Grants up to $1000 awarded.
Visit www.sigmaxi.org/programs/giar for complete grant guidelines, an interactive application form and helpful tips on preparing a successful application.

Special: Grants of up to $5,000 are available for astronomy research and up to $2,500 for eye or vision related research, thanks to special National Academy of Sciences funds managed by Sigma Xi.

Funding from the ASU chapter of Sigma Xi supported my summer 2009 field work investigating the influence of urbanization on the immunity, metabolism and stress physiology of Abert's Towhees, Pipilo aberti. Abert's Towhee is a desert songbird found both within the Phoenix metropolitan area and in rural riparian areas and so is an excellent model species to test the hypothesis that urban and rural birds differ in their immunocompetence. Although in many ways cities are more benign than rural habitats, city birds are exposed to many novel anthropogenic "stressors". Stress depresses immunocompetence, but there is no consensus on whether conditions that city birds experience cause more or less stress. If cities are more stressful than natural habitats, disease transmission by urban birds may be more prevalent in urban than undisturbed areas. Overall, my study went as well as I could have hoped: I was successful in finding abundant source of Towhees; I forged invaluable relationships with local landowners; and even started an unexpected, yet exciting, collaboration with another School of Life Sciences laboratory. Although analysis is still in the early stages, results so far suggest that urban and rural Abert's Towhees do not differ in terms of their stress physiology, metabolism or immunity. These findings have important implications for the influence of urbanization on wildlife and for the question of why some species thrive in cities and other, often closely related, species do not.

A study of the effects of an elevation gradient on saxicolous lichens of the Santa Catalina Mountains

Anne Barber, Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, LSC 170, 480-965-7133 Dr. Thomas H. Nash III, Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, LSE 739, 480-965-7735

The lichens of Arizona are well researched systematically and floristically, but studies from an ecological perspective are few. The objective of my project is to investigate the changes in lichen communities along an elevational gradient at Mount Ord. A similar experiment was conducted ca. 45 years ago by Whittaker and Niering in the Santa Catalina Mountains, and it is this classic ecological study on which I am modeling my techniques. Because lichens are known to vary by substrate, I have limited my collections to granite rock, which can be found along the all the ranges of elevation. This study will be one of the first qualtitative analyses of saxicolous lichens in Arizona . The data collected in this study will also be used to compare previous collections from the region, in order to uncover possible range expansions or species not previously reported.

Captive research has shown that sex-typical socializationa learning process in which species-typical behaviors are acquired through direct interactiondrives normal primate social development, but has shed little light on which elements of the social environment are causally linked to the development of later behaviors. This study investigated normal patterns of social interaction between subadults (from infancy to sexual maturity) and other group members in a wild population of Lemur catta at Baze Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar, in order to identify social interactions that may contribute to the development of sex-typical behavior in this species (and that may also contribute to the development of sex-typical behavior in other primates). Lemur catta are female dominant and exhibit markedly sex-differential adult behavior; therefore, if socialization plays a role in the development of sex-typical behavior in this species, differences in subadult social interactions should be present. This exploration of primate sex-typical socialization in the wild is an important first step to better understanding primate development from both proximate and, ultimately (when combined with future studies on other primate species), evolutionary perspectives.

The Spitalfields Project: Ancient DNA analysis of human mtDNA and Mycobacterium tuberculosis from AD 1197-1857.

Advisor: Anne Stone

Tuberculosis is a re-emerging infectious disease with an ancient history in humans. Understanding its phylogenetic, temporal, and geographic history may shed light on the evolutionary history of this disease, and why it was more prevalent and perhaps more virulent in particular populations at certain times. This project is developing new quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays which will provide critical data from 18 skeletal samples originating in the medieval cemetery and hospital of Spitalfields, England. The funds awarded from Sigma Xi are allowing the development of new qPCR assays which will assist in strain typing by generating and using sequence data to establish specific and strain/lineage affiliations for putative M. tuberculosis-complex (MTC) pathogens from Spitalfields, England. DNA from these 18 samples has already been extracted and is being tested for the preservation of host mtDNA and nuclear DNA as well as the presence of tuberculosis DNA. Positive results will be subject to further PCR and qPCR tests and will ultimately contribute to the debate regarding the origin, evolution and future co-evolutionary trajectory of M. tuberculosis and humans by integrating genetic information from ancient Europe into the current phylogeny of M. tuberculosis.

For my dissertation, I have been studying sexual selection and bright male coloration in Habronattus pyrrithrix jumping spiders. In this species, females are a drab gray while males have bright red and green coloration on their face and front legs that they display to females in dramatic courtship dances. Much of my work thus far has involved trying to understand the functions of these display colors. With a grant from Sigma Xi, I have been able to expland my studies to another interesting aspect of male coloration. In H. pyrrithrix, dorsal color patterns are also sexually dimorphic - males have a striking black and white pattern on their backs while females are generally a more uniform gray. Interestingly, this aspect of male coloration is not displayed to females and is actually oriented away from females during courtship. Observations of male behavior in the field led to the hypothesis that males have adopted this conspicuous dorsal color pattern to mimic the coloration of wasps and bees in order to protect them while they are moving around, searching, and courting females. With funding from Sigma Xi, this hypothesis is being tested using behavioral observations in the field as well as a predation experiment in the lab.

Physiology of locust phase polymorphism in a dominant grasshopper species in the steppe grassland of China’s Xilin River basin region

Advisor: Jon Harrison

Funding from the ASU chapter of Sigma Xi supported my summer 2008 field season at the Inner Mongolian Grasslands Ecology Research Station. There, I initiated a collaborative study with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigating locust phenotypic plasticity in Chinese populations of O.asiaticus, a major pest species that occurs in green and black forms. Much anecdotal evidence suggested that this coloration is plastic - green forms kept in high density cages often develop into black adults and black juveniles kept by themselves develop into green. The first part of my study compared the physiology and morphology of field-collected phenotypes and found that black forms have a higher activity and metabolic rate and proportionally shorter hind femurs than green forms providing strong empirical evidence that the black forms indeed represent a migratory phenotype.

The second part of my study investigated how nutrition and crowding influence migratory phenotypic plasticity during larval development. Insects respond to high density in a variety of ways that, if exposed during larval development, can culminate in drastic changes in physiology and morphology. Some of these changes can be beneficial in aiding dispersal from a crowded habitat. For grasshoppers and other insect herbivores that tend to be nitrogen (N) limited, plant quality also affects these characters. Despite the intrinsic relationship between population density and dietary N, limited studies offer insight as to how the interaction of these two factors impact insect development. The results from this study demonstrate that insects reared in high density are more sensitive to changes in dietary N. The remaining analyses will provide further insight as to how these factors may be regulating migratory phenotypic plasticity.

-- Arianne Cease, December 2008

Left: Arianne holding the cages she used for rearing grasshoppers in the field station. RIght: with Professor Hao (China) with whom she worked closely with in the grasslands near the group's field site.

Effect of photoperiod and N-methyl-DL-aspartate on temperate breeding Cassin’s Sparow (Aimophiila cassinii) an intraspecific comparison to a desert population

Advisor: Pierre Deviche

The money awarded by this grant partially funded piloting the first study to use N-methyl-DL-aspartate (NMA) to measure gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) cell function in free-living birds (Cassin's Sparrow, Aimophila cassinii) and constitutes the first intraspecific comparison of distinct bird populations (Arizona and Colorado) that employ temporally different breeding strategies. In particular, funds helped to defer cost of vehicle rental and gas (totaling about $740 per trip) for three weeklong field excursions from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona to Comanche National Grasslands in Springfield, Colorado. Initial processing of physical measurements taken in 2008 clearly defines the temporal shift in reproductive system development between the two populations of Cassin's Sparrows. Overall, the pilot season for this study went better than expected. Comanche National Grasslands yielded an abundant supply of Cassin's sparrows, and promises to be a productive field site in the future. NMA injections in the field went well, and there were no obvious signs of distress such as sluggishness and fluffing that can sometimes occur as a result of the same dose in captive birds (personal observation). Procedures were refined for bird, injection, blood/plasma, and brain handling as to minimize collection and processing differences between individuals and sites.

-- Laura Hurley, November 2008

Taphonomic signatures and paleobiological implications of modern hyaenid behavioral ecology in Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Advisor: Curtis Marean

A biogeographic study on the origins of genetic caste determination in lineages of Pogonomyrmex seed-harvester ants

Advisor: Jürgen Gadau

Funding from the ASU chapter of Sigma Xi supported my research trip to Querétaro, Mexico in May of this year. While there my advisor and I were able to collect samples from several populations of the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex barbatus, and we were simultaneously laying the groundwork for future collaborations with researchers at the Independent University of Querétaro. This area represented a known but previously unsampled extension of the southernmost reaches of P. barbatus, and the analysis of these samples has made several important contributions to my Master's thesis research. Including these new samples in our phylogenetic analyses has supported our initial hypothesis: these populations contain ancestral variation and are likely basal to the derived lineages common throughout Arizona and northern Mexico. Thus these samples are an important addition to my biogeographical research on this system. Even more exciting, however, is the prospect of including our fortunately robust sample from this basal population as an outgroup for comparison with study sites in Arizona. My studies on caste-specific paternity skew and genetic diversity are based on the unique system of genetic caste determination that is ubiquitous in P. barbatus across Arizona. The addition of these samples as a closely related but phenotypically ancestral sister group should provide many new insights into the evolution of this system.

-- Brendon Mott, November 2008

Contextualizing the faunal community recovered from Boomplaas Cave, Western Cape, South Africa

Advisor: Kaye Reed

An examination of molar occlusal morphology and dietary overlap among members of extant primate guilds.

Advisor: Gary Schwartz

As a primate paleobiologist, my dissertation research involves examining the mammalian community structure and competitive environments of the earliest primates, adapids and omomyids, that lived around 55 million years ago. In order to evaluate competition among primates and between primates and other mammals, it is important to understand the degree of ecological niche overlap between species. In fossil taxa, this is difficult to assess; however, teeth are an excellent indicator of diet and body mass, two of the most important niche characteristics of living mammals. Unfortunately, previous research on the precise relationship between dental morphology and dietary niches across orders of mammals has been limited, and because my fossil sample includes rodents, primates, bats, marsupials, and other extinct orders of mammals, it was important to first understand this association. The grant I received from Sigma Xi allowed me to collect dental data of living mammals from the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science in Baton Rouge. This museum houses hundreds of mammals from a single locality, which in terms of skeletal collections, best approximates an individual community. Molds of teeth from over 350 individuals, representing four mammalian orders that the fossil sample also comprises, were made at the museum and are currently being cast. These casts will be digitized using a Reflex microscope, and the resulting three-dimensional images will be used to determine the precise aspects of dental morphology that best reconstruct the dietary niches of mammalian species. This information will then be applied to the fossil sample, so that the degree of ecological niche overlap, and thus competition, which existed between the earliest members of the primate order can begin to be understood.

-- Laura Stroik, November 2008

SHESC

Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Interaction in Central Mexico As Evidenced Through Decorated Pottery

Advisor: Arleyn Simon

SOLS

Exaggerated color ornaments as indicators of basic nutrient pools

Advisor: Ron Rutowski

SHESC

Bioarchaeological identification of complex mortuary assemblages: ancestor veneration at the Chan site, Belize

Advisor: Jane Buikstra

SHESC

Socioecology of a Costa Rican Primate Community

Advisor: Kaye Reed

SHESC

Miocene Hominoidea: Morphology, Environment and Adaption

Advisor: Bill Kimbel

SOLS

Genetic analysis of visual pigment opsins within a population of house finches

Advisor: Kevin McGraw