SiBBs 2008

Welcome Lecture

Dr. James H. Brown, Director PiBBs Distinguished Professor of Biology Department of Biology UNM &

Dr. Felisa A. Smith, Co-Director PiBBs Associate Professor of Biology Department of Biology UNM

This 1st meeting of the year will be a chance for us to organize the upcoming lectures, recommend the guest lecturers, choose hosts and discuss how to host a guest lecturer.

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Two insights into biodiversity dynamics

Dr. James H. Brown, Director PiBBs
Distinguished Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
University of New Mexico

Suggested Reading:

A latitudinal diversity gradient in planktonic marine bacteria (.pdf)

Impact of an extreme climatic even on community assembly (.pdf)

Dr. Brown's Host : Chris Romero

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Reconstructing Miocene hominoid palaeoecology

Dr. Sherry V. Nelson
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of New Mexico

Lecture Abstract: My research focuses on the interaction of climatic, vegetation, and faunal changes in the fossil record, particularly the roles that changing habitat and climate played in the extinction of Sivapithecus, a Miocene ape, in Pakistan. Pakistan offers a rare twenty million record of faunal and environmental change documenting an ape clade throughout its existence. My research incorporates dental microwear and isotopic analyses to reconstruct and compare paleohabitats, climates, and dietary adaptations just before and just after the extinction of Sivapithecus. This investigation has provided detailed reconstruction of forest type, vegetation mosaic, fruit availability, and annual seasonality of precipitation. I also work with modern faunas, including a chimpanzee site in Uganda and foragers in Tanzania. My goal is to have a direct comparison between fossil and modern data to better interpret fossil ape as well as earliest hominid habitat requirements. With respect to hominids, I wish to understand what kind of habitat could drive the changes we see from ape to hominid but also support an animal whose ancestors required rainforest and a year- round supply of fruit. I have worked with the Hadza, modern foragers in Tanzania, with a view to better understanding the significance of meat and the potential for cooking among hominid species.

Suggested Reading:

Nelson, S.V. (2005) Paleoseasonality inferred from equid teeth and intra-tooth isotopic variability. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 222, 122–144 (.pdf)

Nelson, S.V. (2007) Isotopic reconstructions of habitat change surrounding the extinction of Sivapithecus, a Miocene hominoid, in the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 243, 204–222(.pdf)

Dr. Nelson's Hosts: Colleen Martin & Becca Martinson

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Disordered Kinetics in Earth's Carbon Cycle

Dr. Daniel Rothman
Professor of Geophysics
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lecture Abstract: The carbon cycle describes the transformations of carbon as it cycles through living organisms and the physical environment. In its simplest form, the cycle amounts to a loop between photosynthesis and respiration. Photosynthesis produces organic carbon and molecular oxygen from carbon dioxide and water. Respiration reverses the process by oxidation of organic carbon. The duration of the cycle spans a vast range of time scales: from days or less for fast-growing plankton in the oceans, to hundreds of millions of years or more for the small fraction of organic matter that is buried as rock. The rates at which the cycle is closed set atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at short time scales and oxygen levels at geologic time scales. Respiration rates thereby influence not only climate---by the determination of equilibrium carbon dioxide concentrations---but also biological evolution---because the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere must have preceded the advent of aerobic metabolism. We review recent advances in the understanding of the rates that control the carbon cycle, with emphasis on the respiratory back-reaction. Given considerable biological, chemical, and environmental variation, it comes as no surprise that measurements of rates vary greatly. Observations suggest, however, some surprising simplicity: for example, the rates of microbial consumption of organic matter in sediments and soils slow down systematically like the inverse of the age of the organic matter. This aging effect can be quantitatively understood as the macroscopic observation of microscopically disordered kinetics. The disorder can arise purely physically as the consequence of a reaction-diffusion process in porous media, but any combination of physical, chemical, and biological parameters that yield a wide range of rates suffices. A predicted practical consequence is a slow, logarithmic decay of organic matter in sediments and soils, which compares well with measurements. Further observations suggest that the effects of such disordered kinetics extends to inorganic processes as well. The carbon cycle thus appears not as a simple reaction network defined by a single set of rates, but rather as complex network in which the rates of specific reactions can be widely dispersed. We conclude by briefly discussing implications for short-term climate and long-term evolution.

Suggested Reading:

Rothman, D.H. and Forney, D. C., "Physical model for the decay and preservation of marine organic carbon," Science 316, 1325--1328, June 1, 2007 (.pdf)

Dr. Rothman's Host: Wenyun Zuo, Xun Huang & Juan Du

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Life: an infectious process

Dr. E. Sam Loker
AC Member, PiBBs
Parisitology
Professor of Biology
Chair of the Department of Biology
UNM

Lecture Abstract: Here I will adopt a somewhat more liberal definition of what it means to be "infectious" emphasizing a persistent and creative role of infectious entities. Increasingly the Darwinian metaphor of life as a tree shaped by "descent with modification" is challenged by the notion of rampant horizontal gene transfer as mediated by viruses, bacteria and transposable elements. Also with increasingly fuzzy boundaries is the concept of the organism: given the role of intra- and intercellular symbionts, and the potential for gene exchange with their hosts, the organism is not the tidy concept it once was. With respect to understanding the interactions between an organism and its presumptive pathogens, it is often the case that collaborations are required among pathogens to achieve infectivity and among host and symbionts to achieve defense. Examples of the latter phenomenon - what I have called the infectious natureof immunity - will especially be discussed.

Suggested Reading:

Loker, E.S. & Brant, S.V. , "Diversification, dioecy and dimorphism in schistosomes" Trends in Parasitology 22; 521-528 (.pdf)

Host: Ziya Kalay, Erik Erhardt, Helen Elizabeth Davis, & Paul Hooper

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What might schizophrenia risk genes be doing in the brain? Evidence from neuroimaging

Dr. Godfrey Pearlson
Department of Psychiatry
Yale University

Lecture Abstract: Schizophrenia appears to be an inherited brain disorder, where multiple risk genes of individually weak effect act in combination to interfere with brain development and function. Schizophrenia is this analogous in some ways to other complex genetic disorders including type 2 diabetes, ischemic cardiac disease, asthma and obesity.  This talk will try to summarize what we know about how risk genes for schizophrenia may be acting in the brain, and how a combination of brain imaging and genetic studies can illuminate the illness process.

Suggested Reading:

Combining fMRI and SNP data to investigate connections
between brain function and genetics using parallel ICA (In Review Copy) (.pdf)

Schizophrenia, Psychiatric Genetics, and Darwinian Psychiatry: An Evolutionary Framework (Early Access) ( .pdf)

Polymorphism of DCDC2 Reveals Differences in Cortical
5 Morphology of Healthy Individuals—A Preliminary Voxel
6 Based Morphometry Study (In Press) ( .pdf)

Dr. Pearlson's Hosts: Lai Xu & Qiang Fu

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Paleo-records of Southwest drought – a strategy for understanding past and future regional hydroclimate

Dr. Julia Cole
Associate Professor of Geosciences & Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Arizona

Lecture Abstract: The southwestern US has been in the grip of drought for nearly a decade in some regions, and projections of future climate change suggest that this may be just the beginning of a transition to a more arid hydroclimatic regime. In the coming century, drought variability will likely result from the combined influence of ocean-atmosphere patterns (e.g. ENSO and the Atlantic), the position of storm tracks mediated by the Northern Annular Mode, and local warming that intensifies water demand and changes hydrologic partitioning. Tree-ring records of Southwest drought demonstrate that we have experienced prolonged intervals of drought in the past, notably during the Medieval era (ca. 800-1300 AD). Continuous records of Southwest drought are rare, however, and our understanding of how different climate processes interact to generate observed droughts remains in a very early stage. Here I will present results from a series of cave paleoclimate records in SE Arizona that reveal glimpses of past hydroclimate over different time scales (the past millennium, the mid-Holocene, and the last glacial interval). Our research group has also collected nearly 5 years of dripwater isotope data that provide important constraints on how the paleoclimate records can be interpreted. Finally, I will discuss how we can use paleoclimate data to evaluate hypotheses about the mechanisms of past drought variability.

Suggested Reading:

TBA

Dr. Cole's Co-Hosts: Bilal Shebaro & Brian Stinar

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Animal Forensics

Dr. Sree Kanthaswamy
Professional researcher in Anthropology
California National Primate Research Center
University of California, Davis

Lecture Abstract: As a variety of DNA-based applications are introduced into forensic science, the influence of genetic characterization on criminal and civil investigations has become significant. As a science that depends on transfer and trace evidence, forensic DNA analysis has almost exclusively relied on biomaterials such as blood, semen, hair or epithelial cells from human sources, even though animal and plant evidence has been identified in crimes for decades and the DNA testing of non-human evidence has been firmly established and used for forensic purposes.
In this lecture, I will present several case studies involving animal DNA evidence that were used to help solve several criminal investigations.  These case files have now become benchmarks in the field of forensic investigation and have helped pave the way for the further use of animal evidence in a variety of cases where animals are suspects, victims or passive witnesses. I will take you through some of the research at UC Davis to enhance this field by means of comprehensive genetic databases and implementing quality standards for wider acceptance.

I will also present another area of great interest to me: Primate Genetics - where I use the genetic information contained in the DNA of non-human primates to preserve their genetic diversity in captive and wild populations.

Suggested Reading:

Dr. Kanthaswamy's Host: Wendy Garnica

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Networks: How exchanges of energy and information shape organisms and societies

Dr. Melanie Moses
Department of Computer Science
UNM

Lecture Abstract: Soon to come...

Suggested Reading:

TBA

Dr. Moses's Hosts : Soumya Banerjee, Jong Park & Nipun Joshi

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Speaking on Cliodynamics

Dr. Peter Turchin
Professor of Theoretical Ecology &
Population Dynamics
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology,
University of Connecticut

Suggested Reading:

Dr. Turchin's Cliodynamics website

Turchin P. 2005. Dynamical Feedbacks between Population Growth and Sociopolitical Instability in Agrarian States. Structure and Dynamics 1(1): Article 3. (.pdf)

Turchin P, Korotayev A. 2006. Population Dynamics and Internal Warfare: a Reconsideration. Social Evolution and History 5(2): 121- 158. (.pdf)

Turchin P, Adams JM, Hall TD. 2006. East- West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States. Journal of World- Systems Research 12:219- 229. (.pdf)

Dr. Turchin's Host: Cameron Ellis

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Developmental Invention and Ecological Innovation during the Cambrian metazoan Radiation

Dr. Douglas H. Erwin
Senior Scientist and Curator
Department of Paleobiology,
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Lecture Abstract: I will be starting with an overview of the origin and early diversification of animals during the Ediacaran-Cambrian (600-510 Million years ago), then cover the nature of the developmental inventions that have been revealed over the past decade or so by comparative developmental biology and what we know of the construction of ecological interactions that facilitated the Cambrian radiation.

Suggested Reading:

Marshall, C.R. (2006) Explaining the Cambrian “Explosion” of Animals. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2006 355-384. (.pdf)

Erwin, D. H. and E. H. Davidson.  2002. The last common bilaterian ancestor. Development 129: 3021-3032 (.pdf)

Erwin, D. H. 2005. The Origin of Animal Bodyplans. Form and Function. Essays in Honor of Adolf Seilacher, ed by D. E. G. Briggs, Yale Peabody Museum. 67-80. (.pdf)

Dr. Erwin's Hosts: Oleg Semenov, Brian Stinar & Xichun (Tracy) Cui

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The expansionist ape: Human life history from a comparative perspective

Dr. Rob Walker
Professor of Primate Socio-ecology
Max Planck Institute

Lecture Abstract: Hunter- gatherers successfully colonized nearly all of the world's habitats long before the agricultural revolution and moved to the very top of the food hierarchy in every environment. The nature and success of human expansions are likely closely tied with the evolution of the human life history. A large, long- lived mammal with a big brain that reproduces at a fast rate is a formidable combination. My focus is trying to understand how the suite of traits that we call the modern human life history came into being, how they relate to those of our primate cousins, and how variation within these traits relates to particular socioecologies. Situating human life history traits against a backdrop of variation in other primates highlights the evolution of several derived human traits, namely extremely slow body growth, delayed reproduction, and "stacking" of multiple dependent offspring. In addition, recently- compiled data suggest several interesting patterns involving the force of mortality on human life- history variation. Across hunter- gatherer societies, higher mortality associates with population density, faster growth, earlier reproduction, and smaller adult size. Comparative analyses across species and within humans help expose how general underlying first principles of energetic allocation drive the origin and maintenance of human life- history variation.

Suggested Reading:

Walker, R. S. and M. J. Hamilton (2008) Life history consequences of density dependence in the evolution of human body sizes. Current Anthropology report 49:115-122. (.pdf)

Please visit Dr. Walker's Webpage for further readings (click)

Dr. Walker's Host: Helen Davis, Vamsi Potlure & Mark Flynn

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Evolutionary Construction

Dr. Jessica Flack
Research Fellow
Evolutionary Construction
Santa Fe Institute

Lecture Abstract:

In this talk I argue for a more mechanistic evolutionary biology. I suggest that identification of general mechanistic principles is critical in social and cultural systems where mechanistic complexity is substantial. In particular, what is often missing from models of cultural and social evolution is consideration of how structure is built and how construction principles influence 'solution' accessibility. I will illustrate these points by discussing construction mechanisms underlying the emergence of hierarchy in biological and social systems using the evolution of power structures in animal and human societies as a 'model problem'. Topics to be (briefly) covered include principled choice of aggregate level variables and mechanisms leading to a separation of time-scales, robustness, and feed-down causality.

Suggested Reading:

Flack, J.C.; Girvan, M.; deWaal, F.B.M.; and D.C.Krakauer (2006) Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates. Nature. 439: 426-429 (.pdf)

Flack, J. C. and D. C. Krakauer (2006) Encoding Power in Communication Networks. The American Naturalist. 1 6 8 (3): E87-E102. (.pdf)

Flack, J. C.; de Waal, F. B. M.; and D. C. Krakauer (2005) Social Structure, Robustness, and Policing Cost in a Cognitively Sophisticated Species. 1 6 5 (5): E00-E000 (.pdf)

Boehm, C. and J.C. Flack (In Submission : please do not cite or circulate without permission) Power: Insights from Evolutionary Biology, Primates & Other Animals. (.pdf)

Dr. Flack's Hosts: Ziya Kalay, Michael Baca & Paul Hooper

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The Aerodynamic and Neurophysiological Mechanisms of
Animal Flight through the Lens of Evolution

Dr. Douglas Altshuler, (email)
Assistant Professor of Biology
University of California Riverside

Lecture Abstract: One of the most remarkable adaptations in animals is the ability to fly. Birds, bats and insects are among the most successful of terrestrial organisms, and their colonization of diverse habitats and ecological roles provides a rich context for studies of animal behavior and ecology. The study of how animals fly is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field that involves aspects of aerodynamics, physiology, and neuroscience. Although most flight research concerns either mechanisms or ecological interactions, flight behavior provides a powerful yet experimentally tractable system with which to merge reductionist and comparative approaches to understand how complex locomotion is accomplished, and how variation in locomotor performance influences higher- order behaviors. I aim to integrate approaches ranging from laboratory experiments to evolutionary comparisons because understanding the mechanisms of flight control also requires understanding the historical forces that have shaped it. Conversely, to evaluate the mechanisms by which ecological changes result in biological adaptations requires a well- described system that can be studied in different environments.

Suggested Reading:

Altshuler, D. L., Dudley, R. and McGuire, J. A. (2004). Resolution of a paradox: Hummingbird flight at high elevation does not come without a cost. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101, 17731- 17736. (.pdf)

Altshuler, D. L. (2006). Flight performance and competitive displacement of hummingbirds across elevational gradients. American Naturalist 167, 216- 229. (.pdf)

Dr. Altshuler's Host: Matthew Fricke & Sobhita Meher

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Patterns in Biology

Dr. Jayanth Banavar
Professor of Physics
Pennsylvania State University

Physics is a discipline that has had many successes in the development offrameworks for unifying and understanding seemingly disparate phenomena.The lecture will discuss simple examples of how physics-based ideas can beused to understand patterns in molecular biology and macro-ecology.

Suggested Reading:

Banavar, J.R., Damuth, J., Maritan. A., and Andrea Rinaldo (2002) Supply–demand balance and metabolic scaling. PNAS. 99(16): 10506 –10509 (.pdf)

Volkov, I.; Banavar, J.R.; Hubbell, S.P.; and Amos Maritan (2007). Patterns of relative species abundance in rainforests and coral reefs. Nature. 450: 45-49 (.pdf)

Banavar, J.R. and Amos Maritan. (2007) Physics of Proteins. Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct. 36:261-280. (.pdf)

Dr. Banavar's Hosts: Jordan Okie & Wenyun Zuo

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