Ecology

Most of Cuba’s soil has a beautiful and rich red color because of its clay texture. On his family farm near Havana, Cuba, a little boy would develop a fascination that would help the world. Born in 1940, Pedro A. Sanchez grew up watching his dad work with farmers to create fertilizers for their land and increase productivity. His dad had owned a fertilizer blending business. In 1958, Pedro came to the United States to attend Cornell University where he would go on to earn his bachelors, masters, and doctorate in agronomy and soil sciences. As soon as he finished his schooling, Sanchez became a professor at North Carolina State University, from 1968 until 1991. 

Pedro Sanchez has built a successful career improving and advancing agricultural production in tropical soils. He has helped countries achieve food security in addition to reducing rural poverty. He has worked at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, the National Research Institutes in Peru, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia, as well as the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya. 

When he was working in Brazil through North Carolina University, they started developing the Cerrado for agricultural production. Pedro Sanchez helped implement new soil treatments and fertilizer technologies that in turn reduced soil acidity. This one project by itself increased average production by 60 percent, almost tripled grain harvests, and grew soybean production to match the United States. In Kenya, Sanchez added native rock phosphate to the soil and then proceeded to plant nitrogen-fixing trees next to other crops. These trees pulled nitrogen from the air and into the soil helping it become nourished. Over 400,000 farmers from more than 20 countries used this method and saw production increase by almost 400 percent.  

Pedro A. Sanchez has had an extremely successful career. He has reduced hunger and increased agricultural production all while helping to benefit the environment. He truly has made an amazing and positive impact on the world. Pedro has received so many different rewards and recognitions that I didn’t even know where to start. He believes that the greatest honor is knowing that he has helped people. I originally found Sanchez because of his Latino heritage, but I had no idea how amazing his work was. I thought it was fascinating to hear about the different treatments that help specific environments. 

Curated by Introduction to Biology Student Viviana Olmos

Tvisha Martin is a female soil scientist. Due to global warming and the extreme biodiversity losses that affect the globe, she felt impacted to work for soil preservation. Not only does she want to help but, she also emphasizes how healthy soil leads to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. 

A discovery that Tvisha Martin influenced was the usage of sustainable agriculture with less human interaction. By not tilling the land, uprooting natural plant life, and rotating crops as people did in the past we can create a more beneficial environment that reduces carbon emissions. 

Personally, my research on Tvisha Martin highlighted to me that we all can do more to sustain our ecosystems and reduce carbon intake in the atmosphere. Although, it’ll take small steps at a time mass industry has greatly impacted our atmosphere and world in both a negative and positive way and we have to repair what has been done. In a way, I admire Martin for wanting to help improve the world and taking on the challenge of being a woman of color working in stem. I find it inspiring. 

Curated by Introduction to Biology student Alicia Costilla

Marie Clark Taylor was born in Sharpsburg Pennsylvania, going on to earn her bachelors and Master of Science degrees at Howard University. Taylor then enrolled in the doctoral studies program at Fordham University and was the first woman to earn a scientific doctorate from the university and the first Black woman to receive her PhD in botany. In 1945 Taylor became the Chair of the Botany Department at Howard University. Dr. Taylors' research included the study of light treatments on plant growth. 

Plant life is all around us, from our houses to our gardens, and the food we eat. Taylor researched photomorphogenesis, which is how light affects the structure and life of plants. More specifically, Taylor researched how periods of daily light affect the development of cells that become flowers in plants. Her studies were vital to the foundation of horticulture because they look into how the environment and sunlight relates to the development of the plant. This research is useful in the process of growing flowers, such as the cosmos and scarlet sage that Taylor studied, because it helps us to understand where and when we should be planting for optimal results.

While reading Dr. Taylor’s work I learned that light exposure has a direct correlation on both the quality and quantity of plant reproduction. I also learned that this has a huge link to the agriculture industry, as the flower production of plants is the basis for all the fruits and vegetables we grow. Additionally, the amount of light exposure a plant undergoes can cause it to grow tall but never to produce flowers. Wow! As an avid gardener, I learned that the placement of my seedlings really will have a huge impact on how they develop.

It’s important to note that Taylor was a trailblazer for women in botany. Dr. Taylor had many academic achievements, and she is an inspiration for women everywhere.

Curated by Introduction to Biology student Tori Deluca

Tanisha M. Williams is a plant ecologist and botanist. She completed her master's degree from California State University, Los Angeles. She studied the hybridization patterns of three Populus species found in California and Nevada using population genetic approaches. Dr. Williams went on to earn her PhD at the University of Connecticut. Her dissertation research took her to South Africa, where she used herbarium data, common garden experiments, and species distribution models to investigate the effects of climate change on Pelargonium plants. She is currently employed by Bucknell University as the Burpee Postdoc Fellow in Botany. Her work has focused on a variety of topics, such as how biogeographic barriers affect species distributions, how population genomics can be used to update the conservation status of rare plants, and how indigenous peoples in Australia's Northern Territory have an impact on plant genetics, ecology, and anthropology. Dr. Williams is also passionate about advocating for causes and volunteering in order to spread the word about science and the value of international and botanical research.

Tanisha expresses the concern that climate change is impacting species composition across the globe. From 1900-2009, South Africa has undergone a 2.9 degree Celsius increase in mean annual temperature. Associated with this increase in temperature flowering dates of over 100 Pelargonium species have advanced by 7 days. She got to this conclusion by using old data which are collected for biological collections to document the diversity of life on earth through time. She used this old data in order to understand how plants are corresponding to climate change. She understood how the pelargonium was affected by the 3 degree increase in temperature throughout South Africa over the past century, the flowers bloomed 5 days earlier than what they usually flower. 

I realized that we needed to do something about climate change because if it affects flowers, our future and everything we know about plants could be jeopardized. Plants are present in everything we do - breathing, eating, medicines, and clothing are just a few examples of how we use and interact with plants. Knowing how plants respond to climate change is vital for protecting critically endangered species and can also help us select areas in need of environmental protection. 

Curated by Introduction to Biology student Samantha Mejia

The biologist I’m choosing to write about today is George Washington Carver. George was born into slavery in Missouri around 1860 and then after the Civil War he lived as a free child on his mother’s former master’s farm. Growing up, he always had an interest in plants. When he turned 11, he left to get an education in a nearby town and then went to Kansas where he obtained his high school diploma in his twenties.  He learned that there were no college opportunities for black men there. While studying art and piano at Simpson College in Iowa his art teacher recommended him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College. He got a loan, and in 1891, he became Iowa State Agricultural College’s first black student. He got his master’s degree in Botany, conducting field research at the Iowa Experiment Station.

Carver was a farmers scientist, he taught farmers how to grow better crops and utilize their farm waste products. He was able to turn corn stalks into building materials and manufactured more than 100 products from sweet potatoes. He promoted nitrogen-providing peanuts as an alternative crop to cotton to prevent soil depletion when a lack of rotation was a problem in the southern states of America. He advocated farmers to rotate their crops between cotton and the highly nutritious food crops of peanuts and sweet potatoes. He taught farmers in the south and empowered them by showing them new agricultural techniques. 

I learned a lot about George Washington Carver by learning all that he accomplished. He was too weak to do field work as a child, so that left him to do household chores and gardening. This is where his fascination with plants started. He was nicknamed “the plant doctor” and the “peanut man” because of his great discoveries throughout his career. I think his story is very inspirational given all that he's gone through and the time and place he grew up in. He changed the agricultural economy of the United States. I learned that a lot more goes into just planting crops and that crops need a lot more than just water and sunlight. There's a lot that goes into the soil for the plants. 

Curated by Introduction to Biology students Ella Jolley and Leah Phillips

Dr. Kevin Burgio was born in Boston, and was in the US Air Force before he graduated from the University of Connecticut with a PhD in ecology and conservation biology. Burgio was the second person in his family to graduate high school, and first to graduate college. After the Air Force Burgio originally enrolled as an undergrad in a public health clinic, with the intention of going to dental school. However during this time he developed a neurological disorder in his hands that caused them to shake, so he reevaluated his career goals and found a passion for ecology and went into the PhD program. Currently Burgio is a research scientist at the University of Connecticut, a consultant conservation biologist at Terwilliger Consulting, and a subject editor of the journal  Avian Conservation and Biology. 

One of the studies Burgio specializes in is how disturbances such as habitat loss and climate change affect the population and extinction risk of birds and animals, specifically parrots. Burgio has also conducted studies of birds nest-building behaviors, such as the Monk Parakeet, in order to come up with a non-lethal solution to prevent these birds from nesting on, and potentially damaging, utility poles. Through this study, Burgio and his team concluded that the best way to prevent Monk Parakeets from nesting on and damaging utility poles is to mechanically prevent access to the electric lines nearest to the poles before they can start the building process. 

In another study, Burgio researched the local extinction of three bird species on one of the most remote islands in the world, Tristan da Cunha. Through his research, Burgio concluded that the cause of the species’ extinction was a combination of habitat alteration from human exploitation and the arrival of black rats, an invasive species to the island. Burgio was also able to hypothesize what years these species went extinct through his research. In his research article, Burgio asserted that it is important to investigate the extinction dates of species in order to understand the reasons behind biodiversity loss. By combining historical ecology and modern statistics, Burgio argues that we are able to gain better insight into the causes of extinction, and to predict the timing of extinction of other species. 

Through exploring Burgio’s work, I learned that through studying ecology, we can better understand what causes extinction. I didn’t know that by studying what causes one species to go extinct, biologists can predict the extinction of other species. I found it interesting that even on one of the most remote islands in the world, one of the reasons for the extinction of its bird species was human exploitation. I also learned that combining statistics with biology can give biologists the answers to questions that might arise when a species goes extinct, such as potential causes or changes that resulted in their extinction. Although it is a difficult process to find and reconstruct the data surrounding an extinct species, it offers important information about extinction that can be used to help current endangered species.

Curated by an Introduction to Biology student and Butte College Music major.

The biologist I decided to investigate is Erik Jules, the department chair head of Cal Poly, Humboldt. He completed his PhD at the University of Michigan and spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz before he decided to come to Cal Poly Humboldt. He studies plant and fire ecology, trophic interactions, invasive species, and environmental history. 

In an article he wrote in 2007, he and two other biologists studied landscape that is currently entering the forest stage, or canopy closure as they refer to it, and characterized by lower levels of vascular plant species richness and cover throughout the environment. He then discusses the effects of future forest management of plants that lie closer to the ground. Forest management is a huge debate in the country right now, and affects our lives every day so this was extremely intriguing to me. These lower level vascular plants make a huge difference in the forest, providing habitat, safety, and other resources for higher species that roam throughout the forest. When logged, those new plant growths are extremely affected. It is important that these understory plant communities are taken care of because they’re the most beneficial to the plants and animals around them in their youth, and as they grow they only lose their richness. It is hard for these sorts of trees to grow back, and when not taken care of correctly, can cause detrimental changes to the forested areas around them. The study he conducted took place in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon, mainly focusing on Douglas-fir dominated forests. Right now, a current member of his lab, Molly Metok, is studying the long term impacts of timber harvesting on understory plant communities in the same area that they conducted their study a little over a decade ago. I can only imagine how beneficial someone like Erik is to have on her side as she researches this! 

I chose someone like Erik to study, because I find forest management fascinating, and something that I feel extremely passionate about, but also as I begin to dive deeper into it, I’m slowly beginning to learn how truly uneducated I am about the matter itself. I didn’t realize there were so many factors that went into it. What I found truly interesting was how much of the forest is affected by losing a small amount of density. In size, forests are so large and compact, but in reality every single molecule and plant, tree and animal, make such a big difference, especially when they are lost. It was really interesting to read about his studies and educate myself even more. 

Curated by Introduction to Biology Student Faith Brown