Nature's Mysteries

Summer 2012 • Volume 8 • No. 1 Nature’s Mysteries Reflections

Reflecting ASU’s ranking as 21st in the world in the biological sciences, School of Life Sciences has forged impactful and far- reaching programs of research, education and outreach.

We slip into the laboratory of ASU Professor Bert Jacobs to understand how AIDS-HIV vaccines are developed, then shift to Tanzania to see how science training can change treatment and prevention of disease in rural Africa.

We drop in on SOLS alumni Rick Overson, Max Nickerson, Damien Salamone and Christian Lawrence. With Overson, we trek to the Panamanian tropical forest, along with biology doctoral student Clint Penick. Together with budding designers and architects with ASU’s Design School’s traveling studio and the Smithsonian, they develop new eyes for nature and bioinspired innovation. We trace 40 years of hellbender studies in the Ozarks, which mark the career of Max Nickerson, whose path started with his establishment of the first reptile exhibit in The Phoenix Zoo; and cast our eyes toward Children’s Hospital in Boston and Christian Lawrence, whose research has changed how genetics studies can be done – with zebrafish.

But don’t think that our ASU faculty and students aren’t change- makers in our own neighborhoods! Come to South Phoenix and visit the home of Associate Professor Juliet Stromberg and Research Faculty member Matthew Chew, who together have transformed a dilapidated rural sanitarium into a vibrant garden home that argues the concept of native versus invasive species. We also peek in on local hummingbirds, Chiricahua leopard frogs and jackrabbits, with new understanding about the role of behavior, disease and human activity in shaping the environment around us.

Finally, it’s time for me to also announce my own change, as I move from School of Life Sciences to become the Director of Academic Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. I have loved every moment that I’ve had with School of Life Sciences undergrads, grads, post-docs, faculty, staff and alumni. The new managing editor, Sandy Leander, brings experience and excitement about our diverse research and student body, education and outreach programs and collaborations, and will expand the tools for our graduate student writers to become better storytellers, community leaders and science educators.

On the cover: Digitally stylized image of above photograph depicting a formidable group in the 1950s participating in one of the last rabbit drives in Arizona. Photo: courtesy Listen in, Read more or View at: of Casa Grande Valley Historical Society sols.asu.edu/publications/mag_vol8_01.php 02 13 22

contents

sols publication staff Design Studio: Panama, 02 managing editor: margaret coulombe Grab a Biologist, 06 assistant editor: karla moeller Fish for a Cure, 08 art direction and design: jacob sahertian The Variable Vaccine for HIV, 10 editorial board: charles kazilek Belonging, 13 copy editor: sandy leander, patricia sahertian On Foot and On Wing, 17 photography: charles kazilek, jacob mayfield, The Last of the Hellbenders, 20 jacob sahertian and tom story Disappearing Rabbits, 22 funding: school of life sciences, Frog Tale, 25 arizona state university Awards and Honors, 26

(additional credits noted in articles)

We are particularly interested in reconnecting To learn about the many ways you can contribute with Alumni and Emeriti. If you have information to School of Life Sciences and ASU please visit the

to include in this magazine, please contact us. ASU Foundation web site: SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 Manuscripts should be less than 1000 secure.asufoundation.org/giving words, photos should be high resolution, We reserve the right to edit all submissions. and submissions should include all pertinent © 2012 ASU School of Life Sciences. contact information. Send to Managing Editor, Sandy Leander • [email protected] School of Life Sciences is an academic unit SOLS Magazine, P.O. Box 874501 of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Tempe, Arizona, 85287-4501 Arizona State University.

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3351/0812/2.5m 1 Design Studio: By Clint Penick Panama SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

2 Boat rides to Barro Colorado Island in Panama start just after sunrise. On this day, 14 Arizona State University students are slouched inside the bow of the Jacana trying to get an extra 15 minutes of sleep before they dock. Their guide, Wendy, is donned in tall rubber boots and navy blue jungle pants tucked into her socks. Two iridescent parrot feathers dangle from each of her ears. The group is part of a unique learning experiment and this boat ride – weaving in and out of oil tankers and cargo ships in the Panama Canal – offers more than tropical vistas: it is a vehicle to new avenues of creative thinking.

These graduate students are pursuing degrees in design, architecture, and biology, and taking part in an unusual classroom collaboration between ASU’s School of Life Sciences and ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. For example, their first day of classes started with an unusual checklist – bug repellent, binoculars, knee-high rubber boots, a roll of duct tape – none of the standard supplies for a design studio (except maybe the duct tape). Armed with these new tools, the students would take their first steps on a two-week tropical biology sojourn in Panama under the guidance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Their aim? To produce a final product in design or architecture with one common goal: to look at the forms, functions, and systems of the natural world to find a biologically inspired innovation. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

Photo: Elizabeth Cash 3 Left: Design and architecture students get an aerial view of the rainforest from a canopy tower outside of Gamboa, Panama. Photo: courtesy of Michelle Fehler Right: SOLS graduate Rick Overson poses with a three-toed sloth that was brought down from the canopy by scientists at STRI who came to share about their research. Photo: Elizabeth Cash

The process of taking ideas from nature and applying them to human design is known as biomimicry. At ASU, scientists already have been applying concepts of biomimicry to improve photovoltaic cells using concepts from photosynthesis and also to investigate the chemical makeup of spider silk to create stronger, light-weight materials. Incorporating biomimicry into a university curriculum offers a challenging learning and social experience; one that both students and instructors discovered to be change-making.

Instructors for the 2011 “biomimicry traveling studio” were the class’ resident biologist Rick Overson, a School of Life Sciences alumnus; Philip White, an associate professor of industrial design at ASU’s Design School; and Adelheid Fischer, the manager of ASU’s InnovationSpace program. It was Fischer who first considered incorporating biology students into the The bat-inspired umbrella mimics the InnovationSpace design program at the university. geometry of bat wings to strengthen With grants from the National Collegiate Inventors the umbrella against strong winds. and Innovators Alliance and ASU’s Pathways to While traditional umbrellas often invert during windstorms, the curved tines of Entrepreneurship program, InnovationSpace launched the bat-inspired umbrella are designed an initiative to incorporate biomimicry as a fundamental to offset the forces of strong gusts part of its sustainable innovation curriculum. Funds so that the umbrella stays functional. supported a public lecture by Janine Benyus, author Design: Clint Penick of “Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature,” as well as the hiring of then-doctoral student in biology Nate Morehouse (now an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh). The collaboration was so fruitful that Fischer next recruited life sciences doctoral student Adrian Smith to replace Morehouse after he graduated, and it was Smith who ultimately led Fischer to Overson.

Overson had traveled to Panama the previous year with Smith as part of an ASU-Smithsonian partnership forged by Robert Page, Vice Provost and Dean of the College

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Known in Arizona for his

4 abilities as a naturalist, Overson had the blonde hair and the appeared to be an impenetrable, green wall began to open all-American features of a nature documentary television up. Ultimately, it was Wendy who was ready for a snooze on host. On the last night of their Panamanian tropical biology the boat back to Gamboa’s shores. field course, Overson donned a headlamp and waded waist- deep into a pond to try to catch a wild caiman. Caiman are Once back in Arizona, the students had a great deal to members of the alligator family and they can grow over process. “When you watch the students start a project like a meter in length. Though Overson wasn’t able to catch a this,” said Fischer, “there is that moment you hope for – a caiman that night, when Smith repeated the story to Fischer, synapse.” Their projects began, ranging from thermal she said, “That’s it. He’s our guy.” imaging hardware inspired by pit vipers, to collapsible buildings based on the spring mechanism of grasshopper Overson’s enthusiasm for nature rubbed off on all the legs, roofs that mimicked self-cleaning leaves, and more. students. Soon, it was not surprising to have everyone drop to their knees to get a closer look at the structure of Such projects have high potential but also high risk. A sign a plant’s roots, a new type of fungi or a poison dart frog. of their future success, however, may have been presaged Students followed his “hands-on” lead by picking up on their last night in Panama. Once again, Overson headed insects, reptiles, frogs and even a wild three-toed sloth (in into the night to search for a caiman. After several hours of the last case, under the guidance of resident sloth experts). searching with Fischer and the students, his flashlight finally Design students took pictures with giant lizards, handled caught eye-shine at the edge of a small swamp. He crept snakes and watched a hill of big, black bullet ants, the sting around the shore with his flashlight held in his mouth. With of which is purported to be the most painful of any insect in the caiman within arm’s reach, Overson thrust his hands the world. into the water and pulled up in one quick motion. When he stood up, he had it – a full-sized caiman dangling from his At one point, Overson, an “Indiana Jones” of biodiversity, hand. Within minutes, he was passing the caiman around to even pulled off his shirt and used it to catch a bat right the students who had followed him into the night. out of the air. He stretched out its wings as the architects and designers crowded around to see its bone structure. Fostering enterprise and innovation means exploring new A cacophony of ant-birds beckoned some students off the and risky territory – much like an urban traveler entering a trail while a call of “army ants!” led others to scatter to see rain forest. But now, armed with an investment in innovative them raid. By the end of the trip, Overson and the students learning, these students enter their studios equipped with had picked up momentum as the subtle complexities of new tools for collaboration, creativity and complex problem- the rainforest became more apparent and what had once solving – as well as new eyes for nature.

The Cuddle-Pack: The initial idea to create a backpack was inspired by the sloths unique lifestyle, mode of transportation, and ability to hold tight, leading to the original thought of, “what if a backpack could grab on just as effectively as a sloth?” Design: Kirsten Rutherford & Tyler Kuenzi SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

5 Grab A Biologist By Adelheide Fischer and Go Outside: What human artifice has to gain from the exploration of biology

Nature is a well for sustainable solutions to human tuition reimbursement or creating problems. But there is a less-obvious opportunities for fun and relaxation innovation – if you case for turning to the natural world with on-site swimming pools, ping- for inspiration and it is simply this: pong tables, massage chairs perched simply stop and listen. pondering the natural world in front of aquariums, and playground creates the conditions conducive slides that connect office floors instead In the 17th century, the Ojibwa Indians to innovation. of stairs – help prime the creativity of the northern Great Lakes told pump of employees and consistently Jesuit missionaries that their ancestors When our Arizona State University land Google at the top of Fortune learned to weave nets for snagging students arrived at the Smithsonian Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to fish from watching spiders construct Tropical Research Institute’s Work For in America.” webs for capturing insects. In recent schoolhouse in Panama after a long years, nautilus shells and whale fins day of travel, we tossed our luggage Biomimicry serves similar ends, but in have inspired more aerodynamic and laptops aside and headed into deeper and perhaps more profound blades for fans and wind turbines. the night to a nearby frog pond. ways. It appeals to one of our most A new look at the surface structure There, with the jungle at our backs primal identities – our biophilic selves; of lotus leaves has led to exterior and stars overhead, we listened to what biologist Edward O. Wilson calls paints that shed dirt with the rain. The the stereophonic chorusing of tree our innate tendency to connect with clinging abilities of blue mussels and frogs, calls so shrill and dense that living things. Making that connection, geckos have given rise to the creation it was like swimming in sound. we feel more alive and more aware of of new adhesives. Stunned, we all fell silent. Then, the world around us. one by one, we started to laugh at The list of the products of biomimicry the crazy wonder of so much noise So, here’s a bit of advice for helping to – an emerging discipline that looks to coming from these tiny, spatula- spur creativity and innovation. Listen the forms, materials, and processes footed creatures. to a clap of thunder that sets howler of nature for inspiration and solutions monkeys roaring in the trees over to human problems – is growing. In Studies by Barbara Fredrickson, a your head. Watch a casque-headed a review of the Worldwide Patent psychology professor at the University lizard suddenly become brittle and Database, Janine Benyus, author of of North Carolina, and others have rigid as it plays dead in your hands. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by shown that positive emotions – joy, Follow a long line of leaf-cutter ants Nature, points out that between 1985 curiosity, amusement, inspiration as they parade leaf fragments like and 2005, the number of patents with and awe – “open our hearts and our flag-waving athletes at the opening descriptors such as “bioinspired,” minds, making us more receptive of the Olympic Games. Or listen to “biomimicry,” and “biomimetics” and more creative.” Frederickson more than 700 lime-green, foot-tall soared by 93 percent. According sums up the evolutionary role of Red-lored Amazon parrots marked to estimates from Bharat Bhushan, positive emotions in what she calls with a scarlet blaze roost in spreading director of Ohio State University’s her “broaden-and-build theory.” crowns of jacaranda and suicide trees, Nanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- and “By opening our hearts and minds, as raucous as New Yorkers spilling out Nanotechnology & Biomimetics, positive emotions allow us to of Yankee Stadium after a World Series between 2005 and 2008 alone, the discover and build new skills, new baseball game. top 100 biomimetic products netted ties, new knowledge, and new ways $1.5 billion in profits. of being,” she observes. Companies The joy, curiosity, amusement, such as Google appear to have inspiration, and awe that nature Rifling the great database of life caught on to this broaden-and-build brings will get you in the mood for for biology-based inspiration now wisdom. Its legendary workplace sustainable innovation. If you don’t is globally recognized as a means perks – encouraging ongoing believe me, just grab a biologist and

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 of creating innovative and more learning through such incentives as go outside!

6 Photo: Michelle Fehler Fish for a Cure Photos: courtesy of Christian Lawrence By Emily Richter Many people have fish tanks in their homes and some of them hold zebrafish, which are attractive and easy to care for. However, for Christian Lawrence, a 2002 Arizona State University graduate and freshwater fish enthusiast, tending the half-million zebrafish that reside at Children’s Hospital in Boston requires a much higher order of devotion.

Zebrafish are widely used as model organisms for biomedical research and their use has skyrocketed in the last 15 years. A nationally important center for zebrafish studies, Children’s Hospital chose Lawrence to oversee the care, breeding, and maintenance of many rare strains of zebrafish with unusual genetic properties. His continuing research helps improve both the welfare of the animals and their utility for scientific research.

Lawrence observes their behavior, identifies patterns, and develops research projects that improve our understanding of zebrafish biology. He credits the professors and graduate teaching assistants at ASU with helping him develop the technical and critical thinking skills to excel in this position. As he says, “ASU faculty, especially professors like David Brown, Bob Ohmart, and the late W.L. Minckley had a profound influence on me. Not only are they and were they giants in the fields of natural history and ecology of the Southwest desert, but they also taught their students the value of paying close and critical attention to the world around them.”

Lawrence didn’t come to ASU with zebrafish or biomedical research in mind, but his interests emerged from his studies in wildlife conservation biology. He says he was particularly influenced by Brown’s field-based ecology course. Lawrence remembers spending time with Brown and his teaching assistants as they traveled through Arizona to study populations of bats, pronghorn and fish. These experiences taught him how to observe animals carefully and find patterns in their behavior, and how to ask and answer questions based on these patterns to understand the behaviors of the animals. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

8 When he graduated and left Arizona, One of Lawrence’s questions relates with a high degree of developmental Lawrence was hired to work in a to zebrafish reproductive biology and synchronization amongst the embryos zebrafish laboratory at Harvard. behavior. Much of the biomedical – all within 10 minutes. Near the beginning of the zebrafish work on zebrafish utilizes zebrafish revolution in biomedical research, embryos. Traditionally, generating These kinds of discoveries and many of his colleagues in molecular 10,000 zebrafish embryos, a technical advancements highlight biology and neuroscience viewed the reasonable number for a study, the importance of interdisciplinary fish primarily as a model or a tool. would require extensive resources. collaboration within the life Little was known about the optimal Forty to 50 small tanks of fish would sciences. Molecular biologists care of these animals in the laboratory be used, requiring a significant and neurobiologists who utilize environment. While zebrafish are amount of space and care. Collecting zebrafish as models for their research hardy and can tolerate substandard the embryos would also take a good focus on different problems than treatment, Lawrence recognized deal of time as biologists must wait Lawrence might, but his focus on early on that using fish in research for the fish to spawn and collect aquaculture and ecology bridges the required more critical, careful embryos as they are produced. The gap between the fish as organisms and standardized treatment, with embryos that result from this process and the fish as models. Animal attention to animal welfare as well as would generally be generated over experimentation is a crucial aspect experimental reproducibility. a period of several hours, meaning of biomedical research, but scientists that their development would not need to continue to consider the Through his careful study of zebrafish necessarily be well-synchronized. This welfare of their animals as organisms behavior in the laboratory and the would add an additional variable, as well as the consistency and wild, Lawrence has contributed to the developmental stage, to any study quality of the organisms supplied to understanding of many characteristics utilizing the embryos. researchers as experimental models. of these fish, including their optimal Lawrence’s work also shows how skills nutrition and reproductive biology. His From observations of wild zebrafish gained at ASU and in organismal work has helped to increase the well- populations in India and Bangladesh, biology can be applied to interesting being of the zebrafish in his care and as well as in the laboratory, Lawrence and meaningful work – often in ways raised the standard of care throughout noted that certain environmental that are entirely unexpected. the zebrafish community. Fish that conditions promoted spawning, are raised under consistent, species- for example, that the fish naturally “Back when I was a university appropriate conditions will have spawn in shallow water. Lawrence student,” says Lawrence, “it was more normalized genetic expression, and one of his colleagues in Boston always my aspiration to become SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 better reproductive success and can designed an apparatus to simulate a professional fish biologist, but I be used in reproducible experiments. a flooded plain and replicate a never would have dreamed that His efforts have made it possible to key condition to achieve an ideal I could do this in the setting of a expand their use in biomedical study, spawning environment in the lab. pediatric research hospital. But and he has written numerous books Now, using this apparatus, scientists here I am all these years later doing and journal articles to share what he can artificially trigger spawning to just that, thanks in large part to my has learned. generate the needed 10,000 embryos experiences at ASU.”

9 Volunteers visiting Tanzania assist in a community education day. Photo: courtesy of Bertram Jacobs

The Variable Vaccine for

Bertram Jacobs. Photo: Karla Moeller HIVBy Karla Moeller Over 33 million people worldwide are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the race for a cure has, it seems, turned into a marathon. Though the road has been long, Bertram Jacobs, a virologist at Arizona State University, has achieved promising results in his efforts to develop an HIV vaccine. While Jacobs doesn’t deal in cures, his work has two main goals: the creation of a vaccine that can prevent infection or extend the life of HIV patients, and successful implementation of an educational curriculum for at-risk individuals that Students teaching for Support for International Change visit a classroom in Tanzania. Photo: courtesy of Bertram Jacobs promotes safer sexual practices.

Jacobs moved to Phoenix 26 years improves the immune response step in the fight against HIV. “A ago, attracted by ASU’s potential over that attained from inactivated vaccine that earns a role in the for groundbreaking research. Now viral material. The second prong is war against HIV may only have 70 a part of the Biodesign Institute at a booster which contains proteins percent efficacy,” Jacobs warns. ASU, Jacobs touts the establishment purified from mammalian cells Thus, even if a successful vaccine for its research facilities and engineered to produce HIV proteins. is created, behavioral change is collaborative atmosphere, which Such a dual delivery system improves still the most important preventive has been vital to ASU’s prominent immunogenicity – the ability for measure against infection. For role in the development of vaccine the vaccination to elicit an immune the last eight years, members of technology. “That is what’s special response and to stimulate specific Jacobs’ lab have taken part in about Biodesign and School of Life immunity within an organism. HIV prevention campaigns with Sciences,” Jacobs explains. “My lab Support for International Change. uses pox viruses, Roy Curtiss’ lab Over the last seven years, Jacobs This organization is devoted to uses salmonella, Charles Arntzen’s and his collaborators, including preventing the spread of HIV lab is using plants for vaccine vectors, those at the University of Lausanne and acquired immune deficiency and Jorge Reyes del Valle’s lab uses in Switzerland, have worked to syndrome (AIDS) in underserved the measles virus as a vector. Here at employ heterologous prime boost areas of Tanzania and providing ASU, we have the potential for using methodology in the design of a live, humanitarian opportunities for all of these different systems to find attenuated-vector HIV vaccine. Called undergraduate students across out what vector works best for any NYVAC-C-KC, this vaccine provides an the globe. Jacobs teaches student individual virus.” Recent findings from immunization of four HIV genes within volunteers about the psychology of Jacobs’ collaborations hold promise the viral vector Vaccinia, followed by behavioral change, as well as enough for a variable approach to vaccines a boost with purified HIV proteins. HIV biology to help promote safer for HIV and other viruses. Vaccinia, the largest mammalian virus, sexual practices. was used to make the first vaccine In the current vaccination method, over 200 years ago, enabling the Ironically, a successful vaccine may both initial immunization and booster eradication of smallpox. The size of make people less likely to alter their doses of a vaccine are delivered the virus facilitates the insertion of behavior. “It’s certainly possible that the same way, usually by injecting genetic material from other viruses the impetus for behavioral change less virulent (attenuated) virus such as HIV, and may prove invaluable will go down if we get a vaccine,” proteins, inactivated virus proteins, for the cost-effectiveness of vaccines Jacobs agrees. Preliminary trials or the virus’ genetic material into for countries that are struggling suggest instead that the vaccine a subject. All three generally elicit financially. “Rather than trying to may work in concert with proper SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 a mediocre immune response. develop two vaccines, for example, for counseling and education. “Data An alternative method, which has two strains of HIV,” Jacobs explains, from previous trials where subjects been productive for Jacobs, is “we can make a single vaccine that go in for a vaccine (or placebo) and called heterologous prime boost can protect against both. For the receive counseling show that the vaccinations. The approach is two- developing world, this potential number of sex partners patients pronged. An initial immunization is for multivalent vaccines is a truly have decreases and the amount of delivered in a genetically engineered remarkable implication.” sex they have per week goes down. Vaccinia pox virus, which then This is evidence that the counseling produces HIV proteins within the Though vaccines hold tremendous that goes on during the trials has a body. The use of live viral material promise, they are not the final positive effect,” Jacobs said. 11 The success of the programs in need a cost-benefit analysis. If one ground against HIV has eclipsed his Tanzania inspired Damien Salamone, person dies from attenuated Vaccinia concerns for his own future. Leaning a recent graduate from Jacobs’ and you save 100,000 lives, from a back in his chair, tucked into his lab, to establish another education public health point of view it is still paper fortress, he grins and says, “I program in Tanzania called HEAL worth the risk. For a pharmaceutical hope I put myself out of a job.” (Health. Empowerment. Aid. Light.) company, it’s not worth the International. While established investment, because they will be Editor’s Note: programs focused on HIV and AIDS sued. We need to think on a societal Selected for a Fulbright Specialist education, there was a lack of health level, rather than just an individual project in the Republic of South services for people living with the level,” Jacobs believes. Fortunately Africa, Bert Jacobs spent time this virus. Educational programs focusing for Jacobs, the Bill and Melinda Gates summer lecturing on the prospects on other health issues were also Foundation invests in such societal for an HIV vaccine and on HIV largely unavailable until Salamone thinking, and the foundation has prevention education. Jacobs is started HEAL International in 2005 to granted Jacobs and his colleagues a one of over 400 U.S. faculty and fill this void. His organization provides three-year, $600,000 supplementary professionals traveling abroad general health education focusing grant to pursue clinical trials. this year through the Fulbright on HIV, AIDS, malaria, sanitation, Specialists Program. Created in nutrition and hygiene. The group also With the success of NYVAC-C-KC 2000 to complement the traditional funds emergency medical support non-human primate trials early in Fulbright Scholar Program, the and provides financial aid for local 2011 and human trials set to begin Specialists program provides women to start businesses that offer in 2012, a key mile-marker in the short-term academic opportunities health services. Such health programs marathon fight against HIV may be of two to six weeks to prominent support the idea that education is fast approaching. Jacobs revels in U.S. faculty to support curricular imperative as a more immediate this fact, believing now, more than and faculty development at post response to viruses than vaccine ever, that he has the “best job in the secondary, academic institutions development, which often takes world.” Sitting in his office, where he around the world. years of research and testing before a peers out at his colleagues over a desk vaccine is released for public use. covered with mountains of scattered articles, Jacobs’ devotion to gaining Funding for vaccines is surprisingly problematic, especially when trying to market live, attenuated virus vaccines. “Our vaccines will not be as safe as non-replicating vaccines, but we really Vampire spider At twilight, vampires stalk their victims. This is even true for one of the tiniest vampires of all: a jumping vampire spider found in Kenya that craves human blood. But don’t cancel your travel plans – the vampire spider’s preferred

prey are female mosquitoes. Lisa Photos: Lisa Taylor Taylor, an ASU doctoral student in biology, studies these spiders to understand why and how female spiders select certain males, those whose blood red coloring makes them as enticing as a succulent blood meal. These tiny vampires may even, in a roundabout way, take a bite out of malaria. Native living and non-native belonging By Kelly Dolezal

In the quiet moments amongst the chatter of birds, the sound of water bubbling over rocks drifts through the woodland. In this multi-layered canopy, cottonwoods and palms tower above chinaberry trees, velvet mesquite and tree-tobacco. Arizona grapes and milkweed vines drape from the branches of the smaller trees to the ground, where salt-bushes, hackberries, and jimson weeds create dense undergrowth that is a perfect habitat for small animals.

Although this woodland could easily be mistaken for a “real” riverbed, it is actually miles from the Salt River and just minutes from the bustling streets of Phoenix. This is the home of Juliet Stromberg and her husband Matthew Chew, faculty members of Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences. Like most Southwestern riparian areas, the plants here are a mixture of “native” and “non- native” species. Stromberg and Chew, however, caution that these terms do not represent meaningful categories.

“‘Native’ and ‘alien’ very quickly get used to label things as good or bad, and SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 that is too simplified,” says Chew, an ecologist-historian whose research on the categorization of species has led him to coin the phrase “anekeitaxonomy,” or taxonomy based solely on the geographical belonging of a species.

“We’re just looking at it from a functional perspective. What roles are these species playing in the ecosystem?” says Stromberg, a conservation ecologist and co-author of the book “Ecology and Conservation of the San Pedro River.” To practice their philosophy, they have converted their home into a place to observe how new species interact in a blossoming ecosystem.

13 When they first saw the Phoenix property in 1998, it was surrounded by a dying citrus orchard near South Mountain Park and featured an historic but derelict private sanitarium from the mid-1920s. The couple was looking for a challenging project, one in which they could funnel their combined expertise in conservation ecology, so they bought it.

They carved out a new drainage pattern for the old orchard irrigation system and planted trees likely to survive in this rich, wet landscape, such as mesquite, palo verde, acacia and hackberry. Soon after, other plants were brought in by the irrigation water and the more than 135 bird species that visit. Some of the plants are actually leftovers from experiments on riparian soil seed banks by Stromberg’s students. “I just took the extra soil and distributed it around,” says Stromberg. “I love the regional plants, but I also think it’s cool that plants come in from other places. What are we going to see now? It’s species exploration in our own four acres.” After years of work and the evolution of the land into a novel ecosystem, the four-acre property now features their renovated home and a lush, eclectic plant community – a small fruit and nut orchard, cacti, grasses, and as diverse a riparian area as you might find along the Salt River.

The diversity and density of plants makes the property a residential “wildlife preserve” for animals as well. Stromberg brings her conservation biology and ecology class to the garden each fall to study the many pollinators that visit the blooming plants. If they are lucky, they might also see copulating king snakes and more desert spiny lizards than the property can handle (which also helps repopulate the species in surrounding areas). Quail and red-tailed hawks have also called the garden their home, as have cotton rats, packrats, and pocket gophers. “Some things that most people probably wouldn’t tolerate,” says Chew.

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 They have found a home because of the eclectic plant population nurtured by Stromberg and Chew. 14 “It is a garden, though a pretty bizarre one,” says Chew. “We do make decisions about what stays and what goes.” What might be surprising, even in ecology circles, is Chew and Stromberg’s acceptance of “non-native” or even “invasive” species. Their garden includes a grove of chinaberry trees, which were introduced to North America from Asia as ornamental plants and are now considered an invasive species by some ecologists. However, the fragrant flowers and nutritious berries help make the garden a haven for birds, butterflies, and bees. In a sunny spot on the other side of the property, a thicket of buffelgrass has sprung up. Huge campaigns have been mounted across the Southwest to destroy this plant, which has been labeled an invasive weed. In this ecosystem, however, it serves as a habitat for quail, lizards and small rodents, not to mention as a romping ground for Chew and Stromberg’s four dogs.

“We’re weeding the world, but what criteria are we using?” SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

Instead of managing their garden by geographic origin, Chew and Stromberg focus on the function of these species in the ecosystem. “We just saw a bunch of honey bees, which aren’t native to North America. But there they are, pollinating that native plant back there. We also have native bees that are in here pollinating imported plants, like lantana. These relationships are not obvious to the participants,” says Chew. “They don’t care. The plant doesn’t care, the bees don’t care. This is working for them.”

15 The truth is that returning ecosystems to the way they were Rather, they simply want people to consider whether the before humans arrived may not be practical or feasible. labels given to species are meaningful. For example, a “Some of these global changes, like increased carbon field guide has labeled a species of toad as “non-native” dioxide and nitrogen deposition rates, are very difficult to Arizona because it spread from adjacent New Mexico. to deal with. Certain plant species – the ones we call the “What do toads know about Arizona or New Mexico?” says weedy species – are more enhanced by the added nutrients Chew. “These sometimes misleading labels are often the than the species they’re replacing. So it ends up being kind sole determinant for ‘non-native’ species management, of a losing battle to keep things the way they are,” says possibly to the detriment of an ecosystem that has Stromberg. “The traditional management is still that we incorporated the new species.” want the plants and animals to reflect the conditions that existed 200 years ago, even though the abiotic physical “Restoration ecology is grounded in ecological principles, infrastructure has undergone substantial change during but in practice the managers of many projects aren’t that time.” ecologists and base their actions on this historical storytelling of ‘native is good and exotic is bad.’ So they Stromberg and Chew do not suggest a bleak acceptance cut the palm tree down and call that restoration,” says of decreased biodiversity, but rather have a grounded and Stromberg. “Populations are dynamic. Evolution is ongoing. practical view of ecosystem evolution. “Some of these Nothing is static. This changing world is the ecosystem species that have been called invasive are evolving very, we’re living in now, where we’re the dominant players and very rapidly as a result of landing in a new habitat. Some where we can control what we want weeded out. Extend are going to get selected out and, eventually, you’ll have that to the public lands and ask, ‘Who decides what gets something very different from the population it came from. weeded out of there? What criteria are they using?’ Exotic So, we’re actually watching new species being created in is not really a good functional criterion. I don’t know if I this process,” says Chew. want to fund people to use herbicide to remove a plant just because it came from somewhere else. We’re weeding the Not all ecologists agree with Chew and Stromberg. The world, but what criteria are we using?” couple, along with 15 other experienced conservationists, recently published an article titled “Don’t judge species For Stromberg and Chew, the question of belonging to an on their origins” in the journal Nature. The article received ecosystem is not one of nomenclature or categorization. In varied objections from invasion biologists, many of whom their garden, a species belongs by extending a leafy branch have been dedicated to eradicating invasive species from to give shade below, by returning nutrients to the soil or by their new habitats. Chew, Stromberg, and the other authors providing a home for other species. It makes no difference are not against preventing introductions of new species where the species came from, just that it has arrived. or even management of new species when it is feasible. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

16 ynor Field studies: By Kirsten Tra On Foot and On Wing

Male Anna’s hummingbird with bicolored leg tag feeding. These tags enable researchers to identify birds as they interact in their natural habitat. Photo: Melissa Meadows Three sleepy individuals bundled up in woolen hats and winter coats trudged through the darkness loaded down with twine, two round collapsible disks of cloth, camping chairs and a plastic box crammed full of odds and ends. As the night waned into the soft, dim blue-grey of early morning, they quietly dismantled four bronze hummingbird feeders, stringing a line between the porch columns where they had hung.

Halfway between the pillars, ASU School of Life Sciences doctoral student Melissa Meadows strung up one of the round disks of cloth, a self-sewn circular contraption of lightweight tulle fabric and pulleys. As her husband Chris Rader held up the sides, she suspended one of the hummingbird feeders inside. She attached a long fishing line, wound tightly around an old, square school ID-card. Pulling the line taut, the tulle fabric sides stayed aloft, permitting free access to the feeder. However, as she released her hold

on the ID-card, the sides swooped down quickly, jostling the feeder slightly SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 and sloshing sugar syrup onto the cement below. “That should work,” she exclaimed and set about hanging up the second net.

Most birds can be trapped by stringing almost invisible net traps across their flight paths. That approach doesn’t work, however, for nimble hummingbirds. Hummingbirds, which can beat their wings up to 80 times per second, see the net at the last instant and veer away sharply to avoid capture. The only way to snare a hummingbird is when it’s feeding. And the early risers would start feeding soon, even before the sun peeked around the nearby San Tan Mountains. 17 “Hummingbirds are always a small sip away from death,” Meadows had already retrieved the fishing line, pulling it Meadows said. With a heart racing at up to 1,200 beats taught so that the trap was primed again. She handed him per second, hummingbirds burn an enormous amount of one of the scraps of cloth. Careful not to snag the beak, energy and will die if they don’t find nourishment every Rader threaded the male’s iridescent head through the two hours when they are active. Birds spend every day small slit, wrapped the sides of the cloth over the bird’s searching endlessly for carbohydrate rich nectar and they back to keep his wings still and pinned the fabric with a eat 12 to 14 times their own body weight per day. Only large safety pin. at night, when the hummingbird goes into a form of hibernation called torpor, does its metabolism slow down. Just as Rader was about to place the diapered bird into On a cold, winter morning like this one, the birds would a box filled with empty toilet paper rolls, pillowed on the wake up desperate to find food. bottom with bubble wrap, Murphy released his fishing line. A second bird had been trapped. Rader settled the Meadows, Rader, and undergraduate assistant Connor first bird into his new accommodations, while Meadows Murphy set up their camping chairs 50 feet from the net retrieved the newest catch: another male, a juvenile this traps and snuggled down in their chairs with thermoses of time, still developing his colorful gorget and crown of hot cocoa. Meadows weighed out small scraps of pliable iridescent feathers. cotton cut into miniature diapers with a small slit – soft cloths to hold hummingbirds as they were captured. She Each of these iridescent, scale-like feathers consists of kept one fishing line taut, pinning the ID-card with her foot. numerous, tiny sub-feathers, called barbs, which are made of even smaller barbules, woven together by tiny hooks. The trio fell silent as the first hummingbird made his Because of this unique structure, the feathers act like approach. He hovered briefly in front of the feeder, thousands of miniature prisms, refracting light so the bird evaluating its new position, and then dashed forward to shimmers like a jewel. sip a sugary reward. As he settled down to drink, Melissa released the card held by her foot. The sides of the net The eye-catching males, though striking, would not be swooshed down. Rader darted up from his seat and jogged used in Meadows’ current experiment. She needed only over to the trap. Inside the trap, the Anna’s hummingbird Anna’s females. While the females are not as gaudy as their (Calypte anna) circled around, trying to find a way out. male counterparts, they do have a small patch of iridescent Rader slowly inserted his hand through a slit and grasped feathers on their neck. She wants to find out if females hold of the tiny bird. With the bird’s head cushioned evaluate a rival female based on the brilliance and size of between his index and middle finger, he walked back to this coloration. the cluster of chairs.

2 3

4 5 ASU School of Life Sciences doctoral student Melissa Meadows traps and releases Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte annna) as part of a behavioral study of the birds. 1) Female Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte annna) feeding at a flower.Photo: Melissa Meadows 2) A hummingbird trap. Photo: Melissa Meadows 3) Melissa Meadows holds Anna’s hummingbirds, 4) The hummingbirds receive frequent

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 feedings, 5) A female hummingbird is measured during the study. Photos: Chris Rader

18 Last year Meadows examined if aggression increased with the size and brilliance of male ornamentation in Anna’s hummingbirds. In many species, the gaudier a male, the better his chances are of impressing and attracting a mate. Visually striking males tend to dominate their less colorful male counterparts, winning all the females for themselves. Meadows returned several more times to the author’s backyard to trap for birds. But not in Anna’s hummingbirds; the less ornate males act Traynor says, “On one occasion as we sat more aggressively toward their flashy competitor. A showy chatting in the morning sun, a male Anna’s male would probably draw all the females in the area, hummingbird flew straight up into the Meadows mused. To have any chance of mating, the less air above us. He folded his wings in tight ornate birds need to drive away their extravagant rivals. So against his body and then hurtled himself to make up for their lack of ornamentation, they respond toward us in what appeared to be a free fall. forcefully toward more brilliantly colored males. Just before he crashed into us he diverted quickly, making a loud chirping sound.” For some unknown reason, female Anna’s were scarce this Scientists long thought the bird produced year. Meadows had spent the last five days trapping without this noise vocally, but Chris Clarke, the catching a single female. Some mornings went by very brother of SOLS graduate student Rebecca slowly, with few birds approaching the feeders inside the Clarke, found that the sound is caused traps. But today she was trapping in my backyard in Queen by wind vibrating through the bird’s thin, Creek, Arizona, a town 45 minutes outside of Phoenix in outside tail feathers, much like a clarinetist the foothills of the undeveloped San Tan Mountains, where blowing on his reed instrument. large agricultural fields still sprawl along the roads.

Within the first 15 minutes of trapping, Meadows and her team caught three birds. By 10 a.m., they had netted 18, three of which were females, including one Costas hummingbird, which had a gorget that shimmered in an amethyst triangle. Melissa rarely captures Costas as these birds shun developed areas. Her research has focused on Anna’s hummingbirds, which flourish in city suburbs, dining on the shrubs, flowers and trees planted throughout Phoenix gardens.

Excited to have captured two Anna’s females she could use in her behavioral experiment, Meadows decided to head back to the main ASU campus, where she houses the birds for two to three weeks before releasing them back in the wild. One by one, the males were unpinned from their cloth jackets and set free.

I had the chance to release one male, holding the small, Photo: Pierre Deviche airy body in my hand. Against my warm flesh, the tiny bird vibrated continuously, its heart pumping almost 20 times as fast as mine. As I opened my hand, I felt the brush of At the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s feathers push against my palm, the tiny claws grazing my hummingbird aviary in Tucson, skin. The bird lifted up and sped away, flying over the researchers were puzzled that although neighbor’s roof. the females mated with the males, they had trouble building nests. After much Meadows released the Costas female on her lap. Instead head scratching they realized the birds of soaring off, it nuzzled down into the woolen hat she had were missing a crucial material. You will SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 placed beneath the bird to keep it warm as she fed it sugar rarely catch glimpse of a hummingbird syrup from a plastic syringe. The bird showed no desire to nest, but they are tiny little constructions leave this cozy spot, fluffing out her feathers and settling of moss and plant fibers woven together down as if she’d found a new nest. Meadows held her with silk females gather from spider hat out and eventually the grey bird with gold streaks on webs. When spiders were added into her head and a triangular amethyst choker took to the air, the aviary, the female hummingbirds leaving us behind. immediately started raising young.

19 Ozark hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi. Photos: courtesy of Phil Colclough and Kirsten Hecht-Kardasz, Florida Museum of Natural History, Herpetology section, University of Florida

Max Nickerson: from the origins of the Phoenix Zoo to the last of the Hellbenders

Listen in With a name that might better fit a Hells herpetofauna in Peru and Costa Rica. (see inside covers) Angels Motorcycle Club member, a He has also served as president of hellbender is a salamander, and one that national and international herpetological renowned herpetologist Max Nickerson societies and led in the development and favors. Found in the clear, cool reaches of management of major museums, zoos the North Fork of Missouri’s White River and public programs both east and west in the Ozarks, this magnificent amphibian of the Missouri River. – the Ozark hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi – grows to lengths Nickerson’s first job working with of more than two feet long. Like reptiles was in 1960, when he was many of its amphibian relatives, the the manager of the ASU herpetology Ozark hellbender is threatened with collection. While a graduate student, extinction. Population declines have he collected and preserved specimens, been accelerated by a number of factors, extracted and tested venoms in the now- including decreased habitat, plummeting defunct Poisonous Animals Research water quality, legal and illegal harvesting, Laboratory (PARL) and chased down rising microbial loads in rivers and reptiles from Bloody Basin, Arizona, to emerging disease. Southern Sonora, Mexico. Nickerson also managed two of the field camps of Nickerson, an affiliate professor at the the legendary Southwestern ecologist University of Florida (UF) at Gainesville W.L. Minckley – one on the White Water and Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians Apache Reservation near Cibeque in at UF’s Florida Museum of Natural the Sonoran Desert and the other in History, is also a rarity. His projects, the Cuatro Cienegas basin in Coahuila, such as the preservation of hellbenders Mexico. Nickerson also did his share of and other endangered species, teaching and captivating the minds of have propelled him to international his students, whether it was in the human prominence since he graduated with a anatomy and physiology, comparative doctorate from Arizona State University’s anatomy and general zoology Department of Zoology in 1968. He has classrooms, or in his office, where he

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 led scientific expeditions in the Amazon, sometimes housed cobras, sea snakes radio-tracked pit-vipers and surveyed and mambas. 20 Promoting public education and building public science resources has been a central focus in Nickerson’s life. In addition to his ASU activities, he played a unique role in the planning and founding of the Phoenix Zoo, when he wrestled three, well-fed, 10-foot alligators from Jack Adams’ Alligator Farm in Mesa, Arizona, to become the zoo’s first residents. Nickerson went on to serve as an advisor for the British Broadcasting Corporation, FOX TV and National Geographic. He also helped develop a variety of shows including a television series, “Desert Denizens” for Channel Eight (KAET-TV) that was aired for students in the Phoenix metropolitan area schools; “Zoo World,” a series for the general public that was initially aired in 1966 by the University of Missouri – Columbia with NBC affiliate KOMU-TV; and a biological educational series for ABC affiliate KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

While Nickerson has advanced scientific research and literature in the herpetological sciences for more than 50 years and has orchestrated the development and management of zoos and museums in Arizona, Missouri, Wisconsin and Florida, his most important impacts may be those he has made as a mentor for young scientists seeking careers in herpetology, biology, conservation and related fields. Many students started as interns with Nickerson at Max Allen’s Zoological Gardens in Eldon, Missouri, a small zoo accredited by the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums. His skills as a mentor and educator transferred well to raising his daughter, Cheryl, who was born while Nickerson was at ASU. Cheryl Nickerson is now a professor with ASU’s School of Life Sciences, and researcher with ASU’s Biodesign Institute. A microbiologist whose scientific studies have used the microgravity environment of spaceflight and flight analogue systems to advance understanding of host-pathogen interactions, her research has led to new insights into the interactions between host, microbes and the environment, which offer new avenues for the treatment of infection and disease.

Max Nickerson, herpetologist, with Hellbenders have recently entered the junior daughter Cheryl Nickerson, professor Nickerson’s scientific life, too. She and her father in ASU’s School of Life Sciences have embarked on a series of scientific studies that combine her expertise in microbial pathogenesis with her father’s more than 40 years of hellbender studies. The dynamic Nickerson duo works with ASU students and a collaborative team led by Mark Ott at the NASA Johnson Space Center and Jeff Briggler with the Missouri Department of Conservation. Together, this team hopes to understand the effect of microbes on the impaired ability of hellbenders to heal or ward off infection. Their findings, thus far, suggest that opportunistic pathogens, many of which form biofilms, play a direct role in the declining health of the species. The Nickersons’ first co-authored publication, “Evaluation of Microorganisms Cultured From Injured and Repressed Tissue Regeneration Sites in Endangered Giant Aquatic Ozark Hellbender Salamanders,” was recently accepted for publication in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) journal, PLoS ONE. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 “I am as proud of this paper as any I have ever had, as it has long been a dream of mine to be an author on a joint publication with my father,” says Cheryl, who recently received NASA’s 2011 Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal – the administration’s most prestigious commendation for outstanding contributions to science. “I hope that this will be the first of many of our publications together!”

Is there any doubt there will be? Come hellbender or high water, both Nickerson and his daughter have made impacts in their fields that are sure to continue.

Natural history’s mysteries: The case of the disappearing rabbits By David E. Brown

Everyone loves a mystery. This is especially true if the protagonists reportedly occur in nature. Grainy photos of chupacabras, onzas and sasquatches are sure to make headlines. Species extinctions are also a frequent source of wonderment. What really killed off the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker and the plentiful, nearly five-billion strong, passenger pigeon? Such subjects have generated a plethora of articles, books, and radio and television specials.

Mass killings create particular intrigue. The discovery of 5,000 dead blackbirds near Beebe, Arkansas, for example, triggered a rash of national speculation on New Year’s Day, 2011. So did a later discovery of 80,000 dead fish in the same state. Scientists determined the causes of death as blunt force trauma and cold temperatures, but were less certain of the scenarios involved. The explanation that fireworks had flushed the birds from their roosts, causing them to fly blindly into buildings only raised more questions. Why were no wounded birds found? Why would birds known to migrate at night suddenly find darkness so hostile? Uncertain answers and elusive explanations fuel such natural history mysteries.

The fascinating book, “Locust: the devastating rise and mysterious disappearance of the insect that shaped the American frontier,” by Jeffrey A. Lockwood delves into the history of the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus – reputedly once the most abundant animal in North America. Headquartered in mountain meadows and prairies along the Continental Divide, these locusts occurred in numbers that dwarfed those of the passenger pigeon and the neighboring bison. Now the locusts are gone; not even one has been seen since the last two specimens were collected in Manitoba, Canada, in

1902. Now, the only Rocky Mountain locusts found today are either in museum SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 collections or embedded in the dwindling glaciers of the Rocky Mountains.

As in all good natural history mysteries, Lockwood’s well-reasoned discussion of the demise of the locusts leaves the definitive answer open to question. If homesteading farmers and their livestock caused the extinction of the insects, Results of a jackrabbit drive in southern as he claims, why did the locust fail to persist in the intermountain grasslands of Arizona, ca. 1940s. The animals were Yellowstone National Park and other enclaves never subject to plow and cow? then donated to the Salvation Army. Until such time as someone can explain the failure of these locusts to survive in Photo: courtesy of Arizona Historical environments that have never been farmed, one of nature’s biggest mysteries Society Photo AHS #B29259 remains unsolved. 23 Like Lockwood’s unresolved locust riddle, Arizona is at the However, the bunny tide soon turned. Since the 1960s, center of its own natural history mystery – revolving around rabbit populations have decreased. What changed and what rabbits. Rabbit numbers in Arizona were once much higher, caused the irruptions in the first place? Examination of old as reported by both ethnologists and naturalists. Jackrabbits weather records and reports show that most irruptions took in particular greatly outnumbered big game animals in the place during dry years preceded by one or more wet ones. diet of Native Americans from Snaketown to the Moqui Wet years could produce an abundance of green feed, thus pueblos. So popular was this long-legged game that the means to boost lagamorph populations to prodigious elaborate rabbit “drives” were undertaken, where animals numbers. The problem with this scenario is that not all wet were driven by the hundreds into nets woven for years resulted in high rabbit numbers and not all dry years the purpose. caused serious rabbit depredations.

Such drives were also not the sole purview of Arizona’s The most likely explanation, offered by the astute naturalist native peoples. When large scale agriculture invaded George Bird Grinnell more than 100 years ago, is that California in the 1870s, jackrabbits were a force to be lagamorph irruptions stemmed from predator control reckoned with. Between 1882 and 1895, jackrabbit drives programs. Programs to reduce coyotes, bobcat, eagle were seen as a way and fox populations to reduce pests through poisoning, and protect the trapping and other crops. Some of the means preceded biggest drives netted every irruption. It thousands of black- was only logical that tailed or California destroying the rabbit’s jackrabbits. With the predators resulted in passing years, these a superabundance increases in numbers of prey species. of the population, Mystery solved? Well, called irruptions, not entirely. Though spread to the perhaps the cause Great Plains. Entire of increases in the communities turned rabbit populations, out for gala trapping this answer merely events from 1894 leads us to another through to the 1930s. question.

Meanwhile, Arizona Coyote bounties, had developed its poison baits, cyanide own rabbit irruptions. “getters” and A serious depredation steel traps are no problem was reported longer decreasing in the Territory of coyote populations, Arizona’s alfalfa fields in 1897 and organized drives took leaving coyote numbers at historic highs. The same story place in 1904, 1905 and 1908, with the county offering a can be seen among foxes and other small predators. five-cent bounty for each pair of rabbit ears turned in. One Though high numbers of predators have driven Arizona’s drive in the Glendale area in 1905 resulted in 715 rabbits two jackrabbit species to all-time low numbers, we don’t being bagged and bountied. Another irruption, this one in understand what caused this boom among their primary a non-agricultural area, was reported near Canyon Diablo in predators. Construction of wildlife water developments and 1909 after which 38,331 jacks and cottontails were shipped a proliferation of human-supplied foods – from garbage to to markets in Los Angeles, California. bird feeders – may be part of the answer, but no one yet knows for sure. The five-cent bounty carried over to statehood in 1912 and periodic irruptions and “rabbit round-ups” continued Whether an upsurge in deaths or births, these mysteries through the 1920s, 1930s and even into the 1940s – despite of population numbers reveal the complexities of animal state and federal agricultural departments discouraging ecology. Humans may create new resources or implement drives as ineffective and dangerous. Finally, in the 1950s, the hunting or trapping programs that affect numbers of various drives ceased, but rabbit irruptions continued. In response, species, but our understanding of the effects of these on December 19, 1950, the Arizona Game and Fish changes or the causes of patterns in nature is less extensive Commission declared rabbits in the Queen Creek-Chandler than we’d like to believe. Alas, such is the nature of nature’s area to be a nuisance and not subject to normal hunting mysteries. If we learn anything from these mysteries, from regulations. On September 10, 1954, the commission then bird to rabbit and coyotes in Arizona, it’s that in matters of issued a license for the commercial processing and canning science, there’s still lots of learning to do. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 of jackrabbits in Cochise County. 24 SOLS Books Move over Kermit, there’s a native frog rising in the West

With a big green puppet in hand, Elizabeth Davidson, a microbiologist at ASU, has young children imagining the life cycles and life challenges of a threatened frog species in Arizona – and cheering for the “underfrog.”

“Cheery: The true adventures of a Chiricahua Leopard Frog,” is a picture book written by Davidson and brought to life by graphic artist Michael Hagelberg. Published by Five Star Publications, Inc., the book was developed with support from the Heritage Fund, funded by Arizona Game and Fish Department, and was officially designated an Arizona Centennial Legacy Project by the Arizona Historical Commission.

In the tale, a Chiricahua (Cheer-a-cow-ah) pollywog, Cheery, grows up with a very uncertain future. “Round and fat and pale green with brown spots” makes tadpoles good eating for voracious introduced, non-native species in waterways and ponds. Crayfish, bait fish and bullfrogs, used as bait and discarded by fishermen, native snakes and birds are all predators of native pollywogs and young frogs.

Who knew that growing to an adult frog is so full of challenges in the Southwest?

If that weren’t enough, amphibians are threatened by microscopic predators. In this case, an infectious disease is decimating frog populations in Arizona and worldwide. More than one-third of amphibian species (frogs, toads and salamanders) are now extinct or threatened with extinction. This is the real-life science that Davidson studies and teaches in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, Learn more about Arizona’s in addition to her work with infectious insect diseases and mentoring of high real-life Chiricahua school and undergraduate life sciences students. reintroduction program: “Children need a way to relate to things that are important in the environment, View because they are important in ways that no one could even guess,” says Davidson. “This book helps them learn a bit about biology, about predator- (see inside covers) prey relationships, about lifecycles, about ecology and about overcoming obstacles. Not to mention, frogs are just appealing. Look at Kermit!”

ASU alumnus Mike Sredl, now a biologist with Arizona Game and Fish, is very active in a breeding and reintroduction program like the one described by Cheery. The Phoenix Zoo supports tanks and a program to breed disease- free leopard frogs. Ponds are then renovated, pools deepened, and non- native predators are removed, before tadpoles and froglets (young frogs) are reintroduced to their former homes in the wild. SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1

Davidson adds, “Hopefully our children and grandchildren pay attention and we continue to support organizations like Arizona Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, The Phoenix Zoo and other groups that build practical solutions to our environmental challenges. It’s important.”

25 Awards and Honors – fall 2011

Manfred Laubichler

Jianguo (Jingle) Wu

Sudhir Kumar

Cheryl Nickerson

Bert Hölldobler

Andrew Smith

Wayne Frasch

David Pearson

Charles Arntzen

Jennifer Fewell

Page Baluch

Sharon Crook

Roy Curtiss III ceremony hosted by President Michael Crow and Executive Vice President and Provost Professor Sudhir Kumar, who is Elizabeth D. Capaldi. Honors also the director of the Center for Evolutionary Medicine and The German National Academy Professor Jennifer Fewell, Informatics at ASU’s Biodesign of Sciences Leopoldina honored who is also associate dean of Institute, was selected as a Foundation Professor Bert the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers 2011 finalist for the Governor’s Hölldobler with the Cothenius College, was named a 2012 Celebration of Innovation Award Medal for lifetime achievement as President’s Professor during the in Academia. Kumar and his part of the Leopoldina’s Annual 2012 Faculty Excellence Awards team were recognized for their Assembly in Germany. Hölldobler ceremony hosted by President development of high-impact has revolutionized understanding Michael Crow and Executive computer software to aid in the about social organization in Vice President and Provost large-scale analysis of DNA, insects, chemical communication Elizabeth D. Capaldi. including tools to help identify the and orientation behavior in genetic roots of pathogens... animals, and the evolution of Regents’ Professor Charles animal communities... Arntzen, who is also a Professor Jianguo Wu received researcher in ASU’s Biodesign the 2011 Outstanding Scientific Professor Cheryl Nickerson, who Institute, was invited to give Achievements Award from the is also a researcher with ASU’s the Frazier Lecture at International Association for Biodesign Institute, received the the American Society for Landscape Ecology at the 8th Exceptional Scientific Achievement Horticultural Science’s annual World Congress on Landscape Medal – NASA’s most prestigious conference in Hawaii. He was Ecology, held in Beijing, China. commendation for outstanding also invited to speak at the contributions to science. Nickerson annual meeting of the Korean Professor Manfred Laubichler, has pioneered work with infectious Society of Plant Biotechnology who is also a senior sustainability disease and host-pathogen held at Chungnam National scientist in ASU’s Global Institute of interactions during spaceflight. University, Daejeon, Republic Sustainability, was named a 2011 She was also selected as one of Korea in 2011. President’s Professor during the of four finalists for the Arizona SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 2012 Faculty Excellence Awards Bioindustry Association’s Award for Research Excellence... 26 California; the International Union of Microbiological Societies 2011 Congress, Sapporo, Japan; Professor Andrew Smith, who is the International Symposiums also a President’s Professor and in Veterinary Public Health, Parents Association Professor, was Research Professor David Chengdu and Beijing, China; honored for his work chairing the Pearson has been funded by the Immunotherapeutics and Lagomorph Socialist Group. In the Smithsonian Institution in Vaccine Summit in Cambridge, February 2012, the International Washington, D.C. to develop Massachusetts; and also gave the Union for Conservation of Nature a collaborative classroom with Maurice Ogur Memorial Lecture at (IUCN) presented Smith with an K-12 teachers and students in the University of Illinois. Award of Excellence during the Panama and Arizona, with partners IUCN Species Survival Commission in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts Sharon Crook is an associate Chairs’ meeting in Abu Dhabi. and Sciences, Reforming Science professor in SOLS with a joint Education for Teachers and appointment in the School of Professor Roy Curtiss III was Students (ReSETS) program, Ask Mathematical and Statistical appointed a member of the A Biologist and Audubon Arizona. Sciences. In fall 2011, she was a National Research Council (NRC) Pearson was also invited to be Scottish Informatics and Computer Standing Committee for the Review the keynote opening and closing Science Alliance Distinguished of Food Safety and Defense Risk speaker for the third Bolivian Visiting Fellow with the School Assessments, Analyses and Data; Congress of Entomology held in of Informatics in the University the Scientific Advisory Board, Santa Cruz, Bolivia in 2011. of Edinburgh. Crook presented Northeast Biodefense Center a series of Masterclass talks (NBC); the Review Committee, The Professor Wayne Frasch, who and conducted a workshop on Los Alamos National Laboratory is a member of the ASU Center “Creating, Documenting and Center for Bio-Security Science; for the Study of Early Events in Sharing Network Models.” the International Scientific Advisory Photosynthesis, received the Committee, International Congress Faculty Achievement Research Page Baluch, manager of the W. M. of Mucosal Immunology; and Award during the ASU Alumni Keck Bioimaging Facility, has been the American Association of Association’s 2012 Founders’ Day named president of the Arizona Immunology. He also spoke at a awards dinner held in February. Imaging and Microanalysis Society series of workshops and meetings Frasch’s research into biosensing for 2012 (azmicroscopy.org). in 2011, including a Department stretches into medicine and anti- of Defense Microbial Data terrorism activities, as the tools he Integration Workshop in Berkeley, has developed have the potential to detect contaminants in the human body or the environment at a level far more sensitive than existing techniques.

Professor Janet Franklin will work with partners from Conservation International, University of Nevada- Faculty Awards models will be used to study the Reno, Conservation Biology Institute, effects of climate change on the UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Riverside, distribution of a widespread lizard. National Science Foundation UC-Berkeley and UC-Los Angeles. The The models will link attributes (NSF) funding in SOLS includes team was awarded $3,563,000 and of individual lizards to see how three projects through a new will study whether microenvironments whole populations of lizards NSF program that promotes adapt to specific environmental collaborative research; these conditions. For example, the projects constitute nearly one models consider how temperature quarter of the all grants of this type and rainfall limit lizard activity, that were awarded nationally. such as feeding. Feeding is then SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 related in the models to survival Associate Professor Michael and reproduction. By monitoring Angilletta will work with partners the behavior and measuring activity in the University of North Carolina of lizards across the entire United Janet Franklin and University of Texas-Austin States, these scientists will be on the project: “Incorporating Michael Angilletta able to determine how climate in Physiological Variation in different regions affects lizards.” Mechanistic Range Models for Ecological Forecasting.” The team was awarded $930,000. The project summary states that: “Computer 27 Faculty Awards (continued) govern macroecology. This project’s integrated paleoscape model for the Associate Professor Sharon Crook was summary states that: “Environmental early Middle and Late Pleistocene of awarded a three-year, $276,521 NIH conditions vary locally in mountainous the south coast of South Africa.” A grant to continue development of the regions of the Western United second, $410,000, five-year study with “NeuroML database for multiscale States, and rapid climate change the University of Florida will examine models in neuroscience.” She also may determine the survival and “Long-term dynamics and resilience received a Norway Research Council migration rates of trees. It involves of terrestrial plant and animal Travel Grant through Norwegian an interdisciplinary team of climate communities in the Bahamas.” University of Life Sciences to fund a scientists, ecologists, hydrologists and three month visit last summer. plant geographers. Field studies of Associate Professor and ASU Curator local climate, tree establishment and Nico Franz was awarded a $639,747 Assistant Professor Kiona Ogle has tree growth will be combined with NSF CAREER grant to examine received a three-year, $1.04 million regional climate modeling and models the “Systematics of eustyline and Department of Energy’s Office of that depict plant population and fire geonemine weevils: Connecting Biological and Environmental Research dynamics across the landscape.” and contrasting Caribbean and grant titled “Data-model synthesis Neotropical mainland radiations.” of grassland carbon metabolism: Associate Professor Sharon Hall Quantifying direct, indirect and will work with a team composed of Funding from the National Institutes interactive effects of warming and partners from ASU, the Cary Institute of Health (NIH) included awards to elevated carbon dioxide.” This is a of Ecosystem Studies, USDA Forest Professor Roy Curtiss III, who is also collaborative project with partners with Service, University of Minnesota- the director of the Center for Infectious the University of Wyoming, Colorado Twin Cities, Florida International Diseases and Vaccinology at the State University and the USDA-ARS in University, Marine Biological Biodesign Institute. Curtiss received Fort Collins, Colorado. Laboratory, UC-Irvine, Clark University $5.4 million to develop Salmonella- and Indiana University. The group vectored vaccines to prevent received $2.9 million to examine gastroenteritis, enteric fever, typhoid the “Ecological homogenization fever, plague, dysentery and influenza of urban America.” The project and perform pre-clinical evaluations summary states that: “Urban, to supportPhase I clinical trials. In suburban and ex-urban environments addition, he was granted $1,488,744 are important ecosystems, which from the USDA to investigate are increasing across the United extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli States. The conversion of wild to (ExPEC), a leading source of serious urban ecosystems is resulting in blood infections and other ailments. Sharon Hall Nico Franz homogenization across cities, where neighborhoods in very different parts Professor Charles Perrings, Professor of the country have similar patterns Ann Kinzig and Assistant Professor of roads, residential lots, commercial Eli Fenichel and their partners areas, and wet areas. This project will were awarded a four-year, $1.6 test the idea that homogenization million grant from NIH to model the alters the storage of carbon and anthropogenic effects in the spread nitrogen, which has continental-scale of infectious disease. Their partners implications. It will generate datasets include scientists with ASU’s School of Charles Perrings Ann Kinzig ranging from household surveys to Human Evolution and Social Change regional-scale remote sensing across (SHESC), Princeton, the ecoHealth six metropolitan areas that cover the Alliance, Michigan State University, major climatic regions of the United UC-San Diego, UC-Davis, University of States: Phoenix; Miami; Baltimore; Washington and UC-Santa Cruz. Boston; St. Paul; and Los Angeles.” Associate Professor Carsten Duch Professor Janet Franklin, who is also received two NIH awards. A five- an adjunct professor with ASU’s School year, $1.1 million grant to study Eli Fenichel Carsten Duch of Geographical Sciences and Urban the mechanisms and functions of Planning, was awarded two additional Drosophila motoneuron dendritic collaborative NSF research awards. shape development, and a $500,000 The first is a $1 million project with award to equip School of Life Sciences ASU’s School of Human Evolution W. M. Keck Bioimaging Facility with and Social Change researchers a Leica TCS SP5 Laser Scanning entitled “Developing and testing an Confocal Microscope.

SOLS 2012 | v olume 8 N o . 1 Kiona Ogle 28 Student Achievements Marie Fujitani, a graduate student Caitlin Otto, a graduate student in Eli Fenichel’s lab, was awarded in Shelley Haydel’s lab, received the American Fisheries Society travel awards from ASU’s Graduate Equal Opportunities Section Travel College, GPSA and SOLS Graduate Award. In addition, undergraduate Programs to present her research researcher Andrea Sylvia was at the IV International Conference Marie Fujitani Takahiro Maruki awarded a SOLS undergraduate on Environmental, Industrial research program travel grant and a and Applied Microbiology Barrett Honors College travel grant (BioMicroWorld 2011) in Malaga- for the American Fisheries Society’s Torremolinos, Spain. 2011 national meeting. Eric Moody, a doctoral student in Takahiro Maruki, a graduate student John Sabo’s lab, received a grant with Yuseob Kim and Jesse Taylor in from the Arizona Water Association. ASU’s School of Mathematical and James Waters Joanna Malukiewicz Statistical Sciences, received three Mimi Kessler, a doctoral candidate travel awards from the ASU’s Graduate in Andrews Smith’s lab, was College, School of Life Sciences and awarded the Arizona Association the Society for Molecular Biology of Environmental Professionals and Evolution in 2011. “Future Environmental Professional” Scholarship; a Lisa Dent Memorial James Waters, a doctoral candidate Fellowship; a GPSA grant; and in Jon Harrison’s lab, received a funds from the Melikian Center Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Research Support Fund. Caitlin Otto Eric Moody Grant (DDIG). The award will also support undergraduate training and Sarah Kuzmiak, a doctoral student a program with the Estrella Mountain in Wayne T. Willis’ lab, received the Regional Park in Maricopa County, Norman James Research Award for Arizona, designed to educate and her presentation at the Southwest engage the public regarding insect College of Sports Medicine biodiversity. Conference in October 2011.

Joanna Malukiewicz, a doctoral Kevin McCluney, a postdoctoral Mimi Kessler Sarah Kuzmiak candidate in Anne Stone’s lab fellow in John Sabo’s lab, reports (SHESC), was awarded a SOLS that a paper generated by the 2009 Travel Award, GPSA Research Grant Frontiers in Life Sciences conference and was a panelist on primate “Dynamic Deserts” was published hybridization roundtable discussion in the journal Biological Reviews at the XIV Brazilian Primatology (2011), titled “Shifting species Conference in 2011. interactions in terrestrial dryland ecosystems under altered water availability and climate change.” Kevin McCluney

Listen in, Read more or View at: sols.asu.edu/publications/mag_vol8_01.php NIGHT OF THE OPEN DOOR Saturday, March 2, 2013

The Night of the Open Door is a signature event of the Arizona SciTech Festival and offers a window into the creative energy that powers a world-class university. Hundreds of ASU student volunteers, faculty and staff come out to host more than 135 interactive and exciting exhibits and events. Teenagers, children, parents, neighbors, alumni and entrepreneurs can visit laboratories, living collections, museums; meet ASU students and experts; and share in artistic performances, culture, languages, lectures, and hands-on activities.

You and your family are invited to join us on March 2, 2013 for our second annual ASU Night of the Open Door. Step out, explore and celebrate Arizona’s and ASU’s leadership in science, technology, innovation and creative enterprise!

opendoor.asu.edu