University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB graduate student Susan Cheng was awarded a two-year Graham Doctoral Sustainability Fellowship for 2012 for her proposal, "Can forest carbon sequestration be sustained under climate change? Coupling atmospheric and ecological sciences to inform forest management."  

The project is based at the U-M Biological Station investigating how forest carbon uptake will change as forest communities and atmospheric conditions shift under changing climate. “I will be using NASA's remotely-sensed atmospheric data, UMBS ecosystem-level measurements, and field-collected tree cores to study how light and water limitations influence forest carbon uptake.”

“As a fellow, I'm also hoping to organize a workshop that will bring Michigan foresters, Graham Fellows, and natural and social scientists together to discuss reciprocal needs, transfer knowledge, and inform future forest management.”

Cheng will receive up to $50,000 over two years. Cheng is working with Professor Knute Nadelhoffer, director of UMBS, collaborators from The Ohio State University, and Professor Allison Steiner from U-M's Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science.

The Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute is a collaborative partnership of schools, colleges and units across U-M. The institute fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration to create and disseminate knowledge and to offer solutions related to complex sustainability issues. On a broader scale, the Graham Doctoral Fellowship Program helps to create a community of scholars, wherein the fellows can collaborate, engage, and interact during their doctoral studies and into the future. During the fellows' time on campus, academic associations are cultivated through monthly seminars, annual retreats, workshops, and other Graham-sponsored forums.

Professor and Chair Deborah Goldberg is officially and happily on sabbatical through May 1, 2012.

She will spend time in Tucson, Ariz. in the Sonoran Desert and work on several writing projects, including an update of her textbook, “Population Ecology,” with Professor John Vandermeer, articles about her ongoing research on wetland invasions, and a synthesis paper about the mechanisms underlying general patterns in beta diversity in plants.  Beta diversity is the turnover in species composition over space or different environments.

Professor Mark Hunter takes the reins as acting chair during the next four months. “The department will be in fantastic hands with Mark Hunter, he is an experienced administrator who cares deeply about the future of the department,” said Goldberg.

EEB graduate student Jasmine Crumsey has been selected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to participate in exclusive training and meetings with legislators for Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012.

Crumsey, who researches at the U-M Biological Station is one of only eight scientists chosen nationally for the NEON training and meetings, which begin Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. NEON evaluated applicants based on their ability “to effectively communicate the impacts of large-scale environmental changes on natural resources and the complex interactions between climate and ecosystems.”

Climate Science Day brings multidisciplinary teams from nine scientific societies and organizations (NEON among them) to the Capitol to meet with lawmakers of all ranks and political persuasions. Approximately 50 scientists will take part in Climate Science Day. The goal is to expose legislators to accurate science from a variety of experts in order to inform and improve their climate policy decisions.  

In her application, Crumsey wrote, “Communicating the impacts of large-scale environmental changes on natural resources and complex interactions within ecosystems is relevant to my training as an ecologist, and my intent to remain active in science policy throughout my professional career.”  She and her cohort of early career scientists will receive an intensive day of training on Tuesday, Jan. 31 prior to Climate Science Day. 

At UMBS, Crumsey is studying how earthworm species interactions affect carbon storage in forests.  She received a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in spring 2011.

We will miss seeing Professor George F. Estabrook's bicycle parked outside the doors of the Kraus Natural Science Building. As previously reported in the announcement of his memorial service, Estabrook, age 69, died on the evening of Thursday, November 24, 2011 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Estabrook, who was a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan, was regularly seen riding his bicycle to work. He earned his bachelor of arts degree at Dartmouth College and his master of science degree at the University of Colorado Boulder. Estabrook joined U-M as an assistant research scientist in the University Herbarium in 1970 and was advanced to assistant professor of botany and research scientist in the Herbarium in 1976. He was promoted through the ranks to professor in 1982.

Estabrook’s research focused on the application of quantitative methods to test biological hypotheses. He was a leader in the application of mathematics to the discovery of phylogenetic relationships among groups of plants and animals, as well as in studying the the history, ecology, and ethnobotany of traditional agriculture in Portugal, publishing over 120 papers. Estabrook also just completed a book, "A Computational Approach to Statistical Arguments in Ecology and Evolution," based on his long-running graduate course on computational hypothesis testing. Estabrook was an active graduate student mentor, guiding 16 doctoral students to completion of their dissertations. He collaborated in published research with over 38 faculty and students.

He taught undergraduate courses in human nutrition and economic botany for many years, receiving an award for outstanding teaching in 1986. As many as 240 students enrolled for his popular human nutrition course.

Estabrook worked on and off in Portugal for the past 35 years, spoke fluent Portuguese and, more impressively, the rural mountain dialect. He did fieldwork on traditional agriculture in the very remote mountainous interior of the country for the past 20 years.

At Dartmouth, he played the trumpet in the marching band, in the tower during alumni reunions and as part of the pit orchestra for some musicals. He started playing the banjo during the early 1960s and took part in the early folk scene in New York City where he lived for the first couple of years out of college while he worked at the New York Botanical Gardens. He sang tenor with the Oratorio Society of New York and later took voice lessons for several years and sang with many groups in Ann Arbor (Ars Musica, Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, St. Andrew's Choir, Boychoir of Ann Arbor) mostly as a bass and sometimes as an alto. He spent a lot of time playing alto or tenor recorder as a part of a trio sonata group. Most recently, he played the autoharp for the amusement of his youngest children.

He ran track and played intermural ice hockey at Dartmouth where he led South Fairweather Hall to many dorm-wide victories, only to be beaten by the fraternity house jocks in the finals.

Later, Estabrook played soccer on an adult team in Ann Arbor, coached, and for several years was a FIFA certified referee for Ann Arbor Area Public Schools. He ran marathons for about a decade until back pain made the shorter running distances in triathlons a more attractive competitive sport. He was nationally ranked for his age class most years through 2007 when he was 65 years old.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia Hutton Estabrook, a former lecturer in the U-M Department of Anthropology and their children, Elizabeth and Peter, Ann Arbor; his former wife, Bronwen Gates, Ann Arbor, and their three children, Edward, Vancouver, B.C.; Ruth and her husband, Jeffrey Pierne, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Fred,  Ypsilanti, Mich.

A memorial service was held Tuesday, Nov. 29 at St Andrews Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to"The Breakfast at St. Andrew's," 306 N. Division St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1497.

Honorary Photographer at Large Photo Contest winners

Congratulations to our new Honorary Photographer at Large, Susanna Messinger, who came in first place with "A fleet of dragonflies."

Second place goes to Alison Gould for "Gorgonian.” Third place goes to Kevin Bakker for “Sunset on the Okavango Delta, Botswana” Honorable mentions go to Rachel Cable for “Geladas in flight,” Jason Dobkowski for “Sleepy kit” and Kevin Bakker for “Lilac breasted-Roller, Kalahari Desert.”

Messinger receives the honorary title for the year of “Photographer at Large” in memory of David Bay who was the self-described “photographer at large” for EEB and its predecessor departments for 34 years. He touched the lives of hundreds of faculty, students and staff with his humor, good nature and expertise.

Congratulations to all of our winning photographers and thank you to everyone who submitted a photo and/or voted in the contest. As usual, there were so many beautiful photos that voting was difficult. The photo contest will return next fall. All of the photos can be viewed here.

North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated.

As a result, they could help slow the pace of human-caused climate warming more than most scientists had thought, microbial ecologist Don Zak and his colleagues have concluded.

The results of a 12-year study at an experimental forest in northeastern Wisconsin challenge several long-held assumptions about how future forests will respond to the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide blamed for human-caused climate change, said Zak, lead author of a paper published Oct. 14, 2011 in Ecology Letters.

"Some of the initial assumptions about ecosystem response are not correct and will have to be revised," said Zak, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

To simulate atmospheric conditions expected in the latter half of this century, Zak and his colleagues continuously pumped extra carbon dioxide into the canopies of trembling aspen, paper birch and sugar maple trees at a 38-acre experimental forest in Rhinelander, Wis., from 1997 to 2008.

Some of the trees were also bathed in elevated levels of ground-level ozone, the primary constituent in smog, to simulate the increasingly polluted air of the future. Both parts of the federally funded experiment the carbon dioxide and the ozone treatments produced unexpected results.

"The interesting take home point with this is that aspects of biological diversity like genetic diversity and plant species compositions are important components of an ecosystem's response to climate change," he said. "Biodiversity matters, in this regard."

Read more in the U-M News Service press release

Michael Ehnis, administrative specialist, Herbarium, was the lucky winner of a drawing for a $100 American Express gift card as part of Active U Autumn.

“All that exercising finally paid off!” he said. “I usually am at the gym or the track at least four days a week. I find that if I start taking time off, I start to feel stiff and sore, so that’s plenty of incentive to keep doing it.

“As for the winnings, I’m thinking it might be seed money for a new walnut business I’m considering starting using the bumper crop from my neighbor’s tree. If this idea doesn’t go viral, soon, it’s more likely my friends and family will be the beneficiaries of my windfall this holiday season. It’s fun to share.”

Ehnis was among over 9,000 U-M students, employees, and retirees who took part in the inaugural six-week version of the popular program. One winner of the $100 gift card was randomly selected each day from November 8-21. Tuesday, January 24th is the first day to register for Active U 2012!

The EEB Photographer at Large Photo Contest voting runs through Friday, Dec. 9 for U-M EEBers. Visit CTools, log in using your Kerberos uniqname and password and visit the EEB2011photo.contest site. Vote under the link Polls on the left side of the screen. There are over 40 stunning photos, choose your top five. Enjoy the views!  Thanks to over 50 people who have voted so far.

Professor and Curator Priscilla Tucker’s Collections Improvement Grant was funded by the National Science Foundation for over $178,000 to purchase three large capacity liquid nitrogen freezers for frozen tissue storage. 

The freezers arrived in November 2011. The isothermal freezers maintain a vapor storage temperature of -190 degree C.  Each freezer can hold up to 40,300 2.0 ml cryogenic tubes. The freezers, materials and supplies cost $78,420. Interested parties will have a chance to tour the new facility at an open house during the Friday coffee hour, Dec. 9 at 11 a.m., Room 3088 Museums (note location change, this is where the freezers are located).

The Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) is an internationally recognized center of biodiversity research and teaching. It houses a large collection of animals and associated materials, representing all primary global ecosystems. Five of the six divisions (fishes, mollusks, herpetology, birds and mammals) maintain frozen tissue collections totaling over 36,500 specimens. They serve as an important source of genetic material for biodiversity research and are utilized by researchers from all over the world.

Prior to the acquisition of the new freezers, the specimens were maintained in six aging –80 C ultralow freezers located in separate areas of the museum. None of the freezers had a backup power supply in the event of a power failure. The lower temperature offered by the liquid nitrogen freezers coupled with a static holding time of eight days will ensure both higher quality and safer long-term storage of tissues. The new freezers are centrally located in newly renovated OSEH-compliant space located on the third floor of the UMMZ and are outfitted with remote contact alarms in case of malfunction.

In addition to the acquisition and installation of the liquid nitrogen freezers, the two-year project involves inventory and transfer of previously accessioned tissues from ultralow freezers to the new freezers, and accession and transfer of a backlog of frozen tissues. The proposed accessioning activities by all divisions will immediately result in increased use. Given that both curators and students use and deposit tissues at an increasing rate compared to the past, we expect that the size and use of the frozen tissue resource will continue to expand dramatically.

According to the grant proposal, in addition to serving as an important resource for biodiversity research, the UMMZ collections, including the frozen tissue resource, provide data that inform conservation practices and climate change research. As a center of biodiversity education, the UMMZ also has a teaching mission. Undergraduate students are an integral part of curatorial and research activities and they will actively participate in accessioning tissue for the new facility. Tucker, the principal investigator, and Steve Hinshaw, a collections coordinator, are currently working with Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) student, Kelsey Libbe, to develop a special project page on the Animal Diversity Web, an educational biodiversity database. It will describe the liquid nitrogen storage facility, the need to store tissue at low temperature and give information on the kinds of biodiversity research that are possible using museum specimens including DNA isolated from the frozen tissue.

Photo: Kelsey Libbe, a student in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, transfers boxes containing frozen tissues to one of three new liquid-nitrogen freezers at the Museum of Zoology.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Professor George Estabrook on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. 

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 29 at St Andrews Episcopal Church (at Catherine and Division Streets, Ann Arbor). In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to "The Breakfast at St. Andrew's," 306 N. Division St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1497. An ‘in memoriam’ on the life of Professor Estabrook will be forthcoming.