National Science Foundation Mid-Career Award funded!

In July 2023 my lab at Marshall University was awarded funding from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) award program through the NSF’s Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster (SBS) within the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB). The MCA is designed to help mid-career researchers develop new skills and foster new collaborations to advance their research program. Support from the NSF MCA program will bring new approaches in population genomics to my lab.

We plan to use genomic tools to answer basic questions about speciation and species diversity in the island birds of East Asia, especially those in the island archipelagos of Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. The focus will be on generating genome-scale and whole-genome datasets for three groups of birds; the Narcissus Flycatcher conplex (Ficedula narcissina and Ficedula owstoni), the Varied Tit complex (Sittiparus varius, Sittiparus owstoni, and Sittiparus olivaceus), and the Asiatic white-eye complex (Zosterops montanus, Zosterops japonicus, Zosterops meyeni, and other mainland and Philippine Zosterops species). High-throughput sequencing, population genomics, and phylogenomic tools will allow us to answer basic questions about avian diversity in East Asia. How many evolutionarily independent species lineages are there in the region? How did they arrive on the islands of East Asia and when and from where? How did their genomes change as they adapted to the diverse climatic and ecological environments? Where are the phylogenetic breaks in the region? Are they the same for different groups of birds and how porous are these breaks to gene flow? Genomic data will provide great insights into these questions in this little-studied region.

This study leverages a nearly two-decade collaboration with some of the best ornithologists in China, Taiwan, and Japan. Isao Nishiumi of the National Museum of Science and Nature in Japan, Yao Cheng-te and Lin Ruey-shing of the Endemic Species Research Institute in Taiwan, and Zou Fa-sheng of the Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, have graciously hosted me and my long-time collaborator Bailey McKay on visits to their institutions, taught me about the birds of the region, and generously shared samples with my lab. The patience and friendship these collaborators have shown me over the years have been enormous and provided all the sampling needed for these projects. I hope to include them as authors on many papers over the next three years and beyond!

This award has started two new collaborations as well. Bryan Carstens and Laura Kubatko have generously agreed to serve as training partners and will guide me and my students on the bench and analytical techniques needed to bring genomics to bear on these questions. I very much look forward to having Bryan and Laura on this team and we have already begun diving into these questions.

Marshall University undergrads and potential graduate students are encouraged to inquire about research opportunities related to this project. This award provides research opportunities for students interested in evolution, ornithology, biodiversity, genomics, and bioinformatics and offers the chance to be a part of an international collaborative research team funded by the National Science Foundation.

I am excited about the opportunities this award provides and enormously grateful to my collaborators and training partners for making this possible and eager to learn more about the island birds of East Asia. Updates related to the research will be posted here and in the Marshall University Department of Biological Sciences’ various social media outlets so stay tuned.

AOS and Birds Caribbean poster on the systematics of East Asian and Philippine White-eyes in the Zosterops japonicus/montanus complex.

This is another long-suffering project that is very near completion. Below are data presented at the 2022 American Ornithological Society and Birds Caribbean meeting in Puerto Rico this summer. Additional samples are being added to this study this summer with high-throughput, multi-locus data in the works. Hopefully my colleagues and I will unravel the complex systematics of this group by the end of the year.

AOS and Birds Caribbean talk on phylogeography of the Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens)

Here are the slides on the talk I delivered to the 2022 meeting of Birds Caribbean and the American Onithological Society in Puerto Rico on one of my favorite North American birds, the ever puzzling and enigmatic Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens). Many thanks to my long suffering Canadian collaborators on this project and be on the lookout for this work being published in the near future.

American Ornithological Society and Birds Caribbean meeting Puerto Rico 2022

Finally after being moved to all online in 2020 I was able to add another island to my travel list with my attendance at the American Ornithological Society and Birds Caribbean Meeting in Puerto Rico this summer. There were many fascinating talks, beautiful scenery, island endemic birds, and many good friends and colleagues to catch up with. I presented a poster and a talk with my many collaborators and Marshal University students as coauthors. The program for the conference may be found here and I’ll post my poster and slide content here soon. Puerto Rico is an incredible place to visit!

Jeff White graduates!

Jeff White graduated in May in the middle of a pandemic and managed also to start a PhD position this summer in Kevin McCracken’s lab at the University of Miami. Jeff’s masters thesis titled ‘Foraging strategy plasticity in Fiordland Penguins (Eudyptes pachyrhnchus): A stable isotope approach’ was an ambitious project that took him to the other side of the globe in New Zealand. Jeff manged to fund his masters research through his own competitive grants from the Royal Naval Bird Watching Society, Birds New Zealand, and the Shearwater Foundation. These adventures with island birds will continue for Jeff with PhD research in New Zealand continuing on Fiordland Penguins and research on highland birds in New Guinea. Congrats and good luck to Jeff with his PhD in Miami.

Kramer Kaplan graduates!

Kramer Kaplan has successfully completed his exam for the Masters of Arts (MA) degree in the Department of Biological Sciences. Kramer helped with mitochondrial DNA sequencing in Potamotrygon stingrays and found a love of teaching while at Marshall. He plans to look for a job at a museum, zoo, or aquarium in education and outreach. Good luck Kramer!