"EEBies" study a wide variety of taxa, from the archaea to fungi, from algae to insects, from grasses to mammals.  We ask questions at a variety of levels from physiological ecology to phylogenetic reconstruction. We use tools as varied as quadrats and computer models, molecules and satellites, to get at the answers.  We work in ecosystems throughout Oklahoma, from high prairie to the ozark forests, from rivers to reservoirs, and from the polar seas to tropical rainforests.

 Our program offers guidance, tools, facilities, and financial support to students of ecology and evolutionary biology. 

Ecomunch
None until this Fall

Recent News
Congrats to Natalie Clay on her NSF DIGG "Sodium availability and the structure of brown food webs"

Congrats to Jackson Helms on his NSF GRFP

Dan Allen, Caryn Vaughn, Jeff Cooper, JT Cooper and MH Engel in press: Bottom-up biodiversity7 effects increase resource flux between ecosystems in Ecology

DOE “Association Mapping of Cell Wall Synthesis Regulatory Genes and Cell Wall Quality in Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)”
Lignocellulose is the material the makes up most of the dry mass of plant leaves, stems, and roots. Such material is being targeted for conversion into biofuel due to its abundance and potential for sustainable production on abandoned agricultural lands. DOE is providing $1.2M to support EEB’s Laura Bartley, and collaborators Yanqi Wu (Oklahma State Univ.), Malay Saha and Charlie Brummer (Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OK) to identify natural switchgrass genetic variation that correlates with extreme lignocellulose qualities. The functions of possible lignocellulose control genes will be tested in the reference grass species, rice (Oryza sativa), via mutants with altered gene expression.