We're a research group based in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington focused functional ecology, evolution, and biogeography for changing environments. Our research is described on our group website. Our TrEnCh (Translating Environmental Change) Project is a branch of the group focused on building computational and visualization tools to understand how organisms experience climate change. We practice open science, so you can track our progress in our research group and TrEnCh Project GitHub organizations.
Understanding and anticipating how species respond to climate variability and change is both a critical applied need to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function and a fascinating opportunity to test ecological and evolutionary principles. We are motivated by shifts in organismal traits, population demography, species distributions, and community dynamics in response to climate change that are inconsistent with current, largely correlative models.
We believe we can do better by moving beyond simple correlations to describe mechanisms, the processes by which organisms respond to environmental changes. Mechanisms are central to predicting responses to climate change due to non-linearities and thresholds in biological responses, environmental variability, and the emergence of novel environments.
We integrate a diversity of field, laboratory, and quantitative approaches to investigate how organisms experience their environment. We develop mechanistic models linking phenotype to fitness as a function of environmental conditions. We look to natural history collections and field and lab resurveys to test our models. We turn to biologically-informed data science approaches to test generality. We seek a middle ground whereby models capture enough of the biology for accurate prediction but remain tractable. We are increasingly accounting for genomic and physiological mechanisms as we seek to scale across levels of organizations. We develop computational and visualization tools and related educational resources to enable broad understanding of how organisms experience variable and changing environments.
- Following our curiosity and aiming to produce interesting and meaningful science will be a more effective route to success than aiming to check boxes for hiring, promotion, or recognition. Substance is more important than quantity.
- Conducting research requires learning to take initiative and be willing to fail. We recognize that ambitious projects can sometimes lead to spectacular failures! Identify goals and plan to make steady progress toward them.
- Recognize a temporal asymptote in the pursuit of perfection and seek high quality answers rather than perfect ones.
- Open, reproducible, transparent, and collaborative science is more efficient and fun.
- Be kind and generous. Give credit, take responsibility. Challenging others' ideas is central to science but do so kindly and constructively. Also be open to constructive criticism, yourself.
- We are a community working together, helping each other. Share what you’ve learned with newer members of the community. Celebrate your own and each other’s successes!
- Continually revisit group functioning. Evaluate what is working and what isn’t and make improvements.
- Normalize saying “I don’t know” and learn from the inevitable mistakes and failures of yourself and your colleagues. “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” ― Albert Einstein
- When you face research challenges, take initial steps toward finding a solution and ask for help when needed.
- Everyone hits rough patches in research. Try your best, while recognizing that ‘your best’ fluctuates. Balancing science with other interests and avoiding exhaustion will enable your best work.
- Facilitate a diverse environment and aim to engage with and learn from others’ perspectives. Be aware of your blindspots and biases.
- Sharing science broadly is a crucial part of doing science. Aim to steadily disseminate our science through publications but also engage in science communication to non-academic audiences. We encourage social media presences, educational outreach, and plain language summaries.
- When mental health challenges or workplace conflicts arise, resources are available through UW wellbeing. There are a variety of UW resources for reporting workplace issues. Lauren is happy to discuss issues and communication will be treated as confidential to the extent possible (some mandatory reporting applies). Graduate program manager Andrea Pardo is an excellent resource.
We aim to recruit and support members from diverse backgrounds and groups that are underrepresented in the sciences. Our lab group is committed to fostering a learning and working environment in which all members are supported and can participate equitably. We believe that our lab should be representative of what society looks like today, and that all members of the lab are equally deserving of being members. We recognize and value lab members’ individual efforts to increase the equity and inclusivity of science to underrepresented groups. Members of our lab group are encouraged to be active in addressing scientific and societal issues that affect all of us, partially led by the UW Biology Diversity & Equity committee, campus affinity groups and the Q Center. We encourage lab members to use the Bias Reporting Tool to further UW strategies for addressing bias trends and patterns on campus. Encouraging diversity, equity, and inclusion is a dynamic process, and we are committed to continuously improve our efforts towards these goals. For example, we discuss our goals and efforts related to these issues during our quarterly lab meetings. Our TrEnCh-ed educational resources aim to highlight the contributions of diverse scientists and to promote inclusive teaching practices. We strive to recruit a diverse group of undergraduates for paid summer field research experiences that include professional development activities. We actively work to identify and address racist, sexist, or other marginalizing behaviors and structures in the normalized practices of science.
We work in the ancestral homelands and traditional territories of Indigenous peoples who have been here since time immemorial. The University of Washington and the Buckley Lab acknowledge the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Duwamish, Puyallup, Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. Our Colorado fieldwork occurs in the traditional territories of the Hinóno'éí (Arapaho) people. These acknowledgments are a commitment to the ongoing work of uplifting Native communities and protecting the land and resources that sustain us. The UW Burke Museum offers resources to learn more about the Coast Salish People.
This repository compiles lab best practices and policies to conduct open, reproducible, and inspiring science that is efficient and fun.
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent