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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.”

Etnier Ichthyology Endowment Established to Support Research, Improve Aquatic Biodiversity in Tennessee

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TVA representatives join Etnier, Kalisz, and Ichthyology staff for photo before the reception.

TVA representatives join Etnier, Kalisz, and Ichthyology staff for photo before the reception.

Representatives from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency announced the establishment of the Etnier Ichthyology Endowment at a reception on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus Thursday, December 14.

“TVA is proud to be partners with the University of Tennessee, and David Etnier has been a big part of that partnership for more than 50 years,” says Evan Crews, senior manager for Natural Resource Management at the Tennessee Valley Authority. “We are thankful for the opportunity to support the UT Etnier Ichthyology Collection. This facility is a vital resource for all of us who work to improve aquatic biodiversity and protect the aquatic life that thrives in the Tennessee River and its tributaries.”

TWRA representatives join Etnier, Kalisz, and Ichthyology staff for photo before the reception.

TWRA representatives join Etnier, Kalisz, and Ichthyology staff for photo before the reception.

The endowment will provide support to continue the research conducted at the UT Etnier Ichthyology Collection, a facility used for undergraduate, graduate, and professional teaching and research. It also serves as a significant public resource.

“What started out to be a simple opportunity to celebrate the Tennessee Valley Authority’s generous donation to the Etnier Endowment quickly evolved into celebrating Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s generosity and that of so many others,” says Susan Kalisz, professor and head, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “Today we celebrate the incredible dedication of David Etnier to persevere through many trials and tribulations and to create an impressive group of advocates and partners over the past five decades while creating a world class Ichthyology Collection and program.”

The Etnier Ichthyology Collection has more than 500,000 fish specimens from all over the world and serves as a significant resource for the research community. Several specimens in the collection were significant for discovering new species. Other specimens help scientists study the impact of global warming and water quality on aquatic communities. For nearly 40 years, the collection has served as a repository and reference for private and governmental agencies working on the fishes of the Southeastern United States.

“As an agency, we are dedicated to protect, manage, conserve, and restore the natural resources in the state,” says Dave McKinney, chief, Environmental Services for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “None of this would get done, however, without the collaboration between our agency, TVA, and Professor Etnier’s work at UT. We are truly lucky to have a great resource such as the Ichthyology Collection available to help us fulfill our mission.”

David Etnier began collecting fish for teaching and research on the fauna of Tennessee and surrounding states in the 1960s. Fifty years later, the UT Etnier Ichthyology Collection is the largest fish collection in the state of Tennessee and the third largest overall in the Southeastern United States.

“We have more than 320 fish species in East Tennessee alone,” says Etnier, professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “When I arrived on campus, 25 of those were undescribed. We had names and localities for the fish, but that’s about it, so I decided to write a book.”

His book, The Fishes of Tennessee, first published in 1993, is considered an authoritative source on the diversity of freshwater fauna in Tennessee. Throughout his career, Etnier taught graduate students how to identify, collect, and preserve hundreds of fish species.

One of the first projects involved studying river systems with unknown fish faunas. Etnier, graduate students, and TVA fisheries biologists travelled to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, which at that time was the primary repository for fishes from the entire Tennessee River system. Several of the Tennessee specimens, collected by TVA field crews from 1937 to 1943, were catalogued and available for examination. Many others, however, remained in their original collection jars, unsorted, and unidentified. Etnier and his team spent two weeks completing the identification of the specimens, which launched the close cooperation with fish specialists at TVA and UT that continues to this day.

More than 40 guests attended the Etnier Ichthyology Endowment reception.

More than 40 guests attended the Etnier Ichthyology Endowment reception.

As the event ended, Chris Cox, director of development in the College of Arts and Sciences, announced the Etnier Endowment Challenge.

“Professor Etnier’s vision is to grow the endowment to $100,000,” Cox says. “Today, that vision comes one step closer to becoming a reality with a matching challenge from David and his wife Liz. We ask you to be an advocate for the Etnier Ichthyology Collection and help us achieve the Etnier’s vision and be part of the legacy here in Tennessee.”

For more information about the collection, visit the Etnier Ichthyology Collection website.