I am excited to announce that I have recently been given the rank of Shodan (1st degree black belt) in the art of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, by David Shaner Sensei, Erik Harrell Sensei, and Mark Stone Sensei.
I would like to thank Case Sensei, Tarry Sensei, Clifford Sensei, McGrath Sensei, and Parsons Sensei at Raleigh Ki Aikido for their hard work in preparing me for this test, as well as to the many people who attended and tested with me!
Response of bluebunch wheatgrass to invasion: differences in competitive ability among invader‐experienced and naïve populations.
Gibson, Nelson & Atwater
I am very excited to have been a part of this publication, in which Alexis Gibson, once a fellow graduate student with me at the University of Montana, investigated evidence of evolutionary responses of bluebuch wheatgrass plants to invasion. Her findings contribute to a growing body of research showcasing the enormous potential for native plants to evolve changes in competitive ability in response to invasion.
This past week I had the great pleasure of attending the 4th annual Andina workshop in Bariloche, Argentina, organized by Mariana Chiuffo (Inibioma Conicet), Roger Cousens (U. Melbourne), Kay Hodgins (Monash U.), Ingolf Kuhn (UFZ, Halle), Brendon Larsson (U. Waterloo), Martin Nunez (Inibioma Conicet), and Bruce Webber (CSIRO, Perth).
We enjoyed spectacular scenery in the Patagonian Andes while deliberating on the topics of local adaptation and range expansion, particularly in invasive species and those responding to anthropogenic change. In total, 36 researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds attended. I got to know a lot of people, made friends, built collaborations, and am very excited about future directions.
I am extremely excited to announce that I will be joining Earlham College, as an Assistant Professor of Biology, in July 2018. I admire the strength of the Biology Program at Earlham College and its dedication to the education of the next generation of global thinkers, leaders, and citizens, and I am honored to have the opportunity to join the Faculty.
Our recently published paper documenting shifts in the climatic niches of introduced species has been featured in an Editorial published in Nature today. A link to the article can be found here!
Climatic niche shifts are common in introduced plants.
Atwater, Ervine, Barney (link) (pdf)
I am very excited to announce that our paper has just been accepted for publication by Nature: Ecology & Evolution. In it, we show that almost 1000 invasvie plant species occupy much different climates in their introduced range than in their native range.
This finding is significant for several reasons. First, it means that species do not necessarily occupy the same environments everywhere they are found on Earth. Second, it casts doubt on the viability of using information about species’ native-range habitat preferences to predict where they will invade.
However, we found that niche shifts depended upon species growth form, life expectancy, and degree of cultivation, suggesting that ‘niche shifts’ might be predictable.
Particular congratulations go to Carissa Ervine, who contributed to this manuscript as an undergraduate student. She was responsible for assembling the first version of our database of 13 million occurrence records for 1135 species–a major undertaking!