CAREER: Evolutionary Community Ecology in Plethodon Salamanders

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This work supports an integrated research and education effort that aims to 1) better understand how communities of organisms are organized from both an ecological and evolutionary perspective, and 2) train undergraduate and graduate students in quantitative methods used to examine morphological variation in communities and methods for assessing community organization. The major research goals of this project are to understand the organization of ecological communities, the importance of species interactions in those communities, and to examine the evolutionary consequences of species interactions on morphological traits in Plethodon salamanders. The education component focuses on better integration of research in education, through several mechanisms: 1) ongoing research projects provide data examples for educational exercises in the classroom to help to establish ties between research and education, 2) undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students will be directly involved in laboratory research, 3) further development and participation in an educational exchange will strengthen the connections between a major R-1 institution and an undergraduate college, 4) continued training of visiting faculty and students in my laboratory during mini-sabbaticals, 5) educational outreach through teaching at International Geometric Morphometrics Workshops. Finally, hosting a Geometric Morphometrics Workshop at Iowa State University will provide US researchers in-depth training in these approaches.