Dr. Scott Taylor | Taylor Lab

Bio:
Dr. Scott Taylor is the director of the CU Boulder Mountain Research Station. Research in his group focuses on using natural hybrid zones and recent radiations to understand the genetic bases of traits involved in reproductive isolation, population divergence and speciatio, and the impacts of anthropogenic change, including climate change, on species distributions, interactions and evolution. We're fascinated by natural history and the intersections between art and science, and we're committed to doing our part to support our community.

Abstract:
Chickadees are familiar and widespread nonmigratory birds that have amazing adaptations to survive cold winters, including the ability to remember hundreds of thousands of individual seed cache locations. Recovering these caches is critical for winter survival. Taylor will share recent results from two different studies, one focused on a chickadee hybrid zone and one focused on a single population of mountain chickadees, that both provide insights into the genetic basis of variation in spatial cognition in chickadees.

Dr. Lynn Martin | Martin Lab

Bio:
Dr. Lynn B. Martin is a professor of global, environmental and genomic health sciences in the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in biology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, followed by postdoctoral training in psychology and neuroscience at The Ohio State University.

His research focuses on physiological ecology, disease ecology and ecological epigenetics, with an emphasis on how organisms respond to environmental change. Much of his work uses wild vertebrates — especially birds and small mammals — to understand how variation in immune function, hormones and gene regulation shapes health, host competence and adaptation in natural populations.

Abstract:
Why do some populations colonize new areas whereas others fail? This question is becoming more and more important to answer as we continue to change the planet. For about two decades, my lab has been studying how one of the world’s most common species, the house sparrow, has achieved its success. Whereas we have considered a variety of behavioral and physiological mechanisms, we are finding that one epigenetic process, namely the regulation of gene expression via DNA methylation, was particularly important. In this talk, I’ll present highlights of our current work on how the interplay of foraging behavior, infection with gut pathogens and physiological defenses has enabled some birds to found new populations and hence colonize many parts of the world.