First postdoc manuscript! We conducted a scoping review of waterbird diseases in the US Laurentian Great Lakes, incorporating field-based disease identification, disease history, avian ecology, water quality, and climate change. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133024002168#s0100

Final dissertation chapter is out! Here we use mitogenomes to identify the Illinois plains pocket gopher is monophyletic and genetically distinct from other subspecies across the species complex

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhered/esae035/7710157

Second PhD data chapter on gophers, “Partitioning genetic structure of a subterranean rodent at multiple spatial scales: accounting for isolation by barriers, distance, and environment” of my dissertation out! We explore genetic isolation in the plains pocket gopher across 2 spatial scales. We found scale dependent effects, with rivers acting broadly to impact genetic structure and distance driving local genetic structure.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-024-01878-0

Incredibly happy for this paper to be out- Increasing LGBTQ+ inclusion & competency in wildlife sciences

https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wsb.1511

We approach this through discussing history, legal protections, survival needs, and academic success. Overall, we hope to root efforts in an historic perspective and incorporate survival needs (housing, healthcare, legal protections) into DEI efforts.

@davidjamesweir thanks for the interest! If you message me an e-mail, I can send the viewpoint; it’s an expansion on the “lack of data” section of this preprint: https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/3745/

Not on here much, but we published this viewpoint on lgbtq+ data collection last month! With the increasing anti-trans laws, protecting data and collecting data ethically is important.

#dei #lgbtq #data

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/73/4/258/7066885

@sarae @jaimejcoon we’ve had some incidents where folk were… surprised at the amount of hate (physical violence). A lot of papers we had read hadn’t discussed safety, so we may have overly harped on it. But being able to navigate safety is incredibly useful

@jaimejcoon @sarae definitely agree. That is amazing. During my undergrad (2011 grad) it was right at the deliberation of prop 8 and gay marriage if not trans rights. The youth give me so much hope.

@sarae @jaimejcoon definitely agree with your points! I’ve had visibly queer field techs (including now drag children) where we have had very frank safety discussions and it’s figuring out what works best for the folk and the people. We definitely could have been more nuanced in that point. I definitely can see how “safety” could be used as an excuse to omit women from jobs. Let us know if there’s more we can do, and if we can support better, let us know! We appreciate your points.

@jaimejcoon @sarae completely agreed. This paper won’t fit all fieldwork. I personally would not let any crew do remote work without safety protocols, and a lot of those safety protocols relies on no less than a 2 person team that will meet up with the rest of the crew by the end of the day. But I mostly worked trapping grids. But this is from my fieldwork experience from 2008-2016 including working as crew lead where if someone gets injured, it’s our responsibility/insurance

@jaimejcoon @sarae that’s fair. As someone who’s work has mostly been smammal trapping grids, we’d normally have 2 people/grid at least. We’ve had cougars on site, bull elk, people get yellow jacket stings to the point of needing medical care, leptospirosis hospitalization, people twist an ankle and need to be carried up steep slopes. However the 2 people/site were often women teams.

@jaimejcoon @sarae I think, reflecting on the point, there’s safety precautions that can be implemented for personal travel too. Eg, a white board sign out to know if staff are on/off site. There could be a column for where the person is going, phone number, expected return, so supervisors can be aware if a safety issue arises

@sarae @jaimejcoon but I do agree, if it’s staff leaving for a weekend or for personal travel, it’s not the supervisor’s role to monitor that

@sarae @jaimejcoon hi Sara, this is more in the sense of work mandated travel/fieldwork. For field crew work, I rarely have not worked without a partner, where if injury, incapacitation, or other safety issues arise, I have not been out of radio contact. Although each field project may require unique considerations, ensuring someone is present in case of medical emergencies is necessary in my opinion. If it’s work, it is on a supervisor to dictate safety precautions.

Published in Journal of Applied Ecology: "Best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion during ecological fieldwork: Considering safety, cis/heteronormativity & structural barriers."

Authors include @smammal_bio & Earlham grads Thea Clarkberg, Madeleine Spellman, & Maxine Scherz!
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14339

Happy for this to be out! Here we discuss recommendations for LGBTQ+ inclusion during field work. We include recs at organizational and crew lead/mentor levels. Finally we discuss practices and safety for LGBTQ+ fieldworkers that we have found useful. Shout out to the great co-author team.
#lgbtq #dei #ecology #fieldwork

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14339

Happy for this paper on diversifying syllabi in ecology, evolution, and life sciences is out! It includes example lesson plans, resources, and templates. Huge congrats to the lead author, Tolu, who is not on mastodon
#DiversifySTEM #dei #ecoevo

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9719

@rspfau we’re using msats currently, and working with some mitogenomes for the 3rd chapter (with lots of thanks to you and Greenia). We have ~7 msat loci that worked reasonably well, but also we’re working with a lot of museum specimens. I’m hoping Hauser et al. 2021 On the continued use of msats will help sell it as still informative

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348825465_Waste_not_want_not_microsatellites_remain_an_economical_and_informative_technology_for_conservation_genetics

@rspfau I had a good experience-the editor and reviewers had helpful suggestions and it was a relatively quick process. About a month from acceptance to published online.

I’m excited to read the paper! My next 2 chapters are on gopher genetics so it’ll be nice to integrate some recent work!

Ch1 is out! Here, we test the niche reduction hypothesis using gophers undergoing agricultural intensification. Since the 1950s, gophers have undergone a niche shift as well as a niche reduction.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.9559