ASU News - Life Science

Professor earns national ecology award

mcoulomb — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:38:31 -0600

The Ecological Society of America has chosen Professor Stuart Fisher to receive the Eugene P. Odum Education Award for 2008. This award recognizes extraordinary individuals for “outstanding work in ecology education, teaching, outreach and mentoring activities.”

Fisher, a researcher in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, studies the relationship between ecosystem structure and function using stream ecosystems as a model. He’s published more than 100 articles, 95% of which were co-authored with his graduate students, largely based on research at Sycamore Creek, a desert stream ecosystem near Phoenix. Fisher was also one of the authors of the highly collaborative report created by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), which was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore, in 2007.

Fisher’s impact has, according to the Ecological Society, been particularly profound in teaching and mentoring. Renowned for his, as one graduate put it, “legendary” classes, Fisher’s “real-life and hands-on approaches in training future scientists” have empowered scores of undergraduate and graduate students. The Odum Award dedication cites his contributions thus: Fisher’s “attitude of lifelong learning and his dedicated, absorptive mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students has inspired and fledged some of the most eminent ecosystem ecologists in the field.”

Fisher’s intellectual progeny include luminaries in ecological and biodiversity sciences, such as National Academy of Sciences’ members Steve Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin and Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, both of whom were undergraduate honors students with Fisher at Amherst College.

Carpenter, deemed by the Institute for Scientific Information as “one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in environmental science,” notes of Fisher: “Stuart is a gifted teacher who has had an extraordinary influence on ecosystem ecology through his role as a mentor. He is unusually creative in mentoring, and therefore exceptionally good at evoking creativity in others.”

“Stuart is strongly motivated by the joy of seeing students make new discoveries and sets a great example for the rest of us who mentor students,” Carpenter adds.

Mentoring skills, by and large, in the scientific community have traditionally lacked support through any formal training programs, relying on informal, sometimes uneven and potentially inadequate apprenticeship-style practices. More recently, programs like Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) supported by the National Science Foundation and formal mentoring classes, such as those created by the National Academies and other scientific institutions and universities, have offered additional training options.

Strong mentoring, interdisciplinarity, and hands-on instruction have been signatures of a Fisher classroom since he started his teaching career in the 1970’s and features that he’s built upon and passed along as he’s expanded educational opportunities and mentoring for students in urban ecology in Arizona. Fisher and his colleagues will have received more than $5.9 million by 2010 for the development and implementation of an IGERT program in urban ecology at ASU. The focus of this program has been the establishment of cross-disciplinary collaborative training models for graduate students that foster an innovative educational culture that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and limitations.

Arizona State’s research and publication efforts have landed the university in the sixth spot in Thomson Scientific’s U.S. University’s Top 10 for impact in ecology and environmental sciences. Rob Page, Founding Director of the School of Life Sciences, believes that the university’s success is due to “extraordinary faculty and research,” but also its signature cross-disciplinary research programs and approaches.

An environment of intellectual cross pollination and unbounded possibilities has been central to Fisher’s approach to science and teaching.

“The field of ecosystem ecology is collaborative as a rule. Because of this collective approach, I am preadapted to the role of mentor, though all of those in my group share responsibility for exchange of ideas, teaching, learning and professional development,” Fisher says. “My greatest professional joys have always involved graduate students. They are young, able, energetic, resourceful, open minded and not hemmed in by disciplinary paradigms,” Fisher states. “Mentoring isn’t for everyone, but for those who are motivated by the joys of discovery more than the joys of reaping credit for it, working with graduate students is a most rewarding path.”

Fisher has been a member of the Ecological Society of America for more than 30 years. He is one of eight exceptional scientists who will be honored at the 93rd societal meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August. Founded in 1915, the society is a scientific, non-profit, 10,000-member organization with four peer-reviewed journals: Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs, and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Student presents work on meningitis vaccination program

lccampb — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:52:43 -0600

Arizona State University undergraduate Rebecca Raub was one of just a handful of students to present their work at the 2008 American College Health Association’s annual meeting June 3-7 in Orlando, Fla.

Raub discussed ASU’s meningitis vaccination program during a talk entitled, “Collaboration with a Student Group on a Voluntary Meningitis Vaccination Program.”

“Her presentation really stimulated interest in what a student group that is committed to campus health could accomplish. Of the 235 faculty presenters at the meeting, Rebecca was one of only 14 students chosen to present their work,” says Dr. Allan Markus, Director of the ASU Campus Health Service and Raub’s co-presenter.

The importance of vaccinations in the battle against meningitis was brought to the attention of ASU students last year through the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee. The committee helped to raise awareness of meningitis vaccinations, assisted in the development of forms to track data and increased the percentage of vaccinations given by the ASU Campus Health Service by more than 60 percent. Raub is chair-emeritus of the committee.

“I couldn't be more proud of the success of our meningitis vaccination program this year. All the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee members and volunteers made a huge impact on our vaccination rate,” Raub says.

An article entitled, “Improving Vaccination Rates in States and Universities without Mandatory Vaccination Policies,” written by Markus and Raub was published this spring in the national American College Health Association newsletter.

Raub is going into her junior year at Arizona State University in the fall. She is currently majoring in molecular biosciences and will pursue a career in medicine after she graduates.

The incoming president of the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee group, Jelena Peric, also attended the meeting and will coordinate this year’s efforts on improving health and counseling care for ASU students.

Award-winning anatomist inspires learning

mcoulomb — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:08:00 -0600

“What do hippopotami and medical students have in common?”

Rebecca Fisher makes you want to ask questions. Not just about why there is the huge hippo skull on her desk or what the stuffed raccoon-like creature above her keyboard is, but deeper queries about species evolution and how one short career can span the study of large semi-aquatic animals closely related to whales (yes, whales) to empowering future physicians.

Fisher is an assistant professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and the department of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University.

It is Fisher’s out-of-the box scholarship, as well as her creative course development and teaching of anatomy, which garnered her the coveted Basmajian Award from the American Association of Anatomists; an award that recognizes exceptional health science faculty who are in the formative stages of their career.

Fisher teaches two anatomy courses at the College of Medicine-Phoenix. According to her, most medical school anatomy courses are fairly encyclopedic, presenting “a lot of detail without necessarily a lot of clinical correlations.” In addition, the hours dedicated to anatomy courses have declined dramatically in recent years. So when offered the challenge of developing her own anatomy course for first-year medical students, Fisher took a fresh approach. She rooted her class entirely in clinical practice, rejected the traditional stand-alone lectures, and decided to hold all sessions in the lab.

“When I was designing this course I asked, ‘is this relevant to the practice of medicine or laying the foundation for the practice of medicine?’ Fisher also considered where she had learned best and what she had enjoyed most when she took anatomy classes as a graduate student at Yale.

“Anatomy lectures are good for learning terminology, but the light bulb never really goes on until you go into the lab,” she says.

So Fisher’s course is entirely based in the lab, with plasma screens next to the cadaver tables: “The idea was when they were learning about the anatomy, they could look at the cadaver, real time. There wasn’t that delay between the lecture and the lab setting.”

Fisher describes her mixed modality lab-based teaching as “a guided tour in the lab.”

“We often had little exercises, where I would ask, ‘if your patient has X- clinical condition, which procedure would you recommend? Simulate that on the cadaver.’ They’d argue amongst themselves, give me an explanation, a foundation for a procedure and doing it a certain way,” says Fisher. “They could see; this is why I’m learning anatomy and basic science and why it is relevant.”

It was this hands-on, clinically oriented, entirely lab-based study that grabbed the attention of the Basmajian Award committee, along with her incorporation of active and retired clinicians in the labs. Fisher invited specialists who were tied to whatever body region she and her students were studying, so students could then ask an experienced practitioner questions pertinent to that body region.

Fisher’s colleague, Kenro Kusumi, who co-teaches a musculo-skeletal class with her, believes that "true to the spirit of creating a new medical campus in Phoenix, Rebecca has created a dynamic and interactive clinical anatomy course lauded by the inaugural class of medical students and faculty who had the pleasure of participating or observing the class."

Agreeing is Stuart Flynn, associate dean of academic affairs and professor at the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with ASU.

“Fisher’s work is truly pioneering and sets an example for others to follow,” says Flynn.

Fisher’s research has also captured attention in other ways. Some of the special delivery packages Fisher receives border on the macabre; gory, but highly instructive remnants of carnivores and artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates, like deer) that died of natural causes in zoos. She dissects out, literally, answers to evolutionary puzzles haunting their history and relationships within the mammalian family tree.

Fisher examines modern mammals’ muscles and constructs maps that document their attachments to bones. She then compares these modern muscle maps to correlates in fossil species. She has worked up muscle maps for common and pygmy hippos, sun bears, red pandas (a carnivore that is an herbivore, with a pseudo-thumb, but unrelated to giant pandas), and binturongs (a carnivore with a prehensile tail).

What seems like a strange assortment of unrelated mammalian species with enigmatic evolutionary histories do in fact have connectivity for Fisher:

“Not many people work on such disparate groups of mammals, but to me they seem very similar, in terms of the hypothesis and the theoretical framework of the question. I like working on animals with unresolved phylogenies,” Fisher notes. “I also enjoy working on functional anatomy, particularly adaptations to different behaviors as reflected in the musculoskeletal system. That is the common thread.”

Hippos have been a passion since she was a graduate student studying primate anatomy. She worked with Andrew P. Hill, a professor of anthropology at Yale, and curator of anthropology in the Peabody Museum. On their first field trip to Kenya, she discovered not only a passion to do field work, but was also unexpectedly drawn to hippos and the questions that surround their prehistory.

“I still remember my first night at camp and seeing my first hippopotamus. Common hippos are huge, fascinating looking creatures, like a sausage with legs. We’d camp by a lake and in the evening, they’d come up onto the land and feed at dusk and on into the night.

“I started picking up hippo fossils when we’d go out, prospecting for them while everyone else looked for primates,” Fisher muses. “I guess what struck me most was how understudied hippos are. Sure, they are in zoos and popular with the public. However, in terms of their anatomy and their evolution, there wasn’t a lot of research going on.”

She adds, “That was a very exciting thought as a graduate student.” Fisher makes hippos seem convincingly attractive. Semi-aquatic sausages with legs they might be, but by some accounts they also kill more people than any other mammal in Africa, are related to ancient whales, and lack sweat glands, Hippos also are a keystone species, which means that while they are fascinating and peculiar creatures, they are also crucial to the sustainability of their environments.

“Hippos create their own little ecosystems,” she notes. “And they poop a lot.”

What National Geographic correspondent and scientist Brady Barr termed their “explosive fecal discharge” provides a food source for a plethora of species. There are also different types of birds and fish that feed off the parasites of hippos and clean their wounds. “Without hippos, lakes become stagnant. The food source is gone,” Fisher notes.

Hippos are also instrumental in the physical movement of lake and riverbed sediments and establishing healthy aquatic water systems, according to Fisher. “I had never thought about how these large mammals affected their environments in these fundamental ways.”

It was her move to the College of Medicine-Phoenix in 2006 that allowed Fisher to bring all of her passions together and maximize her own footprint, from hippos and basic research in evolution, to mentoring ASU undergraduates, to teaching anatomy to medical students.

“I realized early on in graduate school that I really wanted to teach med students; that I wanted to make a contribution that was palpable, not esoteric. Training people to save lives is very rewarding to me. But it can be hard to fit in at most biomedical institutions with my other interests in mammals.”

Being associated with a new college is “really exciting,” Fisher says.

Some 31 faculty members form the backbone of the College of Medicine-Phoenix. Fisher is one of 10 from ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; seven of whom have appointments in ASU’s School of Life Sciences. Fisher is also a research associate in the Division of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

As an anthropology undergraduate, turned paleoanthropology doctoral student, turned functional anatomy post-doctoral fellow and finally, assistant professor of anatomy, Fisher offers this advice to students who are trying to find their path: “The number one thing is discovering what gets you excited. Be a sponge and try as many different disciplines as possible.”

New study reveals image makes the bird

cderra — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:53:40 -0600

In the world of birds, where fancy can be as fleeting as flight, the color of the bird apparently has a profound effect on more than just its image. A new study of barn swallows reveals it also affects the bird’s physiology.

A team of researchers, including one from Arizona State University, found in an experiment that involved artificially coloring the breast feathers of male barn swallows the testosterone levels of the manipulated birds soared in a short period of time. The jump in testosterone, recorded after one week, was unexpected because it was observed at the time in the breeding cycle when levels of sex steroids like testosterone are typically declining.

“The traditional view is that internal processes of birds determine their external features -- in other words, physiology forms the feathers,” said Kevin McGraw, an assistant professor at ASU’s School of Life Sciences. “But our results indicate that a perceived change in the color of an animal can directly affect its internal physiological state. A barn swallow’s hormonal profile is influenced by its outward appearance.”

The researchers reported their findings in the June 3 issue of Current Biology in the article “Sexual signal exaggeration affects the physiological state in a social vertebrate.” Authors, in addition to McGraw, are Rebecca Safran of the University of Colorado, Boulder and James Adelman and Michaela Hau of Princeton University. This group has been studying the coloration and behaviors of barn swallows for several years.

“The experimental manipulation didn’t just improve the males’ looks in the eyes of the females, it actually changed their body chemistry,” said lead author Safran.

“The speed with which the internal qualities of the bird were affected by the plumage color manipulation was surprising to me,” added McGraw. This suggests a dynamic system, he added, one that “speaks to the complexity of sexual signaling systems and the way people should think about how phenotype interacts with physiology.”

The new study is the first to show significant feedback between physical appearance and physiology in birds, and has implications for better understanding the ecology and evolution of physical signals such as feather color, the researchers said.

In the animal world, sexual signals by males -- from the antlers of elk to the gaudy tail feathers of peacocks -- have evolved to convey honest, accurate information about the animal, McGraw said. Evolutionary biologists believe the top males in a population can afford the physiological costs of expressing the most exaggerated forms of sexual signals, like a conspicuous dark feather color that is either biochemically costly to produce or makes those individuals more susceptible to predators, he said.

The new study has evolutionary implications for North American barn swallows since their breast colors are used to convey status, health and the ability to successfully raise young. A 2005 study by this same group, published in Science, showed male barn swallows that were “made over” with darker breast colors bred earlier in the season and fathered more young, and the females that chose them cheated less often with other male suitors.

In the new study, the researchers captured 63 male barn swallows from six colonies in New Jersey at the start of the breeding season as the birds arrived and started forming pairs. The breasts of roughly half the birds were colored with a non-toxic marker to match the darkest, most attractive feathers of males within the population.

The marked birds were released back into the wild, re-captured a week later and administered blood tests to measure androgen levels, including testosterone. In addition to showing increased levels of androgens, the marked birds also lost weight, perhaps because they were more active than their “duller” neighbors, or simply couldn’t measure up to the expectations of other barn swallows because of their “counterfeit” sexual signals, the researchers said.

“Increased testosterone levels are often associated with increased rates of activity and competition in animals, which might be why darkened birds lost body mass,” McGraw said. “If there were social responses to the color changes we made to birds, they could come from either males or females. Whether colored males looked meaner to rivals or had increased self-esteem by looking fancier to females, we just don’t know.”

But from the studies the team has done, a clearer picture is emerging.

“These studies cumulatively show that colors are revealing of the bird’s individual qualities,” McGraw said. “We previously found that the darker guys were more fit, by fathering more offspring, but still didn’t know what made a good, dark male. Here it suggests that testosterone and its associated behaviors are closely linked to a male’s color and fitness.”

“Since the ‘currency’ of evolution is successfully raised offspring, the message from our work is that darker males, at least in North American populations of barn swallows, are favored over duller ones,” Safran added. “The fact that darker males have naturally higher testosterone levels might be a clue as to why they are more successful.”

The researchers now want to turn their attention to why the physiological changes in the male barn swallow happened so rapidly.

Ranking touts ASU's impact in ecology research

mcoulomb — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:11:08 -0600

ASU's research and publication efforts have landed the university at the sixth spot in Thomson Scientific’s U.S. University’s Top 10 for ecology and environmental sciences.

The rankings, developed for 21 subject areas, were derived from an examination of 9,200 publications (from 2001-2005) associated with the Thomson’s University Science Indicators database. The top scores were held by University of California, Santa Barbara; Stanford University; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Harvard University and University of Washington.

"This honor reflects the breadth of ASU in ecology and environmental sciences, spanning microbial to social groups, marine to landscape and urban; and, with recent hires, has become one of the very best in behavioral ecology," says Professor Rob Page, founding director of the School of Life Sciences.

Page believes it is ASU’s signature interdisciplinarity, as well as research excellence in these areas, that led to ASU being ranked. There is plenty of evidence to support this opinion. For example, the School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has 101 researchers, 250 graduate students, more than 832 publications since 2001, and topped ASU’s charts for research expenditures for academic units in 2007.

Life sciences researchers study a diverse array of subjects and systems, from philosophy of sciences to transmission of disease. While their academic homes are in the School of Life Sciences, many of these scientists are also leaders or collaborators in ASU’s research centers and institutes, including the Global Institute of Sustainability, Biodesign Institute at ASU, Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, International Institute for Species Exploration, and Center for Biology and Society.

A recent example of the multi-faceted environmental sciences resources being created at ASU is the “ecoSERVICES ASU” group in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Under the leadership of life sciences professors Ann Kinzig and Charles Perrings, this group “studies the causes and consequences of change in ecosystem services – the benefits that people derive from the biophysical environment – and analyzes biodiversity change in terms of its impacts on the things that people care about.” EcoSERVICES ASU hosts Diversitas, an international program that meshes with another international initiative around the science of biodiversity and ecosystem change, the International Mechanism for Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMOSEB), supported by International Council for Science (ICSU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The breadth of ASU’s expertise in ecology and environmental sciences creates a big footprint. Big enough to top the charts. It spans the boundaries of schools, centers, and institutes, and collaborative focus, running the gamut from urban to ant studies, environmental engineering, water resources, sustainability, nutrient cycling, and everything fish, fowl, microbial, and ecosystems in between.

Since 1966, ASU researchers have published more than 44,644 total publications; 31,858 articles in peer-reviewed journals, according to the Thomson’s “ISI Web of Knowledge” tool. Interestingly, the top two highly cited papers at ASU to date are held by Sudhir Kumar, director of the Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics and professor in the School of Life Sciences, for two publications in molecular evolutionary genetics. Thomson’s database tool is not inclusive of all publications and journals of significance, still it provides an indicator, in these 21 fields, of the impact of an institution’s research enterprise. Some of ISI’s highly cited researchers within the subject category include ASU professors Nancy Grimm, James Collins, James Elser, Jingle Wu, Michael Rosenberg, and Phil Hedrick, for his work in conservation genetics.

This national ranking illustrates the long standing success and impact of our life sciences research enterprise at ASU and arises directly as a result of attracting outstanding faculty in our ecological, evolutionary, and environmental sciences,” says Sid Bacon, dean of natural sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Scientists announce top 10 new species

chughes3 — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:32:06 -0600

Shocking pink millipede, 75-million-year-old dinosaur and ‘Michelin Man™’ plant make the list

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists – scientists responsible for species exploration and classification – unveiled May 23 the world's top 10 new species described in 2007.

On the list are an ornate sleeper ray, with a name that sucks: Electrolux; a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur; a shocking pink millipede; a rare, off-the-shelf frog; one of the most venomous snakes in the world; a fruit bat; a mushroom; a jellyfish named after its victim; a life-imitates-art “Dim” rhinoceros beetle; and the “Michelin Man™” plant.

The taxonomists are also issuing a SOS – State of Observed Species report card on human knowledge of Earth’s species. In it, they report that 16,969 species new to science were discovered and described in 2006. The SOS report was compiled by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the International Plant Names Index, and Thompson Scientific, publisher of Zoological Record.

Photos and other information on the top 10 and the SOS report are online at species.asu.edu.

Among the top 10 picks is an ornate sleeper ray – Electrolux addisoni – whose name reflects “the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray” from the east coast of South Africa that “may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets.”

Also on the list is a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur – Gryposaurus monumentensis – discovered in southern Utah by a team from Alf Museum, a California-based paleontology museum on a high school campus.

From the plant kingdom is the “Michelin Man™” plant – Tecticornia bibenda – a succulent plant in Western Australia that resembles the Michelin® tire man.

And, in the category of life imitating art is a “Dim” rhinoceros beetle – Megaceras briansaltini – which, according to the author, looks like the Dim character from the Disney film “A Bug’s Life.”

“The international committee of taxon experts who made the selection of the top 10 from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2007 is helping draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens in a fun-filled way,” says Professor Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration.

“We live in an exciting time. A new generation of tools are coming online that will vastly accelerate the rate at which we are able to discover and describe species,” says Wheeler. “Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. In 2006, for example, an average of nearly 50 species per day were discovered and named.

“We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted. Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life and is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet,” Wheeler says.

Today’s announcements fall on the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. The 300th anniversary of his birth on May 23 was celebrated worldwide in 2007 and this year marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of animal naming.

The majority of the 16,969 species described (named) in 2006 were invertebrate animals and vascular plants, which according to the SOS report is consistent with recent years and reflects, in part, “our profound ignorance of many of the most species-rich taxa inhabiting the planet.”

There are about 1.8 million species that have been described since Linnaeus initiated the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century. Scientists estimate there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million.

According to the authors of the SOS report: “There are many reasons that scientists explore Earth’s species: to discover and document the results of evolutionary history; to learn the species that comprise the ecosystems upon which life on our planet depends; to establish baseline knowledge of the planet’s species and their distribution so that non-native pests and vectors of disease may be detected; to inform and enable conservation biology and resource management.

“Perhaps most compelling is curiosity about the diversity of life analogous to our quest to map the stars of the Milky Way and the contours of the ocean floor.”

The State of Observed Species report will be issued annually on May 23 by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration, along with the top 10 new species from the previous year.

Another element of the institute’s public awareness campaign is the co-production of a humorous video on biodiversity titled “Planet Bob,” launched on YouTube last October. The video, produced with Media Alchemy of Seattle, combines live action, state-of-the-art animation, and the vocal talents of venerable TV host Hugh Downs and others.

“The Web site www.PlanetBob.asu.edu and the video ‘Planet Bob’ represent new ways to present taxonomy and biodiversity, in a creative fusion between academia and popular technology,” says Wheeler, who also is ASU vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The International Institute for Species Exploration was created to advance the emerging field of cybertaxonomy in partnership with leading natural history collections, engineer new cyber tools, and educate and inspire the next generation of species explorers.

An international committee of experts, chaired by Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut, selected the top 10 new species for this year’s list. Nominations were invited through the species.asu.edu Web site and generated by institute staff and committee members themselves.

The Caira Committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria from unique attributes of or surprising facts about the species to peculiar names. Committee members included Daphne Fautin, University of Kansas; Mary Liz Jameson, University of Nebraska; Niels Kristensen, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; James Macklin, Harvard University; John Noyes, Natural History Museum, London; Alan Paton, International Plant Names Index, Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, U.K.; Andrew Polaszek, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, London; Adam Slipinski, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia; Gideon Smith, South African National Biodiversity Institute; Antonio Valdecasas. Museo National Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain; and Zhi-Qiang Zhang, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, New Zealand.

Webby Awards cite 'Planet Bob' as ‘Official Honoree’

chughes3 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:49:42 -0600

The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for the Web, cited “Planet Bob” as an Official Honoree, a distinction that recognizes work exhibiting remarkable achievement. “Planet Bob,” a joint video production from Arizona State University’s International Institute for Species Exploration and Media Alchemy, Inc., uses humor to draw attention to the serious subject of biodiversity and the science of taxonomy. Combining live action, state-of-the-art animation, and the vocal talents of venerable TV host Hugh Downs and others, “Planet Bob” presents the mysterious, exciting – and surprisingly funny – side of taxonomy.

Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile Web sites.

"The Webby Awards honors the outstanding work that is setting the standards for the Internet," said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. "The Official Honoree selection for ’Planet Bob’ is a testament to the skill, ingenuity and vision of its creators.”

“The ‘Planet Bob’ video was a great team effort between ASU and Media Alchemy,” said Erik Holsinger, executive producer and president of Media Alchemy. “Dean Quentin Wheeler gave us a wonderful opportunity to use comedy to effectively explore both a very serious environmental issue and a complex science.”

“The Web site www.PlanetBob.asu.edu and the video ‘Planet Bob’ represent new ways to present taxonomy and biodiversity, in a creative fusion between academia and popular technology,” said Wheeler, ASU vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Professor Wheeler also is the founding director for the International Institute for Species Exploration (species.asu.edu).

The 12th annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from more than 60 countries and all 50 states. Out of the more than the 10,000 entries submitted, fewer than 15 percent received this honor and were deemed an Official Honoree. The awards are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a global organization that includes David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, Vinton Cerf and RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser.

Researchers view microorganisms from space

lccampb — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:43:44 -0600

What is the smallest thing you can see from space? From a standard shuttle orbit of 217 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, it is suggested that you can see the Great Wall of China. With the aid of binoculars, you can also see clearly the pyramids of Giza, large ships and even major roads. However, these are very large structures, on the order of tens or hundreds of meters in size. But what if you could spy on something only a few millionths of a meter (microns) across from space? Seem far-fetched? Scientists studying phytoplankton in the oceans have discovered that they can in fact see objects this small using satellites. Of course they can’t see just a single individual, but when enough of these tiny unicellular organisms come together in the ocean, they become visible from space.

The reason phytoplankton are easier to see than the Great Wall of China is because they photosynthesize. By absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting others, the photosynthetic pigments in these micro-organisms produce distinctive colors. Large numbers of phytoplankton (a thimble of water can contain tens or even hundreds of thousands of individuals) floating together in the ocean change the color of the light that reflects back into space. It is this change in color that is visible to specially designed satellite sensors passing high above the Earth.

Susanne Neuer’s lab in the School of Life Sciences uses satellite imagery to support research projects aimed at increasing understanding of phytoplankton ecology and how it affects primary production and carbon flux in the ocean. Primary production, as the ultimate source of organic carbon for marine organisms, is an essential component of all marine ecosystems. Carbon fixation, which occurs during photosynthesis, is also a significant part of the carbon pump, the means by which chemical and biological processes remove anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. Increasing knowledge of how primary production and carbon flux occur may well be critical to developing a strategy for sustainable use of the oceans and aid in understanding of global warming. Given the geographic scale of the problem, one can begin to appreciate why images of thousands of square kilometers of ocean showing billions of microscopic phytoplankton become useful.

One of the key satellites used for measuring ocean primary production from space is SeaWifs (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor), which was launched in September 1997. Images from SeaWifs, along with images captured by the more recent MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors, are processed by scientists all over the world. In the Neuer lab, researchers combine information gleaned from these satellite images with field data taken directly from the ocean to develop an integrated view of phytoplankton ecology. These researchers are now adapting this process to include micro-organisms in smaller bodies of water, such as the Salt River reservoirs in Arizona.

Given that Roosevelt Lake is only three and a half kilometers across and the other Salt River reservoirs are considerably smaller, adapting MODIS imagery typically used to view ocean basins from space presents a significant challenge. The best spatial resolution of a MODIS image is 250 meters, which means that one pixel of the digital image is equivalent to 250 meters on the Earth’s surface. This means that the surface of each of these lakes represents a limited number of image pixels; because some of these “lake” pixels are also contaminated by land, there are only very few from which useful data can be extracted. If these resolution limitations were not enough of a problem, the two 250 meter sensors in the MODIS instrument only see in the red and near infrared wavelengths, which are not the wavelengths normally used for ocean color analysis. However, despite these logistical challenges, these space-borne images can still be used to get a feel for what is happening in the lakes. These data become even more useful when combined with an analysis of field samples viewed under a microscope.

Neuer lab researchers are using epifluorescence microscopy, light microscopy and genetic analysis techniques to obtain a detailed view of our local freshwater algae. Field sampling of Lake Roosevelt and Saguaro Lake shows the lakes harbor diverse communities of algae that vary both within and between the lakes. Some of these phytoplankton groups, such as the diatoms Astrionella and Fragilaria, live and grow as individuals. Other species, including the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena and the colonial green alga Scenesdmus, thrive when individuals come together to create communal organisms. Regardless of their life histories and diverse geometric forms, collectively these primary producers represent an integral part of the food web in the Salt River reservoir system, providing a food source for invertebrates and fish larvae.

Populations of these algae are always present in the water, but when light, temperature and nutrient levels are optimal for growth, their population numbers can explode or “bloom” exponentially. Unfortunately, when these algal blooms occur they can produce toxins and cause unpleasant odors in drinking water. These potential adverse effects on water quality are one reason Neuer’s group wants to understand them in more detail. The National Science Foundation funded Water Quality Center at ASU, which is a working group of researchers, city authorities and other agencies, is supporting this project in order to discover if it is possible to predict the conditions that cause these water quality issues. If a way to predict these algal blooms (in their early stages) can be identified, it may be possible to take proactive measures to protect our water quality.

The growing population of the Phoenix metropolitan area will increase the demand for water in central Arizona. Resource management authorities recognize that the limited water supply stored in our reservoirs is a precious resource. Neuer hopes that by combining views from space with views through the microscope, SOLS can contribute to ongoing efforts to improve water quality in all the reservoirs across Arizona. More significantly, if these experimental monitoring techniques prove to be successful, they have the potential to provide similar benefits to understanding of watersheds across the planet.

Clays hold promise in fight against infections

mcoulomb — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:46:40 -0600

Mud may be coming to a medicine cabinet or pharmacy near you.

Scientists from Arizona State University report that minerals from clay could provide inexpensive, highly-effective antimicrobials to fight methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections that are moving out of health care settings and into the community. These “superbugs” are increasingly resistant to multiple antibiotics and cause thousands of deaths each year.

Unlike conventional antibiotics routinely administered by injection or pills, the so-called “healing clays” could be applied as rub-on creams or ointments to keep MRSA infections from spreading, according to researchers in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The clays also show promise against a wide range of other harmful bacteria, including those that cause skin infections and food poisoning, they add. Their study, one of the first to explore the antimicrobial activity of natural clays in detail, was presented at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

Clays have been used for thousands of years as a remedy for infected wounds, indigestion, and other health problems, either by applying clay to the skin or eating it. Cleopatra’s famed beauty has been credited to her use of clay facials. Today, clays are still commonly used at health spas in the form of facials and mud baths. However, armed with new investigative tools, researchers Shelley Haydel and Lynda Williams are putting the clays to the test, scientifically.

“Clays are little chemical drug-stores in a packet,” says study co-leader Williams, a geochemist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. “They contain literally hundreds of elements. Some of these compounds are beneficial but others aren’t. Our goal is to find out what nature is doing and see if we can find a better way to kill harmful bacteria.”

In their latest study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Williams, Haydel and their colleagues collected more than 20 different clay samples from around the world to investigate their antibacterial activities. Study co-leader Haydel, a microbiologist in ASU’s School of Life Sciences and a researcher in ASU’s Biodesign Institute, tested each of the clays against bacteria known to cause human diseases. These bacteria include MRSA, Mycobacterium ulcerans (a microbe related to the tuberculosis bacterium that causes a flesh-eating disease known as Buruli ulcer), as well as E. coli and Salmonella (which cause food poisoning). The researchers identified at least two clays from the United States that kill or significantly reduce the growth of these bacteria, in addition to the one French green clay that launched their research in 2005. The antibacterial effect of the French clay was documented this year in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, with co-author Christine Remenih.

Identifying what specific compounds make these clays effective antibacterial agents presents a challenge, researchers say, but they credit their combined perspectives, coming as they do from two very different scientific disciplines, for their successes. Haydel and Williams note too that tools like electron and ion microscopy might also reveal how these antibacterial clays may interact with the cell membranes or cellular physiology of the bacteria to kill.

Williams and Haydel continue to test new clay samples from around the world to determine their germ-fighting potential. They hope that the more promising clays will be developed into a skin ointment or pill to fight a variety of bacterial infections or possibly as an agricultural wash to prevent food poisoning. Several companies have expressed interest in forming partnerships to develop the clays as antimicrobial agents, the scientists say.

But ordinary mud can contain dangerous bacteria as well as toxic minerals like arsenic and mercury, the researchers point out. Until healing clays are developed that are scientifically proven, which could take several years, they say that hand washing and other proper hygiene techniques may be the best bet for keeping MRSA and other harmful bacteria at bay.

To hear Williams and Haydel discuss their research, go to ASU School of Life Sciences podcast (#2), Science Studio: sols.asu.edu/podcasts/podcast2007.php

Streams play critical role in preserving coastal zones

mcoulomb — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:18:00 -0600

The plight of the world’s oceans is dire, according to recent studies, through insults from human-derived activities depopulating and damaging reefs, altering coastlines, and creating pollutants, such as nitrogen runoff from terrestrial watersheds.

A study by 31 aquatic biologists involving 72 stream sites in the United States and Puerto Rico has found that one critical buffer to excess nitrogen run off from agricultural and urban areas turns out to be small streams and rivers. The findings are published March 12 in the journal Nature.

“We found that nitrate was filtered from stream water by tiny organisms such as algae, fungi and bacteria,” says Patrick Mulholland, lead author of the study and a member of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Environmental Sciences Division, with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee. “Further, our model showed that the entire stream network is important in removing pollution from stream water.”

The study used a rare nitrogen isotope to examine the effects of nitrogen loading in streams. The researchers analyzed its removal relative to the amount of nitrogen present in the stream overall. The results showed that much of the nitrogen was removed by bacteria, in a process called denitrification that releases harmless nitrogen gas to the atmosphere. However, the study also demonstrated that as nitrate loads increase, the efficiency of removal was reduced.

“Our study shows that nitrogen loading compromises the ability of streams to retain or transform nitrate, a major pollutant that has been associated with lake and stream eutrophication, groundwater pollution, and coastal dead zones,” says Nancy Grimm, an ecologist at Arizona State University who has been involved with the project since the 1980s.

Presently it’s believed that small streams and rivers remove three-quarters of the excess nitrogen contamination before it reaches the oceans by acting as “sinks.” However, the researchers’ findings published in Nature suggest that as land use changes, and shifts to increasing nitrogen loads occur, that this buffering capacity could be overwhelmed. Nitrogen pollution could generate algal blooms, oxygen depletion (dead zones) and death to coral, fish and shellfish in coastal zones.

Grimm believes that the long-term, collaborative nature of the project supporting this study, which has incorporated two separate experiments each conducted in a range of ecosystems, was key to “advancing understanding of stream nitrogen dynamics far beyond what could be accomplished with a single-investigator grant focused on one region.”

As a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, Grimm is no stranger to long-term collaborative efforts. For the last 10 years she has led the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) project centered on the analysis of urban-semi-arid ecosystem relationships. The co-director of CAP-LTER is anthropologist Charles Redman, director of ASU’s School of Sustainability.

With her collaborators, Grimm has established a conceptual basis for including human choice and action in theory of urban ecosystem dynamics. Grimm and her counterparts’ empirical work on biogeochemistry, species distribution and abundance, and designed aquatic ecosystems in cities have revealed that many ecological features are best explained by combinations of social and biophysical drivers. Grimm was also the first to describe nitrogen cycling in desert streams, work that led directly to the long-term collaboration and the experiments described in the Nature article.

The findings published in Nature underscore the critical interplay that exists between human action and ecosystems dynamics and capacity, and emphasizes “the management imperative of controlling nitrogen loading to streams and protecting or restoring stream ecosystems to maintain or enhance their nitrogen removal functions.”

Along with Mulholland and Grimm, other collaborators on this study include scientists from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories, University of Georgia, Athens; Eco-Metrics; University of Wyoming, Laramie; Michigan State University; University of Notre Dame; Oregon State University; University of New Mexico; Kansas State University; Institute of Ecosystem Studies; U.S. Forest Service; University of New Hampshire; Virginia Tech; and Ball State University.