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A.Z. Andis Arietta

Ecology, Evolution & Conservation

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Field Notes: Early Spring 2018

April 1, 2018April 1, 2018 azandis@gmail.com

29 March 2018 My first wood frog of the season, hopping slowly from one snowy bank to the other across the mist-dampened road. This is the first warm night of […]

evolution, research ecology, field notes, salamander, vernal pond, wood frog

Seasonal canopies

January 12, 2018January 12, 2018 azandis@gmail.com

I just discovered this very cool photo comparison tool. I was so excited to use it I pulled out some comparison shots of the vernal pools I study. It might […]

evolution, research evolution, local adaptation, microgeographic, research, vernal pond, wood frog

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A. Z. Andis Arietta, PhD
Yale University
andis.arietta@aya.yale.edu

azandis

Neither of my parents were able to go to college.

Neither of my parents were able to go to college.
Today, I received my doctorate from @yale @environmentyale

I just got my copy of the April issue of @alaskama

I just got my copy of the April issue of @alaskamagazine featuring a story I wrote about our epic wood frog collection trip to the Arctic last summer with @yara.alsh @radboofgnar and @kaylynmesser

@baylaart is definitely on my "top ten favorite pe

@baylaart is definitely on my "top ten favorite people list."

Let me know if you want the zoom link.

Let me know if you want the zoom link.

Beyond excited for these killer business card/stic

Beyond excited for these killer business card/stickers. Thanks to @verolagachette for the rad designs!

Spring field season is officially upon us. It is a

Spring field season is officially upon us. It is a sacred time of year when we celebrate wood frogs' resurrection to life after winter hibernation by hunting for eggs.

Look at this beaut @baylaart spotted this weekend

Look at this beaut @baylaart spotted this weekend on our way back from a chilly hike with @oerthen_wares

Recent birds: red-shouldered hawk, yellow-rumped w

Recent birds: red-shouldered hawk, yellow-rumped warbler, eastern towhee, snow bunting, long-tailed duck, horned lark, eastern bluebird, red-breasted mergansers

Cooper's hawk and Carolina wren.

Cooper's hawk and Carolina wren.

Django has learned that the exhaust vents on the t

Django has learned that the exhaust vents on the top of my second monitor make excellent foot warmers.

This morning, I finally finished reading all of th

This morning, I finally finished reading all of the @pulitzerprizes novels, a challenge I set for myself at the beginning of my PhD.

93 books and 36,518 pages.

I made a blog post with my rating for all of the novels (link I'm bio).

Many thanks to my reading partner, Django.

#bookstagram #pulitzerprize #pulitzerchallenge

Big day for trimming. #vivarium

Big day for trimming.

#vivarium

Second year in a row spending my birthday sliding

Second year in a row spending my birthday sliding down some hills with @dobsonannise . Today was probably the best snow I'll ever see on the east coast. It was a beautiful day!

Super excited to get the cover of Ecography next m

Super excited to get the cover of Ecography next month!

In our article behind the cover, we found that wood frogs are breeding later despite climate change. This is counter-intuitive because most spring-breeding animals breed earlier when climate change brings spring weather earlier in the year.

We used climate data coupled with 20 years of egg mass counts to show that most warming occurs in the summer, not the spring, and that shifting climates have resulted in later persisting snow pack during the breeding window. Because wood frogs are the first amphibians to breed, it may be that all that snow is keeping them from their breeding ponds.

These results show that climate change can be tricky. It is important to look closely at seasonal patterns to really understand what is going on and how climate change will impact species.

Finally getting around to reporting that this love

Finally getting around to reporting that this lovely little museum bug (@baylaart) just finished her Master's of Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins!!! Super proud of her!

A little science-ing to test wood frog thermal phy

A little science-ing to test wood frog thermal physiology.

Every few days, @baylaart and I check the grounds

Every few days, @baylaart and I check the grounds around @yalesom building to collect the many birds that die from striking windows to add to the @yalepeabodymuseum collection of native birds.

After collecting one dead warbler this morning, I came across this little fella who was completely dazed and unable to fly.

I moved him a few feet off the sidewalk to the shade in hopes that it would recover. But when I checked an hour later it was still struggling to stay upright.

We got a hold of our vet where we take our parrot and they gave the little fella an assessment. The good news is that they think it has a fighting chance. They will keep it overnight and then place it with a native bird rehabilitator for recovery.

Between glass building and domestic cats, life near humans is tough for birds. If you find a stunned bird, remember that most will recover shortly on their own, so avoid perturbing them. If they don't recover in an hour or two, place them in a cloth-lined, dark box and call your local bird rehab center, exotic vet, or Audubon chapter. Injured birds are fragile, so try to leave them be and don't attempt to give them food or water.

And if you find a dead bird. Take some photos and report it on @inaturalistorg . Every record helps with research on window strike fatalities and may help sway policies to require bird friendly designs in building codes.

I'm super excited about this new piece by @knotted

I'm super excited about this new piece by @knottedsword based on the black and white color morphs of the Peppered moth (Biston betularia). These moths were one of the first examples of rapid evolution and what's known as industrial melanism.

Peppered moths are usually white with black spots, a pattern that allows them to camouflage when sitting on the bark of trees. There is a rare mutation in the species that occasionally produces all black morphs. As the industrial revolution ramped up, soot covered the trees and turned the bark black. White moths on black bark are easy targets for birds.

Bug collectors in the later 19th century started to notice that black moths were becoming common around cities and the white moths were now super rare. Bernard Kettlewell did experiments in the 1950s to show that the moths and the soot were related. It was one of the first examples showing that human activities could alter gene frequencies and evolutionary trajectories in wild populations.

In 2016, researchers sequence the moth genomes and pinpointed the gene associated with the color mutation. They even calculated a date for the mutation's age and estimate it arose in 1918.

"Study biology" they said... "It'll be fun" they s

"Study biology" they said...
"It'll be fun" they said...

...But they never tell you 95% of biology is math.

#biology #biologist #ecology #ecologist #phdlife

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