The skyline of Manhattan is visible over a stand of introduced Calamagrostis epigeios in Liberty State Park. Claus Holzapfel studies invaded plant communities and other ‘novel’ ecosystems.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) comprises one of three broad research programs within the Federated Department of Biological Sciences. (The others are Cell and Molecular Biology, and Computational Biology. Naturally, a number of faculty members have interests that span these themes.) It is also a distinct ‘track’ in the PhD program.
Currently there are seven research-active faculty in the EEB program:
Judith Weis (Rutgers) studies the influence of of environmental contaminants such as mercury on the behavior of aquatic organisms that inhabit the Meadowlands and other estuaries in New Jersey, and the impact this has on the food chains they are part of.
Claus Holzapfel (Rutgers) studies how plant-plant interactions, particularly root competition, structure communities, with an emphasis on the interactions of successful invasive species such as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and Phragmites australis with native species and with other invaders.
Edward Kirby (Rutgers) studies nitrogen utilization and metabolism in forest trees. He is also interested in the general field of molecular ecology, specifically identifying molecular markers useful in identifying promising provenances of native plant species for restoration of upland salt marsh communities in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
Gareth Russell (NJIT) studies spatio-temporal dynamics of populations and communities, with an emphasis on endangered species. He is also interested in applying machine vision systems to improve the collection of ecological data.
Dan Bunker (NJIT) studies the response of ecosystems, and the services they provide, to global change. He is also interested in bioinformatics as applied to ecological data.
Karina Schäfer (Rutgers) studies the response of ecosystems to global change, specifically the effect of increased CO2 concentration on carbon budgets. She is also interested in urban ecology.
Kimberly
Russell (NJIT) studies arthropod community ecology, with an emphasis
on spiders and native bees, and also the use of automated
ID systems for arthropods.
Current news
Gareth Russell has an opening for a PhD student to work on an NSF funded project to develop an automated underwater vision system for identifying and counting coral reef fish.
Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) nestlings on Mill Rock, a small island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. Gareth Russell studies the spatial and temporal dynamics of their breeding populations.
Future plans
The program in Ecology and Evolution is small, but growing, and our common interest is the rigorous study of communities and ecosystems. As such we are beginning to develop in two emerging areas, which offer a number of overlaps and potential avenues for synergistic activity:
“Novel ecology”
In short, “novel ecology” refers to the study of ecological systems that have only recently come into being, and consist of previously unseen combinations of species. This theme covers a variety of areas, along a sliding scale of novelty. At one end, there are existing communities that have been invaded by one or a small number of exotic species (which may, nevertheless, have dramatic impacts). At the other end are what may be called ‘constructed ecologies,’ such as green roofs, wetlands created as part of a mitigation arrangement or for water treatment, and so on. In between are the unnatural but pervasive communities that spring up in empty lots, rights-of-way, abandoned farm fields, etc., or the altered ecosystems that are the result of large-scale global change (such as global warming). We point out that by some estimates, 90% of the terrestrial planet will eventually consist of these “novel ecologies,” and there have been a number of recent calls by leading ecologists and conservation practitioners to devote more resources into studying them, as they will be crucial to the future environmental heath of the planet. This area brings together field and experimental ecologists with theoreticians and even designers.
Community dynamics, genetics and coevolution
This field brings together traditional study of species interactions, community dynamics and large-scale biogeography, and combines them with recent advances in molecular genetics, especially rapid-throughput sequencing, that enable us to infer detailed phylogeographic histories for diverse organisms. The goal is to study the way in which biological communities form, if and how their constituent species adapt to one another, and the extent to which these coevolutionary processes structure communities across space and time. There has been a recent explosion of such studies, and this field looks set to be one of the most vigorous and exciting new growth areas for ecology and evolution. Future hires will likely be targeted towards this area
Examining the genetic structure and dynamics of remnant saltmarshes in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
Why study ecology and evolution at Rutgers Newark?
North-Eastern New Jersey, with its ‘famed’ urban/industrial landscape, is not a location that most people would associate with advanced ecological study. Yet from Rutgers Newark we have easy access to many varied environments, such as the Meadowlands, the NJ Uplands, and the Atlantic Coast. Almost all these resources are embedded in an urban or suburban matrix, and are profoundly altered from their ‘natural’ condition. Nor is it realistic to expect that they may be restored to a close approximation of naturalness — too many of the processes that generated and maintained the pre-urban environment have been irrevocably disrupted. Instead, in practice, we try to create an ecosystem that resembles the original, or performs certain desired services, out of the species and other elements we have available. In short, we create a novel ecology. Unfortunately, this process is largely one of trial and error, guided by the experiences of individuals. We lack a good (by which we mean quantitative) understanding of how communities assemble, and subsequently react to disturbance. This is a good place to develop that understanding.
Earth Ecology — a vision for environmental science at Rutgers and NJIT
The interests of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology group within the Federated Department of Biological Sciences fall under the broader heading of Environmental Science. This discipline also encompasses eco-physiology, atmospheric and soil chemistry, hydrology, and a number of other fields. We have informally begun using the term Earth Ecology to refer to the study of how both living and physical components of the environment interact with each other to create, and modify, the biosphere. These are studies that cross the disciplinary boundaries and treat the biosphere as interactive, dynamic system.
We envision the creation of an organizational entity, the Program in Earth Ecology, which would bring together faculty from various departments at both Rutgers and NJIT who share an interest in the themes outlined above. The Program would foster research collaboration, and might also have a curricular component drawing from courses in various departments and specialities. The Program would be based out of the Federated Department of Biological Sciences.
Justification
Rutgers-Newark and NJIT currently host faculty conducting research in a large number of these areas. Taken as a whole, the two institutions include top-flight researchers in ecology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science, and hydrology. However, these researchers are spread across a number of institutions and departments, and in practice, interaction is rare. As a result, opportunities for fruitful collaboration are almost certainly missed. Also, we anticipate a significant number of students who would like to take a broad-based, integrative course of study in environmental science.
By being based out of the Federated Department of Biology, the proposed Program in Earth Ecology would build on the existing mechanism of Federation (which facilitates Rutgers/NJIT collaboration via the sharing of facilities and student mentoring, allows for easy student cross-registering, and so on).