NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Smiley Tara M, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Fellow's Name: Tara M. Smiley Proposal Number: 1612002 This award funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Tara M. Smiley is "Ecological interactions and community assembly under climate change: a Cenozoic perspective." The host institution for this fellowship is Oregon State University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Rebecca Terry. This research evaluates the processes underpinning community assembly and persistence during two climate-warming intervals in the geologic past that differed in magnitude, rate, and environmental context. The research results will promote understanding of anthropogenic climate change, because novel climates and non-analog biotic communities will become more common as human activities rapidly change natural environments. The Fellow is examining three aspects of community ecology: 1) turnover of species at the local scale; 2) niche dynamics along body size and resource use gradients;
 and 3) higher-level aggregate properties such as biomass and energy flow within communities and among functional and size classes. This research focuses on small mammals (rodents and lagomorphs) because they are taxonomically and ecologically diverse and are numerically abundant, facilitating community-level analyses in the fossil record. Small mammal communities are also indicators of ecosystem health; therefore understanding baseline ecological response to past climate warming is a priority for forecasting and minimizing biodiversity loss in the future. The Fellow is using the exceptional fossil collections from the John Day, Oregon, and Barstow, California, formations housed at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the University of Washington Burke Museum, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology to answer these questions, and to generate novel ecological datasets via laser-ablation mass spectrometry and high-resolution X-ray computed microtomography (micro CT). The Fellow is receiving training in stable isotope methods, developing niche models, using micro CT methods and datasets, and developing skills for the analytical assessment of community dynamics. To broaden participation in biology, the Fellow is mentoring undergraduate students in the collection of ecological data from museum specimens and developing an inquiry-based module on small-mammal ecology in Oregon to engage young, underserved students in biology and conservation through Oregon State University's Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences program.