MONSON, R.K.*; LIPSON, D.A.; ROSENSTIEL, T.N.; FORBIS, T.A.; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; San Diego State Univ.; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder: Carbon and Nitrogen Storage by Alpine Herbs Alpine plants have limited seasonal access to the resources they require for growth and persistence. Resource storage is commonly observed as a means to […]

GHALAMBOR, Cameron/ K; HUEY, Raymond/ B; MARTIN, Paul/ R; Colorado State University; University of Washington; University of Washington: Why mountain passes are higher in the tropics- revisited Organismal biologists have long been interested in how the abiotic environment shapes the physiology, ecology, and evolution of organisms. Yet, relatively few attempts have been made to develop […]

WEST, John B.; University of California San Diego: Human Adaptation to Extreme Altitude Humans who normally live near sea level make extraordinary short-term adaptations to extreme altitude, a process called acclimatization. The most important feature of the adaptation is intense hyperventilation which, on the summit of Mt. Everest, reduces the alveolar Pco2 to less than […]

HUEY, R.B.; Univ. of Washington, Seattle: Himalayan Mountaineering: Patterns of Success and Death in Thin Air Since the first ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953, tens of thousands of mountaineers have traveled to the Himalayas in pursuit of summits and adventure. Some have been successful, and some have died. It is now possible to compile […]

BEALL, C.M.; Case Western Reserve University: Andean, Tibetan and Ethiopian patterns of human adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia. High altitude environments have been particularly informative natural laboratories for investigating human adaptation because the stress of high-altitude hypoxia is severe and constant. Traditional people had and have no ability to create non-hypoxic microclimates. As a result, everyone […]

SAVAGE, R.M.; Williams College: The Divergent Roles of the Segmentation Gene hunchback in Annelids and Arthropods My lab investigates the mechanisms responsible for the specification of the anteroposterior (AP) axis in annelids. With this objective in mind, we are characterizing orthologs to the Drosophila gap gene hunchback (hb) in each annelid class. The hb gene […]

PERNET, B.; California State University, Long Beach: Evolutionary questions prompted by the diversity of form and function of annelid larvae Some annelid larvae cannot feed, while others must feed while in the plankton. Among feeding annelid larvae, particle capture mechanisms are very diverse. I address several questions about how this variation in larval form and […]

BELY, A. E.; SIKES, J. M.; Univ. of Maryland, College Park; Univ. of Maryland, College Park: Evolution of annelid regeneration and asexual reproduction The phylogenetic distribution of regeneration potential across animals suggests that the ancestral animal had extensive regeneration abilities and that loss of regeneration has been a major evolutionary trend in many animal lineages. […]

SEAVER, Elaine C; University of Hawaii: Development of the segmented polychaete body plan The evolution of a segmented body plan in the Bilateria has been a much debated topic. Current efforts to resolve this issue focus on comparisons of molecular components of developmental pathways involved in segment formation from disparate taxa such as flies, mice […]

HALANYCH, Kenneth M; Auburn University: WormNet: Progress towards understanding Annelid phylogeny. To date the only phylogenetic analyses covering the diversity of annelids are morphological cladistic studies. One of the explicit goals of the WormNet program is to build a robust phylogenetic framework for Annelida based on molecular data. To this end various participants of the […]