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Ecology And Evolutionary Biology

By Colin Poitras ’85 (CLAS)

Tree frog and chameleon

The fourth-largest island in the world, Madagascar is home to some of Earth’s most bizarre and beautiful creatures. In this sprawling evolutionary paradise off Africa’s east coast – about twice the size of Arizona – thousands of unique plant and animal species reside, with more than 75 percent endemic to the region, meaning they can be found only in this particular place. Half the world’s 150 or so species of chameleons live in Madagascar, and of the island’s approximately 300 species of frogs, 99 percent are endemic. However, Madagascar is considered one of the world’s top five conservation "hot spots" – meaning its highly concentrated biodiversity is constantly threatened by encroaching human development.

For the past five years, Joelisoa Ratsirarson ’93 Ph.D. has worked at the epicenter of the island’s conservation battle as one of the country’s leading conservationists, including having served as a deputy minister in the Ministry of the Environment and later as chief of staff to former president Marc Ravalomanana.

Under their stewardship, the government launched an ambitious plan to triple the size of Madagascar’s protected areas from 1.7 million hectares to 6 million hectares by 2012. The program was well under way with support from the World Bank and others when the democratically elected Ravalomanana was ousted from power last March. Ratsirarson is now an associate professor in the School of Agronomy at Madagascar’s University of Antananarivo. He continues to manage two large protected forests in the south and east but worries that his nation’s conservation efforts will be undone as logging, mining and farming resume unchecked.

"Conservation efforts do not have a boundary… There is a lot to be done in other developing countries where biodiversity is a very big issue."
–Joelisoa Ratsirarson ‘93 Ph.D.

Ratsirarson is one of dozens of scientists who have pursued their passion and earned advanced degrees from UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), one of the premier programs in the country, whose alumni hold prominent positions at scientific organizations and major research institutions.

Beetle and sting ray

The department, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, attracts top students from around the world. Meanwhile, EEB’s 30 full-time faculty consistently obtain major research grants from leading scientific organizations such as the National Science Foundation and regularly publish their research findings in Science, Nature and other scholarly journals.

EEB faculty and students study nearly all major groups of organisms, including algae, mosses and lichens, aquatic plants, desert plants, tropical and temperate forest trees, parasites of sharks and rays, insects, spiders, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. EEB is led by Kentwood Wells, a worldrenowned authority on amphibians and reptiles, whose 2007 book, The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians, has been called "a definitive work" detailing 70 years’ worth of research on more than 6,000 species of frog, salamanders and other amphibians.

"We were fortunate in hiring people who were not only very good scientists and mentors but also top-notch teachers who were instrumental in making the department nationally and internationally known," says Gregory J. Anderson, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and department head from 1990 to 2005.

Characteristic of the stellar EEB faculty is Robert K. Colwell, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a tropical biologist who conducts research on the effects of global climate change on some of the hottest places on Earth, and Peter Turchin, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, whose research focuses on theoretical ecology and population dynamics in space and time and who is listed by ISI HighlyCited.com, as one of the top 250 cited authors in the field of ecology and the environment.

The department also attracted prominent scientist Gene E. Likens, a pioneer in the study of acid rain and a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research. Likens has previously visited UConn as a guest lecturer and will now serve as a distinguished visiting research professor.

"My time at UConn has always been very pleasant and stimulating," Likens says. "UConn’s EEB program is very strong. There are many talented faculty and students who are bright and creative. The department also has some of the top researchers in their fields. It has a very strong local research program as well as programs around the world in places like Africa, Costa Rica and Borneo."

Janine Caira, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is among the internationally known EEB faculty. An award-winning parasitologist, one week she may be found walking the beaches of Borneo talking to local fishermen as part of her search for an elusive freshwater sting ray. A few weeks later, she may be working into the night with a team of undergraduates identifying species in a nature preserve. "I love the challenge of going to a place I’ve never been to, figuring out the mystery, connecting with native people in other parts of the world and identifying new species," says Caira.

Graduates of the program include a wide array of scientists who hold prominent positions around the world. Among them are Piotr Naskrecki ’00 Ph.D., director of the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative of Conservation International and research associate with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University; Stuart McKamey ’94 Ph.D., research entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Susan Letcher ’08 Ph.D., resident professor at the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica; and Michael A. Wall ’04 Ph.D., curator of entomology at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

David Grimaldi ’79 (CLAS) is curator of invertebrate zoology at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, one of the world’s preeminent institutions for scientific research and education. His book, Evolution of the Insects, has been called "a landmark contribution" to the field of entomology and evolutionary biology.

"Ever since I was a child I was pathologically infected with the biology bug," Grimaldi says. "UConn had, and still has, an incredible array of courses so I was able to indulge myself to my heart’s content."

EEB students continue to experience the thrill of discovering new forms of life on the planet. Juan Carlos Villarreal, a graduate student studying under Associate Professor Bernard Goffinet, a moss and lichen expert, has become a recognized international expert in the biology of hornworts, a type of non-vascular plant. Villarreal recently stumbled across a probable new species of insect that appear to complete part of its life cycle within a rare hornwort.

On the ground floor of the Biology/Physics building in Storrs, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal specimens from around the world – with an emphasis on Connecticut flora and fauna – lie in neatly catalogued rows and boxes inside the department’s new collections area. It is a prime research area for biologists and one of the largest biodiversity collections in New England. Here, Goffinet says, UConn students have the opportunity to study specimens, some more than 500 million years old.