We have just posted an opening for a Postdoc to lead the post-fire research recovery effort at one of our field stations, Stengl Lost Pines. The postdoc will oversee a small crew with to update previous studies that were disrupted or damaged by a large fire that occurred last summer. The studies include surveys of the forest tree and understory com...
Planet Earth is infested with germs. They coat everything from the surface of our skin to the machines we use, and yes, even the food we eat. Some of these germs can make us sick, some disgust us with their putrid byproducts, while still others poison the very air we breathe. But hiding amidst these tales of illness and foul decomposition is a love...
Students researching plant competition at Brackenridge Field Lab.
The University of Texas at Austin Field Station Network, operated by the Biodiversity Center, seeks a forward-looking Managing Director to develop and plan the operations and research activities across a growing network. While each field station provides significant researc...
When you think of microbes, what are the first things that come to mind? Disease, pathogens, the same old boring things, but microbes are so much more than that! They produce the air that we breathe and the food that we eat. They live as high as our upper atmosphere and as low as the depths of the ocean, and everywhere in between. In this talk...
Indeterminate nodules growing on the roots of Medicago italica (Photo: Ningatacoshell)
Do you like mushrooms or beans? Have you heard of companion planting or intercropping?
The common theme uniting these two seemingly unrelated questions is soil microbes. You have (likely) not seen them, but they are everywhere and play a crucial role in ...
Undergrad Abby Jones at the Capital Area Junior Master Naturalists October event.
Field stations like Brackenridge Field Lab and natural history collections like the Biodiversity Collections fulfill many roles in the service of biodiversity. One such role is to engage in outreach to the general public to raise awareness, and to reach students wh...
Monk Parakeet (Photo: Bernard Dupont-Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license)
Birds are another beloved pet, adored for their plumage, their song, and for their interesting behavior. My own parakeets, Ernesto and Clyde, never fail to amuse with their head bobbing and love of stick-chewing. But like many pets that end u...
If you're a UT graduate student studying the diversity of life and organisms in their natural environments, then check out this fellowship program! The Stengl-Wyer Graduate Fellowship program is now open for applications, closing on December 12, at 5 p.m. Central Time.
This fellowship includes a 12-month stipend of $36,000 beginning September 1, 20...
This month's Science Under the Stars event is "I Like Big BATS and I Cannot Lie!," presented by Brandi Christiano.
Have you ever seen a bat flying around? Probably (especially in Austin)! With more than 1,400 species worldwide, bats live in almost every environment. As the only flying mammal, they can be found in caves, trees, and under bridges. So...
Photo: Larry Gilbert
The period of rain here in Texas a few weeks ago was intense but welcome. The moisture brought a revival of plant life, and the return in Austin for some insects that depend on these plants. This was largely due to heavy rains that broke the drought 150-200 miles south of us. One such insect that has been seen in great...
Funded by the Stengl-Wyer Endowment, the Stengl-Wyer Scholars Program provides up to three years of independent support for talented postdoctoral researchers in the broad area of the diversity of life and/or organisms in their natural environments. The endowment also supports the Stengl-Wyer Fellowship Program, year-long fellowships for doctoral ca...
Ummat Somjee is one of our 2021 Stengl-Wyer Scholars and is researching the evolution of exaggerated sexually-selected traits in animals. His research aims to understand how the energetic costs underlying these exaggerated traits may shape their evolution. As part of the Stengl Wyer Endowment, the Stengl Wyer Postdoctoral Scholars Program prov...
Photo collage: Larry Gilbert
Nothing quite signals the coming of spring in Austin like when a redbud tree starts to bloom. After our brief but botanically-drab Austin winters, the bright pink flowers are a welcome and invigorating sight.
At Brackenridge Field Lab, redbuds grow there natively in places where limestone quarries existed in t...
Photo: Paige Durant
The UT Spring Bee Competition has a winner! Paige Durant (class of '22) takes the prize of a pre-made Osmia mason bee house. Launched in January of this year, the contest rules are that anyone in the UT College of Natural Science community (staff, students, faculty) be the first to submit a 2022 photo of a Travis County mason...
Nikunj modeling source-sink dynamics at range limits.
Nikunj is one of our 2021 Stengl-Wyer Fellows. He is a theoretical biogeographer working in the lab of Dr. Tim Keitt at the Department of Integrative Biology. He is broadly interested in understanding how dispersal generates and maintains biodiversity. As a Stengl-Wyer Fellow, he is buil...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed our lives. One thing that will probably never go away, for better or for worse, are remote meetings and online classes. But as some events begin to open up, the online formats are offering both in-person and remote experiences, thus opening access to audiences who could not have seen them otherwise.
One of ...
Cladonia parasitica, a lichen at Stengl Lost Pines (Photo: Liz Bowman)
When my sister and I were little, my parents often took us camping in Colorado during the summers. We brought our Barbie dolls and when evening came around, we built pretend campfires and served pretend food. Part of those imaginative meals included lichen fragments we’...
Don't look so sad, Mr. D! You can have your cake and eat it too!
Happy birthday, Mr. Charles Darwin! You would be 213 tomorrow, February 12, 2022. That would be a lot of candles on a very large cake, and take quite a set of lungs to blow them out.
Darwin Day asks people to “reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual cu...
Doing work in Senegal with baboons
Harry Siviter is one of our 2021 Stengl-Wyer Scholars and is researching how environmental factors contribute to bee decline. As part of the Stengl Wyer Endowment, the Stengl Wyer Postdoctoral Scholars Program provides up to three years of independent support for talented postdoctoral researche...
L to R: Kathy Cox, Susan Schroeder, Kathy McAleese, Megan Lowery, Nancy Rabensburg, Betty Henley, Carolyn Turman – Displaying newly mounted plant vouchers for the herbarium
By Kathy McAleese
It all started in the fall of 2018. A group of friends were beginning a project to remove invasive and aggressive plants from an old pastur...