Nerd corner is comin’ at you today from Alberta.  Steven Vamosi is an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Calgary…

CB: Describe your research interests in a nutshell (think filbert rather than brazil).

SV: In general, I am interested in the factors responsible for the origins and maintenance of biological diversity. Some representative questions that fascinate me include: Why are there so many species of angiosperms (flowering plants)? Within that group, why do some families have thousands of species, whereas others contain only a single species? On a smaller scale, I am also interested in the mechanisms that promote (or prevent) the coexistence of closely related species. To address these types of questions, my collaborators, students and I study a variety of organisms, including angiosperms, fish, and insects.

CB: You do a lot of work with predaceous diving beetles, both in an applied ecological setting and in a molecular phylogenetic setting.  What makes these organisms such an appropriate model system for you?

SV: I am attracted to this group for many reasons, not least of all the fact that they are very understudied for how diverse and abundant they can be in a large diversity of water bodies (temporarily flooded wheel ruts to lakes) – I am not the type to flock to, say, Drosophila or Arabidopsis. Getting back to my interests in diversity and species coexistence, there are ~ 150 species of predaceous diving beetles in the province of Alberta alone, and we routinely find six to 12 (or more) species in a single water body, with many of these being congeners (i.e., members of the same genus). Given that congeners vary little in body size, how do so many of them coexist? Additionally, they hold some promise as “canaries in the coal mine” with regard to their ability to tell us something about local water conditions by their presence/absence in a particular water body. Finally, one does not need much in the way of fancy gear to sample them (sequencing their DNA is a different matter, obviously), which is great in these tight economic times!

CB:  Your lab also works on the ecology of invertebrates in temporary aquatic settings.  Are there some blanket differences in major interactions (i.e. predation and competition) in such habitats as opposed to habitats that are permanently aquatic?  I guess I’m wondering if maybe the ‘little guys’ have a better chance in a temporary habitat!

SV: The more I study natural systems, the more skeptical I become of any generalizations, but one typically does find a different (but not necessarily unique) suite of macroinvertebrates in temporary wetlands compared to, say, large lakes. Many temporary wetland “specialists” are likely excluded from permanent water bodies by fish and other larger predators, whereas some of the permanent water body species cannot cope with the more unpredictable nature (e.g., greater temperature fluctuations) of temporary wetlands, or would be unable to complete development of a key life stage prior to the wetland drying out in late summer.

CB: Your work on the latitudinal gradient of extinction has shown that tropical species may be at a greater extinction risk than temperate ones.  What’s the next step in this project?

SV: I do not want to give too much away at this point, but I am now looking at the relative contributions of traits (e.g., fleshy vs. dry fruits) vs. geographical parameters on the risk of extinction in flowering plant families. The paper you mention focused on country-level data, and I want to “break free” of those (at times) artificial boundaries.

CB: You have a unique personal situation in that your wife, Dr. Jana Vamosi, is also a professor at the University of Calgary.  Does this make long hours acceptable?  Have you two ever collaborated on a project?  What’s the RV*?

SV: It is not actually unique – in fact, there are two other academic couples in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology cluster of my Department. I also recently heard a statistic that a very high proportion of women in academia (something like 80%, if memory serves) have academic spouses. Sounds like something we’re going to see more, rather than less, of in the future.

CB: Wow!  That’s really interesting…

SV: Anyway, I have never been one for long hours at the office but, when I work late in our home office, she is often working on her computer across the table from me. To date, we have co-authored nine papers together, and have three others currently in the works. Oh, RV* is something I recently came up with to describe the Rogers – Vamosi – Vamosi labs, which collectively form an interactive group of evolutionary and molecular ecologists. The molecular lab of Dr. Sean Rogers forms the hub of our collaborations, and it is turning out to be a brilliant fit of complementary strengths and interests – any prospective graduate students interested in the interplay of ecology, evolution and conservation should definitely check us out.

CB: What’s a typical field work day like for you?

SV: With two young children and an academic spouse, I do not go in the field that much these days. I collectively spent months of my Masters and PhD degrees in the field (primarily Texada Island in the Strait of Georgia), so I have largely handed the baton over to my students. However, when I do get out, it often involves ferry rides (when I am on the west coast), camping, minnow traps, and quality time wading in the shallows of ponds and lakes hunting for diving beetles. Later this summer, I am looking forward to going to some lakes in the Edmonton area with Dr. Rogers to study firsthand the impacts of introductions of threespine stickleback (a coastal fish) on the native species in those ecosystems.

CB: What is your most recent publication?

SV: A paper in Journal of Biogeography that I co-authored with a colleague of mine, Dr. Simon Queenborough, on the distribution of phylogenetic diversity and breeding systems of flowering plants along a large-scale elevational gradient in Costa Rica. Sadly, we did not conduct the actual field surveys, but we did bring new perspectives to bear on previously published data. We enjoyed this one so much we are now collating similar data from other mountains around the world.

CB: Any advice to budding biologists?

SV: I think I have seen this answer given by at least one of your previous Nerds of the Week, but: if you want to go beyond your Bachelors degree, it is never too early to start interacting with professors and graduate students outside of the classroom setting. I was fortunate to land my first gig in a research lab after my second year of undergrad (after working in a factory for the summer after first year – that quickly motivated me to try something different the next year!), and I basically never looked back. I find it hard to say much about a student who only took a class or two with me, and subsequently asks for a reference letter for graduate school or an environmental consulting firm… comments like “As I recall, she didn’t disrupt class” will not get you very far.

CB: Such a great point!  Undergraduates: take note: Don’t miss opportunities to volunteer in labs over the summer!

CB: Do you have any non-biological talents?

SV: Being Canadian, I am not big on talking about my own talents, so I will go with interests: cooking, gardening, sailing, karate, and spending quality time with my family currently top my list.

CB: If you could have 3 guests for dinner…alive or dead…who would they be?

SV: I could rack my brain for a long time about this one! That said, Alfred Russel Wallace (the “father” of biogeography) immediately comes to mind. Marie Curie, the first person honoured with two Nobel Prizes, has long inspired me. Finally, leaving the realm of science, I think I might add Àrpàd, generally thought of as the forefather of the Magyars (Hungarians) – there is so much that I still do not know about my ancestors. If I could bring in a fourth person for dessert, after much serious chatting had gone on, I would love to add Robin Williams for a few tear-streaming, gut-busting laughs.

CB: What would you eat?

SV: I do not see much in common between my three main guests, so I would probably go with one of my favourites: sushi!

CB: Thanks so much for stopping by this week Steve!

Learn more about Dr. Steven Vamosi on his website: