Hendrix Faculty, Alumni Co-Author Paper on Global Urban Evolution Following Participation in Study Spanning 26 Countries – Hendrix College

CONWAY,Ark. (March 18, 2022)New research now shows that urban environments arealtering the way life evolvesand a Hendrix College faculty member, retiredfaculty member, and four recent alumni participated in the project.

AssistantProfessor of Biology Dr. Adam Schneider, Professor Emerita of Biology Dr. JoyceHardin, Sierra Hubbard 20, Savannah Draud 19, Tristian Wiles 21, and CaraleeShepard 20 are listed as co-authors of a report appearing in the journal Science, detailing the findings of astudy that revealed the clearest evidence yet that human activity influences theevolution of plant life in cities worldwide.

The urbanevolution study, led by evolutionary biologists at the University of TorontoMississauga, found evidence of parallel evolution in the white clover plantacross multiple locations around the world. The study analyzed data from 160cities and nearby rural areas in 26 countries.

Hereat Hendrix, the research group of six took part in gathering samples of whiteclover and recording their data through the GlobalUrban Evolution Project (GLUE).

Schneiderand Hardin recruited the four students to collect samples from Little Rock,Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. The study found that clover evolution inurban areas worldwide had more in common than they did with the changes in ruralhabitats nearby those cities. For example, clover in downtown Memphis wouldhave more in common with clover in downtown Toronto than it would with cloverjust a few miles away in rural eastern Arkansas.

The studentstook the lead on designing transects, collecting samples, conducting theassays, and presenting our teams results at local research meetings, whileforwarding phenotype data and leaf samples for genotyping to the Lead Team,Schneider said.

Thestudents brought their own individual interests to the study.

I wasfascinated by questions related to how humankind has and continues to impactthe evolution of life on earth, Draud said. I could see how scientists canuse smaller study systems to chip away at answers to larger and more complexquestions in Biology. Working with other students with varying scientificinterests, as well as with an experienced researcher, helped me learn moreabout how to approach scientific questions from many different angles.

Havingthis research experience as an undergraduate and learning about the publicationprocess helped prepare me for a successful graduate career in plant ecology andevolution, said Hubbard, now in graduate school at Oklahoma State University.

Allfour of the Hendrix students who contributed to GLUE are now in Ph.D. programs,in diverse subjects including cell biology, systematics, plant-fungiinteractions, and the urban ecology of native bee communities, Schneider said.And the data they gathered as undergraduates will be studied for years tocome, to better understand how life is evolving in response to human-engineeredlandscapes.

Schneideris now in the process of recruiting another cohort of students to participatein one of the follow-up studies that have been dubbed GLUE 2.0.

AboutHendrix College

Aprivate liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistentlyearns recognition as one of the countrys leading liberal arts institutions,and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Changethe Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and rigor,innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous collegeguides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been affiliated withthe United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit http://www.hendrix.edu.

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Hendrix Faculty, Alumni Co-Author Paper on Global Urban Evolution Following Participation in Study Spanning 26 Countries - Hendrix College