New Research Grants

National Evolutionary Synthesis Center established with a $15 million grant from NSF

The center is a collaboration between Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Its Director will be Dr. Cliff Cunningham. NSF's goals for NESCent--which is modeled after the highly successful National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), at the University of California, Santa Barbara (www.nceas.ucsb.edu)--are to "serve the needs of the evolutionary biology community by providing mechanisms to foster synthetic, collaborative, cross-disciplinary studies. It will play a pivotal role in the further unification of the biological sciences as it draws together knowledge from disparate biological fields to increase our general understanding of biological design and function. Finally, the center will play a critical role in organizing and synthesizing evolutionary knowledge that will be useful to policy makers, government agencies, educators and society." (From the April 2003 NSF program announcement). Over the next two years the Center plans to build a standing population of 15 postdoctoral fellows, 7 sabbatical faculty, and 3 computer scientists on site. For more information, visit the Center's website (www.nescent.org).

What's behind the different rates of molecular evolution observed in ferns?

Nearly co-equal in geographic extent with the dominant flowering plants of the world are the ferns, the second largest group of vascular plants, with an estimated 12,000 or so living species. Dr. Kathleen Pryer has been awarded an NSF CAREER award ("Reconciling patterns of phylogenetic rate heterogeneity in ferns with morphology, ecology, and life history") to continue a productive program of molecular and morphological studies of ferns, one aim being the construction of a framework phylogeny for all the families of ferns, integrated where possible with fossil forms and with estimated dates of divergence and diversification determined from mutation rates and fossil evidence. Primary new data will be acquired from DNA sequencing of genes from all three genomic compartments: nucleus, mitochondria, and chloroplasts; these new data are to be integrated with morphological characters to improve fern classification systems, and to evaluate patterns of species diversity in different lineages of ferns. Different rates of molecular evolution will be explored in such groups as the tropical filmy ferns, pteridoid ferns, and tree ferns, with efforts to relate molecular-rate differences to aspects of habitat and life history. Productive collaborations will continue with specialists in fern taxonomy, morphology, and fossils, both in the U.S. and abroad. Research will be conjoined with educational and outreach activities, on campus, in the local school community, and abroad including through the OTS, Organization for Tropical Studies consortium operating in Costa Rica. Prof. Pryer teaches general courses in plant biology and "plants in the news" for non-majors, works with Durham-area middle and high school teachers in summer "reach out" workshops, and will participate in the tropical courses conducted annually in Costa Rica to introduce undergraduate and graduate students to tropical plant diversity.
http://www-livecds.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0347840

Seed-associated fungi in neotropical Cecropia

Dr. A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold , an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Microbial Biology in the department, and collaborator James W. Dalling (University of Illinois) have been awarded an NSF grant to study the "Diversity, distribution, and demographic effects of seed-associated fungi in neotropical Cecropia." This project, which runs for two years and involves field studies at three neotropical sites (Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador), focuses on fungal pathogens, which are increasingly recognized as an important source of plant mortality in tropical forests. To date, attention has concentrated on adult plants and seedlings, and has revealed that fungal diseases can play a significant role in determining demography, spatial distributions, and population genetic structure of their hosts. Equally important, however, are the hidden effects of seed-infecting fungi that constrain seedling recruitment by limiting seed survival in the soil. Seed-infecting fungi are likely to play an especially critical role for pioneer species dependent upon transient or persistent soil seed banks for colonization of infrequent canopy disturbances. Arnold and colleagues will conduct a detailed ecological and molecular taxonomic characterization of the suite of seed-infecting fungi (endophytes, saprophytes, and pathogens) associated with the archetypal neotropical pioneer genus, Cecropia (Urticaceae). For further information, contact .
Photo by J. Longino http://www.evergreen.edu/ants/ANTPLANTS/CECROPIA/Cecropia.html

Roles of Ecological Isolation, Mate Choice, and Genomic Incompatibility in Speciation

Prof. John Willis is the lead PI on a research project funded by the National Science Foundation's new Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR ) program. NSF announced the six FIBR five-year projects on September 24, 2003. The goal of the FIBR program is to use "boldly creative approaches" to address "grand challenges", especially encouraging interdisciplinary teams. Prof. Willis' project " Integrated Ecological and Genomic Analysis of Speciation in Mimulus " explores the roles of ecological isolation, mate choice, and genomic incompatibility in speciation events and in maintaining species integrity (NSF Award Abstract) . For further information, see November 13 (2003) article in the Duke Dialogue

Duke Biology Professors Leading International Research Networks

NSF's new Research Coordination Networks (RCN) program supports research coordination networks "to foster communication and promote collaboration among scientists with common interests from a broad background across disciplinary, geographical, and organizational boundaries". The ultimate objective is to move a field forward or to create new research directions through increased research coordination and networking.

Prof. Cliff Cunningham is PI on CORONA, a network funded (February 2002-2007) to study the marine biota of the North Atlantic. CORONA includes 118 scientists from 13 countries across the North Atlantic (NSF Award Abstract).	Prof. James Reynolds is PI on ARIDnet for the Americas, a network funded (March 2003-2008) to study new paradigms of global desertification. ARIDnet, which includes over 100 scientists from North and South America, is part of a larger global network (NSF Award Abstract).

Relationships Among Demographic, Social and Genetic Structure

Prof. Susan Alberts (lead institution) and collaborator Jeanne Altmann (Princeton University) have been funded by NSF IBN (2003 - 2006) to develop a comprehensive picture of how behavior shapes fitness outcomes and population processes in one population of wild mammals - the savanna baboons of the Amboseli basin in east Africa. This research will (1) probe more deeply into the function and lifetime development of relationships through individuals' paternal as well as maternal lineage and (2) continue to delineate sources of lifetime fitness differences for both sexes. This will be accomplished by testing eight explicit predictions derived from three hypotheses. For females, these relate to the impact of social status and of paternal and maternal relatives on fitness. For males they address the relationship between mating success and paternity success, the role of male mate choice in paternity success, and the direct behavioral contributions that males make to the survival of their offspring. Genetic and physiological analyses are based on non-invasive biological sampling and associated assay and genotyping techniques, the development and refinement of which have been a cornerstone of these research groups.

Life in a Changing Environment

Prof. Susan Alberts (lead institution) and collaborator Jeanne Altmann (Princeton University) have been funded by NSF BCS (2003 - 2008) to evaluate and test predictions about behavioral and physiological consequences of environmental change, and about the effects of environmental change on birth and death rates savanna baboons. The current investigations will focus on the baboon population of Amboseli, a population that has experienced extensive environmental change over the past several decades for which information is available, and that has persisted in the face of this environmental change. The work will serve several specific goals. (1) It will provide detailed information on how environmental change affects fitness components and related traits. (2) It will elucidate the extent to which individuals are differentially affected by, and respond to, environmental change. This will provide important insight into traits that confer an adaptive advantage in the face of environmental change. (3) It will provide important information on the impact of short time-scale environmental change, and on the population structure of a species experiencing such change. (4) It will provide vital data on how organisms adapt to environmental change. This is highly relevant for biological conservation in the current period of rapid, anthropogenic climate change.