CAREER: Evolutionary Community Ecology in Plethodon Salamanders

这项工作支持一个综合的研究和教育工作，旨在1）更好地了解生物群落是如何从生态和进化的角度组织起来的，和2）培训本科生和研究生的定量方法，用于检查社区的形态变化和评估社区组织的方法。 本研究的主要目的是了解生态群落的组织结构、群落中物种间相互作用的重要性以及物种间相互作用对钝口蝾螈形态特征的进化影响。教育部分的重点是通过以下几种机制更好地将研究纳入教育：1）正在进行的研究项目为课堂上的教育练习提供数据示例，以帮助建立研究与教育之间的联系，2）本科生，研究生和博士后学生将直接参与实验室研究，3）进一步发展和参与教育交流将加强主要R-1机构和本科院校之间的联系，4）在我的实验室访问教师和学生的迷你休假期间继续培训，5）通过国际几何形态测量学研讨会的教学进行教育推广。最后，在爱荷华州州立大学举办的几何形态测量学研讨会将为美国研究人员提供这些方法的深入培训。

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.