Author Archives: susannah

Natural history, synthesis papers and the academic caste system | Small Pond Science

Everybody loves natural history. Everybody thinks that we should value natural history more (well, almost everybody), and find a way to value descriptive field biology more in our academic rewards system. I would bet there are more ecologists who hate puppies than ecologists who think that natural history is valued adequately.

Though nearly all of us agree that natural history need to be valued more, if you look at the way we publish and cite and hire and tenure and promote and award scientists, well, we pretty much aren’t valuing it.

We want it to be valued because we all benefit from it. But we all are reluctant to do and publish much of it because we aren’t getting credit for it.

Source: Natural history, synthesis papers and the academic caste system | Small Pond Science

Tagged ,

While genecological studies suggest divergent selection on phenotypic traits for local adaptation to climate must be relatively strong (Howe et al. 2004; Savolainen et al. 2007; Alberto et al. 2013), population genetic studies suggest gene flow is high, as most widespread species show weak- to-moderate population differentiation (FST) for selectively neutral genetic markers (Kremer et al. 2012). How tree populations could diverge substantially for locally adaptive traits in the face of high levels of gene flow has been something of a puzzle (Savolainen et al. 2007). Theoretical modelling suggests that highly polygenic traits controlled by many co-varying loci of small effect can create phenotypic divergence under divergent selection despite high gene flow, but individual loci underlying such traits will have only weak divergence, and will be difficult to detect (Latta 2003; Le Corre and Kremer 2012; Savolainen et al. 2013). This genetic architecture presents a challenge for popula- tion studies to detect and adequately characterize local adaptation through genome scans

Aitken, S. N., & Bemmels, J. B. (2015). Time to get moving: Assisted gene flow of forest trees. Evolutionary Applications, doi:10.1111/eva.12293

Maybe I can solve a little piece of this puzzle with my PhD….

How fast did Pinaceae ranges move in the past? | The Modern Forest

Source: How fast did Pinaceae ranges move in the past? | The Modern Forest

I remade a couple graphs from Ordonez & Williams 2013 to get a better look at the Pinaceae.

Old Data, New Tricks – Research2Reality

When we picture scientists collecting data, we usually think of someone in a white coat mixing solutions in beakers or perhaps someone writing measurements on a clipboard in the middle of a seed orchard. But what happens after that data is collected and the papers are written?

Source: Old Data, New Tricks – Research2Reality

I’ve got a post up on the Research2Reality blog today about using old data to to answer new questions.

Tagged ,