Biology News
Volume 1 Issue 28
A publication of EWU Department of Biology
Department News
Upcoming Presentations
Check out the Biology Seminar Series web page
at http://www.ewu.edu/biologyseminar. You’ll find a
schedule of upcoming and tentative seminars, times/
locations, links to fliers, and speaker biographies …
along with contact information to get more details.
Next presentation: March 11, Frank Wilhelm,
University of Idaho.
New Technician Hired
Dennis Michael Satterwhite, has been hired as
instruction and classroom support technician 3. Mike
graduated with his BS in Chemistry and PhD in
Biological Chemistry from the University of Utah. He
did his post-doctorate at the University of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana. Mike comes to EWU from
Lewiston, Idaho, where he had been a research
associate at Washington State University. Welcome,
Mike!
Fisheries Staff Changes
Holly McLellan, research director for fisheries,
accepted a Fisheries Biologist 4 position with the
Colville Tribe of Indians in January. McLellan (BS,
Biology, 1998, and MS, Biology, 2000) has been
working with Allan Scholz, professor of biology,
since her undergraduate years. McLellan and Scholz
recently published their second book, Fishes of the
Columbia and Snake River Basins in Eastern
Washington. Holly also wrote two reports for the
Spokane Tribe, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),
and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA): Annual
Assessment of Hatchery Kokanee in Lake Roosevelt
[with Scholz and Andy Miller (BS, Biology, 2005, and
MS, Biology, 2010)] and Wild Kokanee Tracking and
Movement Study in Lake Roosevelt [with Scholz].
Miller is currently working for the Spokane Tribe as a
fisheries biologist on the Lake Roosevelt Monitoring
and Evaluation Project.
In collaboration with the Kalispel Tribe, DOE, and
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
(continued on page 2)
(Battelle),
Winter 2011
Biology Student Successes
The EWU Biology Department encourages
students – including undergraduate students –
to pursue research and extracurricular activities
that will expand their professional experiences.
These are just a few of the many achievements
our students have accomplished.
Irina Teslenko, senior pre-med major, was
accepted into the competitive Washington State
Legislature Undergraduate Policy Program.
She’ll spend winter quarter in Olympia working
for a member of the state Senate. Irina will be
job-shadowing, learning the legislative process,
doing office work, honing her technical writing
skills, and learning parliamentary procedure.
According to Irina’s faculty advisor, Joanna
Joyner-Matos, it is extremely unusual for a
biology major to be accepted into the program –
positions are typically given to political science
and business majors.
Biology majors Melody Dossey, Rusti
Krieder, Sharen Mack, Vanessa Mendez,
Tovah Parsons, Melissa Roberts, and
Matthew Switzer joined Natural Science
Education major Beau Crisp, Middle Level
Science Education major Scott Driver, and
Biology graduate student Levi Bridges in
conducting biology instruction for 170 8th grade
MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) students from School District 81. The
(continued on page 2)
Table of Contents
Department News
Biology Student Successes
3rd Annual Darwin Day Celebration
Seminar Schedule
Hollister-Stier Textbook Awards
Contact Us
Page 1
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Biology News
Page 1
Fisheries (cont. from page 1)
Student Successes (cont. from page 1)
Holly was recently involved in conducting research on
a bull trout project on the Pend Oreille River. She was
also involved in setting up a project designed to
monitor resident fish populations in four reservoirs of
the Snake River. EWU is collaborating with DOEPNNL (Battelle) on that project.
Holly is married to Jason McLellan (MS, Biology,
1998). Jason had also worked with Scholz and is
currently employed as a fisheries biologist 4 at the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in
Spokane, where he manages the Joint Stock
Assessment Project funded by BPA. He is also in
charge of burbot investigations in Region 1 and a
project that is trying to recover white sturgeon in Lake
Roosevelt.
Assuming Holly McLellan’s responsibilities, Mark
Paluch (BS, Biology and Environmental Science,
2009), was hired in February. Mark is currently finishing his master’s degree, with his thesis focusing on
movements of bull trout above and below Albeni Falls
Dam – to be completed by the end of Winter quarter.
Dana Stroud (BS, Biology, 2009) is currently
working on her master’s degree in fisheries
management. Dana had been hired from July 2009
to November 2010 as a research associate to
oversee a San Poil River project funded by the
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
Research focused on determining how many
kokanee salmon and rainbow trout were consumed
by walleye and smallmouth bass to identify why
there has been reduced numbers of both those
species returning to the river. Results show that
both species make up large proportions of walleye
diets. Models indicate that walleye and smallmouth
bass consumed nearly all of released hatcheryraised kokanee fry, 40 percent of released kokanee
yearlings, 24 percent of rainbow trout yearlings, and
27 percent of the two- to three-year-old rainbow
trout population. The final project report, Salmonid
Consumption in the Sanpoil River Arm of Lake
Roosevelt by Smallmouth Bass and Walleye Using
Bioenergetic Modeling, was submitted to the U.S.
DOE, BPA. Along with Stroud and Scholz, authors
are Alix Blake (senior biology student), Gerald
Claghorn (BS, Biology, 2010), and Bret Nine (BS,
Biology, 2003, and MS, Biology, 2005) and Shay
Wolvert, both working for the Colville Tribe. The
report is currently being prepared for submission to
the North American Journal of Fisheries
Management or Transactions of the American
Fisheries Society.♦
EWU students led sessions showing how benthic
macroinvertebrates are indicators of stream water
quality. Heather McKean, senior lecturer in
biology, coordinated the event.
Jaydene Topenio (senior biology student) was
accepted into the Ph.D. program in Neuroscience
at the University of Montana.
Chase Davies (senior biology student) has been
accepted into the University of Washington RIDE
(Regional Initiatives in Dental Education) program.
Heidi Richardson (senior biology student) and
Tammy Sammeli (BS, Biology, 2010) are second
and third authors with Joanna Joyner-Matos
(assistant professor of biology) and fourth author
Lauren Chapman (McGill University) for a paper
titled, “A Fingernail Clam
(Sphaerium sp.) Shows
Higher Reproductive
Success in Hypoxic
Waters,” to be published in
the Canadian Journal of
Zoology in March.
Heidi Richardson & Tammy
Sammeli at marsh
Article abstract:
Low dissolved O2 (or hypoxia), is becoming
increasingly prevalent in aquatic habitats and is
considered to be stressful for aerobic organisms. However, hypoxia also can be beneficial
by decreasing cellular stress, particularly that
related to free radicals. Therefore, an animal’s
ideal habitat may have the minimum O2 necessary to sustain aerobic metabolism, with excess
O2 increasing the need to scavenge free radicals and repair free radical damage. Research
focused on a natural population of small (<9 mm
shell length) freshwater clams (Spherium
Scopoli, 1777) that lived along a dissolved O2
gradient from extreme hypoxia to moderate
hypoxia. They tested the hypothesis that clams
living in extreme hypoxia would have higher
reproductive success than clams that live in
moderate hypoxia. Clam abundance was
highest in water with very low dissolved O2,
conditions previously demonstrated to decrease
cellular stress. The internally brooding clams
reproduced year-round and had higher reproductive output in extreme hypoxia than in
moderate hypoxia.
(continued on page 3)
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Biology News
3rd Annual Darwin Day Celebration
February 11, 2011
nd
Celebrating the 202 anniversary of Charles
Darwin’s birthday, Scott Freeman, textbook
author and University of Washington lecturer,
presented a seminar on Why Understanding
Natural Selection is So Hard. Freeman also
conducted a round-table discussion on student
learning in the sciences, one focus of his
research in recent years, and acted as a judge for
the cake decorating contest with Lynn Briggs,
dean of Arts, Letters & Education, and John
Buchanan, professor of geology.
Cakes were supposed to depict some aspect
related to Darwin or his work. A record 58 cakes
were submitted, with five coming from faculty and
staff – not eligible for prize judging. Top honors
went to Keyana Abild, senior biology major, for
her “Nature’s Choice” cake.
In addition to first through
third place and two honorable mention awards (see
pictures of winning cakes
below), new this year was
a tasty cake award that
went to Christie Schucker
with her “CSI – Charles’
Search for Intermediates”
cake. See complete list of
participants and more
Keyana Abild with
winning cake
pictures on pages 5-6. ♦
Student Successes (cont. from page 2)
The findings demonstrate that the apparent cellularlevel benefits of hypoxia may translate into
increased fitness, especially for small organisms.
The research site was in a swamp-river system in
Kibale National Park in western Uganda. With the
exception of Chapman visiting the site, all work was
done at Eastern Washington University. ♦
Upcoming Seminar Schedule
Mar 9
Mar 11
Apr 8
Apr 15
Apr 22
May 6
The Evolutionary Genomics of
Thermotolerance (Ted Morgan, Kansas
State University)
An Overview of Mysids in the Lake
Pend Oreille Food Web (Frank Wilhelm,
University of Idaho)
Sexual Selection and Mechanical
Evolution in Fiddler Crabs (Brook
Swanson, Gonzaga University)
Topic TBA (Dana Stroud, EWU
Graduate Student – Thesis
Presentation)
Topic TBA (Danielle Klinzing, EWU
Graduate Student – Thesis
Presentation)
Topic TBA (Eva Szentirmai,
Washington State University Sleep
Center)
Thanks to faculty coordinators
Robin O’Quinn and Camille McNeely
and everyone else
who helped make this event a success!
Tastiest Cake
Darwin Day Cake Contest Award Winners
1st Place – Nature’s
Choice, Keyana Abild
2nd Place – Carnivorous
Plants, Kristin Stiltz
3rd Place – Phototropism,
Amanda Kotlan and
Mercedes Frank
Honorable Mention –
Galapagos Hybrid
Iguana, Lauren DeLand
Honorable Mention –
Peppered Moths,
Ong Xiong
Page 3
Biology News
News
Biology
Hollister-Stier Textbook
Assistance Awards
The following students earned textbook awards
for Winter quarter:
Darlene Brumley
Brielle Menegazzi
Dan Olson
Congratulations! Thank you, Hollister-Stier, for
your generosity in helping our students.
Also, a big ‘THANK YOU’ to Amgen Corporation for a substantial donation of equipment and
supplies to the Biology Department (more info in
the Spring newsletter).
Watch for the Spring 2011 Biology
News … Faculty and student news,
alumni updates, and more.
Contact Us
Biology News is a quarterly publication of
the Eastern Washington University Department of Biology. To contribute items of
interest – news, features, alumni updates –
please contact:
Sue Murphy, Operations Manager
EWU Biology Department
258 Science Building
Cheney, WA 99004
PH: (509) 359-6809
FAX: (509) 359-6867
[email protected]
Visit us on the Web at
http://www.ewu.edu/biologynews
to check out previous issues and search
through articles list for topics of interest.
Page 4
Department of Biology
258 Science Building
Cheney, WA 99004-2440
Darwin Day
February 11, 2011
Scott Freeman, University of Washington, presented a seminar titled,
“Why Understanding Natural Selection is so Hard.” In addition to meeting
1:1 and in small groups with EWU Biology faculty and graduate students,
Freeman also conducted a round-table discussion on effectively teaching
to large numbers of students – a topic he has been researching. In concert
with UW colleagues, he has been evaluating the role of active learning in
improving the quality of science education. He has especially been
interested in determining whether certain types of course designs have a
positive impact on achievement by underrepresented minority and
economically disadvantaged students. Freeman’s research has also
focused on the evolution of blackbirds.
For the cake decorating contest, Freeman assisted Lynn Briggs (Dean of
Arts, Letters & Education) and John Buchanan (Professor of Geology) in
judging the cakes.
st
nd
rd
1 Place – Keyana Abild
2 Place – Kristin Stiltz
3 Place – Amanda Kotlan
and Mercedes Frank
Honorable Mention –
Lauren DeLand
Tasty Cake Winner – Christie
Schucker (and daughter, Tori)
Honorable Mention –
Ong Xiong
Tasty Cake Honorable Mention – Robin O’Quinn
(assistant professor of biology)
Faculty and staff were ineligible for voting/prizes … still, 5 faculty/staff participated. In addition to O’Quinn
(above), the following cakes were submitted in the spirit of Darwin Day:
Justin Bastow (biology
quarterly faculty) & Camille
McNeely (assistant professor
of biology)
Rebecca Brown (associate
professor of biology)
Valerie Burnett (secretary
for College of Arts, Letters
& Education)
5
Luis Matos (biology
quarterly faculty)
Students submitting other cakes for the competition were Ilhan Ali; Courtney Anderson, Amanda Martes & Zack
Oxford-Romeike; Linnea Anderson; Thanh Auduong; Jen Bilbrey; Andrea Briones & Melia Thomas; Justin
Burgerson; Mary A. Clark; Jeff Crouch; Chase Davies; Elizabeth Hall, Helen LaChance & Katherine Poteat;
Kenneth Hatzinikolis; Mikita Hellie; Jeffrey Hershey; Dean Hillman; Madison Hilpert; Manuel Jimenez; Robyn
Kalina; Danielle Kuhn; Emily Mavity; Cassi Miller; Christina Noyes; Otoniel Ricardo Nuñez 2; Ashley Pittenger;
Jolissa Ramos; Alicia Rainsey; Levi Reynolds; Jesse Robinson; Riki Schiermeister; Cody Schoonover; Seok Ha
(Scott) Shin; Aaron Shumway; Lundsey Tee; Regina Thompson; Jaydene Topenio; Andrea Williams; Kristen
Wilkins; Eric Wilson; and Alison Wolfgang. [Apologies if anyone was left out!] Here are pictures of cakes
submitted for the competition and Darwin Day festivities:
Thank you to everyone who helped make
Darwin Day 2011 a tremendous success!
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