are Colin Averill from ETH Zürich, Jennifer M. Bhatnagar and Michael C. Dietze from Boston University, and William D. Pearse from Utah State University.

The study analyzed more than 17,000 trait observations from nearly 3,000 woody plant species in six categories that demonstrate how readily the plant uses nutrients: the nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in green leaves, senescent leaves–leaves that are about to fall off or have recently fallen off–and roots. It looks at how mycorrhizal effects vary across environments, doing similar analyses in boreal, temperate, and tropical latitudinal zones.

The Kivlin Lab studies the effects of global change on the distributions, function, and ecosystem consequences of plant mycorrhizal fungal associations worldwide.

“The next steps are to understand if there is variation in nutrient acquisition among fungal species within each mycorrhizal group and how soil nutrient concentrations may interact to influence plant nutrient concentrations with global change,” Kivlin said.

Derryberry Recognized in Women of Ornithology Article

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Elizabeth Derryberry, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, received recognition in a timeline of important female ornithologists in a Cornell Lab of Ornithology article, focusing on the achievements of female ornithologists and their role in determining the causes of evolutionary advancements in birds.

Part of Derryberry’s research focuses on the how bird songs are shaped by urban environments.

“One of the things I’ve been most interested in over the last five years is looking at how urban noise affects bird song,” she said.

Through research in San Francisco of urban and coastal white-crowned sparrows, Derryberry and other researchers determined that the volume and frequency of a song is correlated to the birds’ environment. As noise frequency increases in a city or along the coast, so does the birds’ songs. This creates loud, high pitched notes in shorter intervals, as compared to songs from birds living in low noise frequency environments.

“We found that within a population, males vary their vocalizations in their songs based on how loud it is on their territory,” said Derryberry. “As traffic noise increases and city noise levels increasing, we are seeing a shift up in frequency.”

The article provides a recognition of women ornithologists and highlights the importance their research has had. “I think women have been really impactful in ornithology for a long time,” she said. “It’s really just a matter of recognition. It’s great to see those sorts of efforts.”