A new paper by Hollingsworth et al. has come out in BMC Evolutionary Biology that provides the most complete phylogeny to date of North American minnows.
Hollingsworth, P.R. Jr., A.M. Simons, J.A. Fordyce, and C.D. Hulsey. 2013. Explosive diversification following a benthic to pelagic shift in freshwater fishes. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13:272.
The article is open access:
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.
Michael Van Nuland, along with other EEB grad students and undergrads just published a paper in PLoS One resulting from a Field Ecology Project. View the paper here!
Title: Fire Promotes Pollinator Visitation: Implications for Ameliorating Declines of Pollination Services.
Authors: Michael E. Van Nuland, Elliot N. Haag, Jessica A. M. Bryant, Quentin D. Read, Robert N. Klein, Morgan J. Douglas, Courtney E. Gorman, Trey D. Greenwell, Mark W. Busby, Jonathan Collins, Joseph T. LeRoy, George Schuchmann, Jennifer A. Schweitzer, Joseph K. Bailey.
In 2012-2013, thirty-nine EEB grad students submitted progress reports (1st years do not submit a report). This is what they self-reported:
We haven’t quantified service/outreach before and it looks like most of our students do something, some of them quite a lot!
It’s great to see our grad students succeeding on so many levels, and sharing their expertise with others.
A paper describing a new species of Clematis by EEB graduate student Aaron Floden appeared in the latest volume of the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. The new species was discovered during biological survey work in the Ocoee River gorge (Polk Co., Tennessee) that is turning up previously unrecognized diversity in this geologically unique area not far from Knoxville. The survey is being conducted by a team that includes UT graduates Joey Shaw (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) and Dwayne Estes (Austin Peay University) and UT Herbarium Director Eugene Wofford.
Clematis vinacea
clematis
A recent paper that Ben Keck and Darrin Hulsey of UTK co-authored was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B and written about in the journal Science:
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/09/tracing-cichlids-through-seas
Link to the open access publication:
A group of EEB-ers (and friends) went rafting on the Ocoee last weekend. The trip was organized by Zach Marion, a grad student in the Fitzpatrick lab who is also a raft guide for RaftOne (http://www.raft1.com/). Everyone who participated had an awesome time and are eager to do it again. A lot of first-year students came out, and last week’s departmental speaker (Eric Sotka) went, too. Such trips are great for building cohort bonds and promoting future collaborations within the department. May there be many more EEB/GREBE-organized trips like this in the future!
The incoming cohort of EEB graduate students is one of the (if not the) largest ever! Welcome to all 18 of you!
Gary McCracken took 3 graduate students (Amanda Janicki, Riley Bernard, and Melqui Gamba Rios) to the International Bat Research Conference in Costa Rica in August. It was the largest bat meeting ever, with over 600 participants from 55 countries. Below is a photo of the group wearing leaf-noses (which tropical bats have – see the link for a news article about the conference and tropical bats).
http://www.seabcru.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ibrc_2013_abstracts.pdf
Anna (Annie) Furches won third place in the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge Ideation Challenge in April. Competitors submitted innovative concept papers describing new ways users can interact with the content and tools in Web of Knowledge. This link contains more information about the award and includes Q&A with the winners. Annie was a student in Randy Small’s lab; she graduated with her MS in May.