NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Ecological Costs and Consequences of Artificial Light at Night

Thawley Christopher J, Kingston RI

Investigators

Abstract

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Christopher Thawley, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Jason Kolbe and Bryan Dewsbury at the University of Rhode Island. The fellow's research addresses the impacts of artificial light at night (ALAN) on free-living animals. ALAN has become an important, novel feature of the environment wherever humans live and work, sometimes exceeds natural levels of sunlight, and can affect stress, reproduction, health, and survival of organisms. The fellow is using field and laboratory experiments to investigate the impacts of ALAN on anoles, a type of lizard that lives in natural and urban areas subject to ALAN. Anoles are an excellent model system for this project because previous work has characterized their sleep behavior, ecology, and physiology. The fellow is receiving training in mentoring, inclusive teaching practices, physiological and ecological techniques, and building outreach and research programs. Furthermore, the fellow is mentoring students from underrepresented groups (URM students) in professional development and research, and expanding a citizen science project linked to the ALAN study system, which serves K-12 URM students. The fellow is collaborating with local teachers to design complementary materials for the project and interacting with students to provide experiences to fill gaps in science education that often disproportionately impact URM students. This training and experience will support the fellow in developing an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to evolutionary ecology and an inclusive approach to mentoring and teaching that will allow him to support the future participation and success of science students from a diversity of backgrounds. The research integrates studies of the impacts of ALAN on anoles in real-world, field conditions with lab studies designed to reveal the physiological mechanisms that drive these impacts. Thus, the fellow is quantifying the direct impacts of ALAN on hormones that control stress and daily rhythms, as well as effects on immune function, physical performance, and reproductive timing. In addition, project explores how these mechanisms may impact survival, reproduction, and fitness of anoles and other organisms in the real world, and how organisms may adapt to ALAN. This research will provide insights into how evolutionarily novel, human-induced forms of global change impact organisms and how these organisms respond to that change.