LEC Biodiversity News

By linking an expert nutritionist from WashU with a team of ethnobotanists from the Missouri Botanical Garden, this transdisciplinary project delved into the complex interplay between plants and people.

Can St Louis Missouri, the city of 280,000 residents located near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers be the nature city of the twenty-first century? As Peter Bernhardt reports, public knowledge of the city’s urban biology is poor, so St Louis has some catching up ahead if it’s to achieve this lofty title.

Lora Iannotti, a Biodiversity Fellow and professor at Wahu’s Brown School sat down with WashU’s School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea to discuss a paper Iannotti co-authored, “Wild Foods Are Positively Associated with Diet Diversity and Child Growth in a Protected Forest Area of Madagascar.” This paper was co-authored with several Biodiversity Fellows from Missouri Botanical Garden: Tabita Randrianarivony, Armand Randrianasolo, Robbie Hart and originated from a Living Earth Collaborative Seed Grant project. Learn more about the project at https://bit.ly/Wildfood

Scientists show changes in genes related to diet of urban coyotes who eat foods high in glucose and starches

A recent study in Genome Biology and Evolution co-authored by LEC postdoc Liz Carlen examines the genetic makeup of urban coyotes to understand how these animals adapt to city environments. The research suggests that urban coyotes may be undergoing evolutionary changes that enable them to thrive alongside human populations. These findings contribute to our understanding of urban ecology and the impact of urbanization on wildlife species.

The Revolutionizing Species Identification (RSI) project at the Missouri Botanical Garden uses advanced AI technology to digitize its vast herbarium collection, creating a global reference library for rapid plant species identification. This online platform will enable scientists to upload data from unidentified plants for automated identification, accelerating restoration and conservation efforts worldwide. Additionally, the project provides training in plant taxonomy and herbarium creation, cultivating the next generation of botanical experts.

Researchers with the Forest Park Living Lab say that the home ranges of both Silver, a male coyote, and Solar, a female coyote with pups, were typical for urban coyotes.

Forest Park Living Lab researchers aimed to track two coyotes for a year to study their behavior and movement patterns. Unfortunately, the animals did not survive.

LEC postdoctoral fellow, Elizabeth Carlen and UC Berkely student Tyus Williams explore how superstitions have created biases in approaches to animal conservation.

Biologist Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at WashU, received a 2024 Spark Award from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS).

USHSP associate professor of biology and LEC Biodiversity Fellow, Ben Jellen, is featured on Saint Louis on the Air discussing his copperhead snake study in Powder Valley and his longstanding partnership with Saint Louis Zoo.

LEC Co-director, Crickette Sanz was installed as the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences Sept. 4. Her installation address was titled “Learning From Great Apes About Rank.”

On September 13th, the Living Earth Collaborative — a three-way partnership between the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Zoo, and WashU — convened a symposium to imagine a St. Louis that lives in harmony with its natural surroundings.

The wildflowers that bring a burst of color to meadows and forests across St. Louis are blooming later and longer than they did in previous decades, according to a study led by researchers with the Living Earth Collaborative, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan. The study by Missouri Botanical Garden’s Matthew Austin and Ken Olsen, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology is published in New Phytologist.

Biodiversity Fellow and UMSL faculty, Nathan Muchhala’s new research published in New Phytologist reveals the evolutionary advantage that this characteristic provides to plants to ensure that they are discovered by bats.

Missouri Botanical Garden has named international botanist and conservationist Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann as the Garden’s next President and Director and George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis. Lohmann will be the eighth president of the Garden and the first woman to hold the position.

KMOV reporter Nathan Vickers talks to Heather Navarro, director of the Midwest Climate Collaborative, and Kim Medley, director of Tyson Research Center, about the impacts of urban heat islands.

Princeton University Press interviews Jonathan Losos, LEC director, and Ben A. MInteer about The Heart of the Wild, a new collection of essays about conservation in the modern world.

Jonathan Losos, a distinguished Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and the Director of the Living Earth Collaborative, teaches a unique course titled “The Science of Cats” at Washington University. The course has captured the interest of students and cat enthusiasts alike. Listen in as Jonathan discusses this course on Wake Up Call, a program on KFI AM 640.

Jonathan Losos’s course, “The Science of Cats” was featured in the Uncommon Courses series, an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. that highlights unconventional approaches to teaching.

Soil microbial communities play a crucial role in oak woodland restoration, influencing the success of conservative herbaceous species reintroductions. Using DNA metabarcoding, researchers at Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Nature Reserve studied how different restoration ages affect soil microbial composition and plant growth. Their findings suggest that younger restorations may offer more beneficial microbial conditions for conservative plant species, potentially improving nutrient uptake and stress resistance.

A new study in the journal Ecology Letters suggests that “ornamented” dragonfly species are better able to survive habitat destruction and other human threats. The study’s authors include Michael Moore, a former postdoctoral researcher with the Living Earth Collaborative and Kim Medley, Tyson Research Lab Director.

The Missouri Botanical Garden is leveraging AI to digitize its nearly 8 million plant specimens, creating an online database to support conservation efforts and preserve critical ecological data. By combining AI with historical and genetic information, the Garden is also advancing research on tree migration and ecosystem adaptation to climate change, while ensuring these technologies complement rather than replace human expertise.

Forest Park Living Lab is understanding racoon ecology in urban land through GPS tracking and how this work informs One Health programs.

LEC director Jonathan Losos has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society