A day in the life

Abstract

“Look, I just don't think the drawbacks are going to be a big deal. We need to do something, and this sounds good overall; let's just do it”, says Evans. I've just been delivering a report about the feasibility of introducing non-native bass to the Sandy River near Mt Hood in Oregon. Introduction would support some ecosystem functioning and would maintain fisheries income, but would be the final nail in the coffin of the native trout eking out an existence in the Sandy. But Bill Evans didn't want to hear about the drawbacks. He's the current Head of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and he wanted to get something done. I was saddened it had come to this. The Sandy is one of the last places you can find native trout in Oregon, and while designing novel ecosystems and studying their functioning is a big part of my job, I was still hesitant to develop a new community in the Sandy as long as the old one was still hanging on. But I didn't have time to dwell on it. Evans was impatient, but there were still many forms to fill out and bureaucratic requirements to meet before anything changed. And I had a course to get to. My parents met while they were graduate students at the University of Washington. However, by the time I was old enough to go to school for my undergrad, the University had gone under. Bits and pieces of it still remained, taken over and funded by private institutes, but the decreased state funding, increased costs, and unsustainable student loan debt had driven UW, like most other public universities, into non-existence. Rather than going to one of the ultra-expensive private schools, I did what most of my peers did: took some basic classes online, paid for group lessons from former professors, and got involved with citizen-science projects and internships. Now, I've developed enough of a reputation that I get grants from private and government groups to lead scientific projects myself and I also teach new students in a rented lab. But I was running late. “Sorry, everyone”, I called out as I entered the lab. “First, I'd like to discuss the paper we read on how management of in-stream flow regimes can be used to create optimal conditions for novel ecosystems, then I'd like you to develop some simulation models to see how flow can alter various food-web structures, depending on the species present.” I love the teaching component of my work. Students pay just to take my course and they're always engaged with the material. I come out of class feeling tired but hopeful for the future of ecology. After class, it was off to a meeting with Mark. Teaching and doing research don't pay all the bills, so Mark and I also write mobile apps that help other scientists collect the data they need. “My students gave me an idea to create an app that would make it easier to record specific predator–prey observations; how about we brainstorm a way to put it together?” Mark thought it sounded interesting too, so we spent an hour or so coming up with ideas to make an app that would provide accurate and useful data to scientists but would also be easy for those without any scientific training to use. “Hey Mark, before you take off, do you have some time to give me feedback on this talk I'm prepping for tomorrow?” The decrease in government funding of science means that in order to get corporations and individuals to financially support my work, I spend a lot of time doing outreach. I don't enjoy writing grant applications and giving presentations to the higher-ups in corporations so much, but it's actually really fun to share my research with members of the public. They might only give $25–$100 each to fund my research, but I've also recruited students to my classes, citizen-science data collectors, and even collaborators through my public talks. My days are always full and varied like this, but I'm still glad I chose to go into ecology. Previous generations of ecologists might not have been able to stop extinctions, and we're still having to find new ways to deal with the ever-less-stable climate, but I'm excited about new directions of research. Recent studies of engineered diversity – genetic engineering with the goal of increasing diversity – are showing promise, and I'm hoping to work with some of those labs to do field studies to determine how engineered diversity might increase ecosystem functioning. Breakthroughs like these leave me optimistic about the next 50 years of ecological research.