Comparative experimental evolution reveals species-specific idiosyncrasies in marine phytoplankton adaptation to warming

A number of experimental studies have demonstrated that phytoplankton can display rapid thermal adaptation in response to warmed environments. While these studies provide insight into the evolutionary responses of single species, they tend to employ different experimental techniques. Consequently, our ability to compare the potential for thermal adaptation across different, ecologically relevant, species remains limited. Here, we address this limitation by conducting simultaneous long-term warming experiments with the same experimental design on clonal isolates of three phylogenetically diverse species of marine phytoplankton; the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp., the prasinophyte Ostreococcus tauri and the diatom Phaeodoactylum tricornutum. Over the same experimental time period, we observed differing levels of thermal adaptation in response to stressful supra-optimal temperatures. Synechococcus sp. displayed the greatest improvement in fitness (i.e., growth rate) and thermal tolerance (i.e., temperature limits of growth). Ostreococcus tauri was able to improve fitness and thermal tolerance, but to a lesser extent. Finally, Phaeodoactylum tricornutum showed no signs of adaptation. These findings could help us understand how the structure of phytoplankton communities may change in response to warming, and possible biogeochemical implications, as some species show relatively more rapid adaptive shifts in their thermal tolerance

A Cultural Poultice

As an attempt to understand our relationship to this event as a collective our group employed Gregory Ulmer’s concept of the popcycle as a curatorial aid and heuristic, each of us gathering images that represent our relationship to one of the dominant discourses of our lives: Family, Education, Career or Discipline, and Entertainment

MOTE: The Shiny App to Calculate Effect Sizes and Their Confidence Intervals

Recent developments in the psychological sciences have shown the de-emphasis of p-values with a renewed focus on effect sizes as a measure of the importance of research findings (Cumming, 2014). Even with the shift in focus, report rates for effect sizes are very low (Fidler et al., 2005; Fritz, Scherndl, & Kühberger, 2013). Given what we’ve been told about reporting effect sizes, why are researchers omitting these values in their journal articles? Several effect size calculators currently exist, including Soper’s webpage (2013) as well as macros available for SPSS/SAS (Smithson, 2003; Wilson, 2010). However, the flexibility of these calculators, as well as the extent to which they explain the calculations, varies greatly. One way to encourage a change in report rates of effect sizes is to train the next generation of researchers to include these values as part of or in lieu of the traditional hypothesis test. However, as statistics teachers know, it can be difficult to get students to understand which test to select, much less which effect size then corresponds to that statistical test. In this presentation, we will demonstrate a new application that could be used as a teaching tool in statistics and research method courses. This application is designed to allow the user to select the research design and corresponding effect size through drop down menus. For each effect, users type in relevant numbers to calculate those effects, and the effect size and related statistics are presented in APA style. For teaching purposes, helpful description text and YouTube how-to videos are coupled with each effect size page. A previous version of this application was implemented in statistics classrooms wherein students indicated that the application was easy to use and helpful for their homework. Faculty feedback from presentations of the new application during beta testing have been overwhelmingly positive. We believe this application will aid in teaching and learning in statistics and research methods courses for students at the undergraduate and graduate level

Soapbox Session C

It\u27s All in the Bag: Developing the BookBag Tool to Organize and Analyze Data and Create Narratives Onsite (Connie Lester) Measuring the Impact of History Harvests on UCF and its Community-Based Partner Institutions (Abigail Padfield) The Paper Lens and Dominant Roots: Exploring the Hegemony of Agricultural Modernization through Historical Agricultural News (Marcy Galbreath and Amy Giroux) Mapping property boundaries and Indian trails in the Chesapeake (Jessica Taylor) Surfacing Indigenous Perspectives on the French Conquest of Algeria in a Graduate DH Course (Ashley Sanders) The JFK Assassination Records Act of 1992 and Digital History (Diane Cline) Big Data, Digital Humanities, and a New Understanding of Predictive Analytics (J.D. Applen