New research suggests that global trends in farming practices are undermining the pollinators crops depend on and putting agricultural productivity and stability at risk, particularly in some Asian and South American nations. The study, with co-author Professor Emeritus David Inouye, was published in the journal Global Change Biology on July 11, 2019.
Professor Michael Cummings Named Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
As director, Cummings will guide a diverse community of faculty, research scientists, postdocs and students who are focused on questions arising from the genome revolution.
They discuss their eNeuro publication that examined the hyperpolarization-activated current in granule cells, the predominant type of inhibitory neuron in the olfactory bulb. The authors showed that granule cells exhibit a hyperpolarization-activated current-dependent subthreshold resonance in the theta frequency range (4–12 Hz).
New research by Professor Karen Carleton reveals signs of highly sensitive color vision in fish that live in the abyss beyond sunlight’s reach. The research appears on the cover of the May 10, 2019, issue of the journal Science.
Sean Carroll recently took up residence in Biology, thanks to his appointment as the inaugural holder of the Andrew and Mary Balo & Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair, which is the university's first endowed chair in the life sciences. Carroll is also the first Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator to hold a faculty position at UMD. Accompanying Carroll is his impressive catalog of research and even some of his team from the University of Wisconsin. A leader in the field of evolutionary developmental biology, fondly nicknamed "evo-devo," Carroll and his group study how changes in animal development shape the diversity of life.
Principal Lecturer Reid Compton Receives Award from University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents
Compton received a Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring.
Professor Gerald Wilkinson and graduate student Danielle Adams found four bat lineages that live at least four times longer than similar-sized mammals and revealed new traits associated with bat longevity. Their work is described in a research paper, published in the April 10, 2019 issue of the journal Biology Letters.
Distinguished University Professor Catherine Carr finds alligators map sound the way birds do, suggesting the hearing strategy existed in their common ancestor and dinosaurs. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience on March 18, 2019.
A survey of research on aquatic noise pollution reveals huge gap in knowledge about impacts of human-generated noise in aquatic environments. Professor Emeritus Arthur Popper is the lead author of a review paper on the effects of human-generated, or anthropogenic, noise on fishes published on March 12, 2019 in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Nick Caruso (M.S. ’11, biology; advisor: Karen Lips) co-authored a book on animal fart facts that reached the No. 8 spot on The New York Times’ best-seller list in the science category.