Ruth Geyer Shaw

Last updated
Ruth G. Shaw [1]
Born1953 [1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Oberlin College, Duke University
SpouseFrank H. Shaw [2] [3]
Awards Sewall Wright Award, 2017
Scientific career
Fields Evolutionary biology, Population genetics
Institutions University of Minnesota

Ruth Geyer Shaw (born 1953) [1] is a professor and principal investigator in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior [4] at the University of Minnesota. She studies the processes involved in genetic variation, specializing in plant population biology and evolutionary quantitative genetics. [5] Her work is particularly relevant in studying the effects of stressors such as climate instability and population fragmentation on evolutionary change in populations. She has developed and applied new statistical methods for her field [6] and is considered a leading population geneticist. [7]

Contents

Shaw has been active on a number of editorial boards, [8] most recently as chief editor of the journal Evolution (2013–2017). [9] She has received several awards including the 2017 Sewall Wright Award from the American Society of Naturalists, given to a senior investigator who continues to make fundamental contributions to "the conceptual unification of the biological sciences". [10]

Early life

Shaw's parent were both chemists and she grew up in Pennsylvania. [11] Shaw has stated that they fostered her interested in the natural world by going on nature walks and consulting field guides to identify plants and birds. [11]

Education

Shaw received her B.A. in biology at Oberlin College. Her interest in the evolution of plants was sparked by a class in vertebrate anatomy taught by Warren Walker. [11] She received her Ph.D. in botany and genetics at Duke University in 1983, [8] working with Janis Antonovics. [12] [11] She then worked as a postdoc with Joseph Felsenstein at the University of Washington. [13]

Career

Shaw was an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside from 1987 to 1992. [8] [5] In 1993, she joined the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota where she now heads the Ruth G. Shaw Research Group. [5] Shaw was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [14] in 2018 and into the National Academy of Sciences in 2021. [15]

Research

Shaw is an evolutionary biologist, who studies evolutionary change in nature. She is concerned with stressors such as climate change and population fragmentation and their effects on evolutionary change in populations. [5]

In early work with David N. Reznick, Frank H. Shaw and Helen Rodd, Ruth Shaw examined the effects of predator fish on the experimental evolution of subsequent guppy generations. They studied guppy populations over an 11-year period. They found that descendant guppies who were not directly affected by predation evolved in ways that resembled the life histories of guppies who had lived in predator-free communities. They also found that guppies could evolve extremely quickly, at a rate thousands of darwins faster than the rates of evolutionary changes observed in the fossil record. [16] [17]

In much of her work Shaw has focused on evolutionary processes in plant populations. She uses techniques from quantitative genetics and population biology as well as field experiments to study the evolution of plants such as Echinacea angustifolia . Through empirical studies, she examines evolutionary change in its ecological context. [18] By studying Echinacea angustifolia, she has demonstrated that inbreeding, which frequently affects fragmented populations, can influence key functional traits. Traits related to plant structure, physiology and elemental composition are important to individual fitness and ecological dynamics in populations. [19]

With Margaret Bryan Davis and others, Shaw has examined Paleoclimate change in North American forests, from the Quaternary period onwards. Pollen granules and other plant remains, found in lake sediment cores, can show changes in populations in an area over time. [20] [21] [22] In 2011, Davis, Shaw and Julie R. Etterson received the William Skinner Cooper Award from the Ecological Society of America for the paper "Evolutionary responses to changing climate". [7] [23] In this paper, they synthesized ecological and evolutionary research about plant populations and the effects of rapid climate change, challenging the paradigm that evolutionary responses in the Quaternary period were slow and ineffective. The evidence they presented suggests that evolutionary adaptation does occur in plant populations subjected to the stress of rapid environmental change. [7]

Shaw has also developed new statistical methods, such as aster modeling, with statistician Charles Geyer . [24] [12] [25] [26] Aster Modeling enables the analysis of life history data to obtain estimates of fitness and population growth rates. [27] The importance of Shaw's work on quantitative genetics and analysis of fitness was recognized in 2009 when the American Society of Naturalists gave its President's Award to the paper Unifying Life‐History Analyses for Inference of Fitness and Population Growth. [6] [28] Shaw has also developed Quercus, a quantitative genetics software, that performs a maximum likelihood analysis of variance of quantitative genetic data. [29] [30]

Mentoring

Shaw advises graduate students in the departments of Applied Plant Sciences; Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; and Plant Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. [27] Her students have assessed the effect of climate change on adaptation potential of native plants, the evolutionary consequences of gene flow from cultivated plants to naturally occurring plant relatives, and the evolutionary change in introduced species. [30]

Awards

Related Research Articles

Allopatric speciation – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from each other to an extent that prevents or interferes with gene flow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic diversity</span> Total number of genetic characteristics in a species

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary biology</span> Study of the processes that produced the diversity of life

Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life forms on Earth. Evolution holds that all species are related and gradually change over generations. In a population, the genetic variations affect the phenotypes of an organism. These changes in the phenotypes will be an advantage to some organisms, which will then be passed on to their offspring. Some examples of evolution in species over many generations are the peppered moth and flightless birds. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics, and paleontology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polymorphism (biology)</span> Occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms in the population of a species

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niche construction</span> Process by which an organism shapes its environment

Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own local environment. These alterations can be a physical change to the organism’s environment or encompass when an organism actively moves from one habitat to another to experience a different environment. Examples of niche construction include the building of nests and burrows by animals, and the creation of shade, influencing of wind speed, and alternation of nutrient cycling by plants. Although these alterations are often beneficial to the constructor, they are not always.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary ecology</span> Interaction of biology and evolution

Evolutionary ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can be seen as an approach to the study of evolution that incorporates an understanding of the interactions between the species under consideration. The main subfields of evolutionary ecology are life history evolution, sociobiology, the evolution of interspecific interactions and the evolution of biodiversity and of ecological communities.

<i>r</i>/<i>K</i> selection theory Ecological theory concerning the selection of life history traits

In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring. The focus on either an increased quantity of offspring at the expense of individual parental investment of r-strategists, or on a reduced quantity of offspring with a corresponding increased parental investment of K-strategists, varies widely, seemingly to promote success in particular environments. The concepts of quantity or quality offspring are sometimes referred to as "cheap" or "expensive", a comment on the expendable nature of the offspring and parental commitment made. The stability of the environment can predict if many expendable offspring are made or if fewer offspring of higher quality would lead to higher reproductive success. An unstable environment would encourage the parent to make many offspring, because the likelihood of all of them surviving to adulthood is slim. In contrast, more stable environments allow parents to confidently invest in one offspring because they are more likely to survive to adulthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary physiology</span> Study of changes in physiological characteristics

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological fitting</span> Biological process

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of evolution</span> Overview of and topical guide to change in the heritable characteristics of organisms

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Evolutionary rescue is a process by which a population—that would have gone extinct in the absence of evolution—persists due to natural selection acting on heritable variation. Coined by Gomulkiewicz & Holt in 1995, evolutionary rescue was described as a continuously changing environment predicted to appear as a stable lag of the mean trait value behind a moving environmental optimum, where the rate of evolution and change in the environment are equal. Evolutionary rescue is often confused with two other commonplace forms of rescue: genetic rescue and demographic rescue-in nature due to overlapping similarities. Figure 1 highlights the different pathways that result in their respective rescue.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Shaw, Ruth Geyer, 1953-". Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  2. ↑ Craft, Joellen. "New Crop of Legacies Harvests Advice from Alumni at Orientation Luncheon". Oberlin News & Features. Retrieved 1 April 2017. John Shaw (Frank '76 and Ruth Geyer Shaw '75)
  3. ↑ "Just like My Mom, Dad". Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 1 April 2017. Clara Shaw (Clara Shaw (Dr. Frank H. Shaw '76 and Dr. Ruth Geyer Shaw '75)
  4. ↑ Franks, Steven J.; Avise, John C.; Bradshaw, William E.; Conner, Jeffrey K.; Etterson, Julie R.; Mazer, Susan J.; Shaw, Ruth G.; Weis, Arthur E. (2008). "The Resurrection Initiative: Storing Ancestral Genotypes to Capture Evolution in Action". BioScience. 58 (9): 870. doi: 10.1641/B580913 .
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Ruth G. Shaw". University of Minnesota. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "Announcements". The American Naturalist. 173 (6): ii. June 2009. doi:10.1086/599385. S2CID   222329132.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "W. S. Cooper Award" (PDF). SocietyActions. Ecological Society of America. October 2011.
  8. 1 2 3 "Ruth Geyer Shaw January, 2014" (PDF). Ruth G. Shaw's Research Group. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "Richard Lenski Updates". Society for the Study of Evolution. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Sewall Wright Award: Ruth Shaw". American Society of Naturalists. February 24, 2017. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Stanton-Geddes, John (2013-10-29). "People behind the Science: Dr. Ruth Shaw" . Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  12. 1 2 "People behind the Science: Dr. Ruth Shaw". The Molecular Ecologist. 2013-10-29. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  13. ↑ "People". Ruth G. Shaw’s Research Group. 2014-12-21. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  14. ↑ "Newly Elected Fellows". www.amacad.org.
  15. ↑ "Ruth Shaw elected to National Academy of Sciences".
  16. ↑ Sousa, Filomena de; Munévar, Gonzalo (2012). Sex, reproduction and Darwinism. London: Pickering & Chatto. p. 17. ISBN   9781848932654 . Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  17. ↑ Reznick, D. N. (28 March 1997). "Evaluation of the Rate of Evolution in Natural Populations of Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)". Science. 275 (5308): 1934–1937. doi:10.1126/science.275.5308.1934. PMID   9072971. S2CID   18480502.
  18. ↑ "Distinguished Ecologists 2016-17". Colorado State University. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  19. ↑ Kittelson, Pamela M.; Wagenius, Stuart; Nielsen, Reina; Qazi, Sanjive; Howe, Michael; Kiefer, Gretel; Shaw, Ruth G. (July 2015). "How functional traits, herbivory, and genetic diversity interact in : implications for fragmented populations". Ecology. 96 (7): 1877–1886. doi:10.1890/14-1687.1. PMID   26378310.
  20. ↑ Levin, Simon A. (2009). The Princeton guide to ecology (2nd paper ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 559–560, 565. ISBN   978-0691156040 . Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  21. ↑ Davis, M. B. (27 April 2001). "Range Shifts and Adaptive Responses to Quaternary Climate Change". Science. 292 (5517): 673–679. Bibcode:2001Sci...292..673D. doi:10.1126/science.292.5517.673. PMID   11326089.
  22. ↑ Shaw, Ruth G.; Etterson, Julie R. (September 2012). "Rapid climate change and the rate of adaptation: insight from experimental quantitative genetics". New Phytologist. 195 (4): 752–765. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04230.x . PMID   22816320 . Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  23. ↑ Davis, Margaret B.; Shaw, Ruth G.; Etterson, Julie R. (July 2005). "Evolutionary responses to changing climate". Ecology. 86 (7): 1704–1714. Bibcode:2005Ecol...86.1704D. doi:10.1890/03-0788. hdl: 11299/178230 .
  24. ↑ Svensson, Erik I.; Calsbeek, Ryan (2012). The adaptive landscape in evolutionary biology (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 130–131. ISBN   978-0199595389.
  25. ↑ Geyer, Charles J.; Wagenius, Stuart; Shaw, Ruth G. (2007). "Aster Models for Life History Analysis". Biometrika. 94 (2): 415–426. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.142.9158 . doi:10.1093/biomet/asm030. JSTOR   20441381.
  26. ↑ "Aster Models for Life History Analysis". www.stat.umn.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  27. 1 2 "Ruth G. Shaw | College of Biological Sciences". cbs.umn.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  28. ↑ Shaw, Ruth G.; Geyer, Charles J.; Wagenius, Stuart; Hangelbroek, Helen H.; Etterson, Julie R. (July 2008). "Unifying Life‐History Analyses for Inference of Fitness and Population Growth". The American Naturalist. 172 (1): E35–E47. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.142.6756 . doi:10.1086/588063. PMID   18500940. S2CID   9666563.
  29. ↑ "Quercus Quantitative Genetics Software | College of Biological Sciences". cbs.umn.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  30. 1 2 "Ruth G. Shaw | College of Biological Sciences". cbs.umn.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  31. ↑ "Ruth G. Shaw".
  32. ↑ "Award-Winning Faculty and Staff | College of Biological Sciences". cbs.umn.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  33. ↑ "Ruth G. Shaw". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  34. 1 2 "EEB Graduate program news 2011 - 2012" (PDF). College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  35. ↑ "Awards". American Society of Naturalists. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  36. ↑ "Scholars Walk". University of Minnesota. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
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