WilsonLab at Auburn University

 

 
 
Cyanobacterial bloom - Auburn University
 

 

Welcome to the WilsonLab at Auburn University!

My approach to research is multidimensional.  First, I use large-scale observational studies and meta-analysis of existing data from the literature to discover patterns in nature.  Then, I identify mechanisms mediating these patterns through laboratory and field-based experimentation.

As an aquatic ecologist/limnologist, I am interested in aquatic plant-herbivore interactions and identifying the ecological and evolutionary consequences of intraspecific genetic and phenotypic variation on aquatic communities and ecosystems.  My current research, in part, focuses on the ecology of cyanobacterial blooms with an emphasis on understanding how biotic and abiotic factors influence cyanobacterial bloom formation. 

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News

April 2013

  • I have just been notified that I will be promoted to Associate Professor with tenure effective Fall 2013.  Hooray!

  • More good news for the lab - Jo-Marie's Sigma Xi Grants-In-Aid of Research application was funded for $600.  We really appreciate Sigma Xi's support.

  • Michael's eutrophication article that was co-authored with two past REU students, Enrique Doster and Rachel Zitomer, was accepted for publication in Nature Education.  Congratulations, team!  Chislock, M. F., E. Doster, R. A. Zitomer, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Eutrophication: Causes, consequences, and controls in aquatic ecosystems. Nature Education Knowledge. (PDF)

  • Enrique and other undergrads from Auburn are sharing their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.  I hope everyone bundled up for the frigid weather.

enrique undergraduate presentation  enrique undergraduate presentation, lacross wisconsin

  • Jo-Marie Kasinak and Justin Havird (Scott Santos' lab) were awarded Outstanding Oral Presentations at this year's Graduate Student Symposium.  They both were invited to give talks at AU's Research Week and Justin scored 2nd place for his talk!  Y'all rock!

  • Enrique Doster was awarded 3rd place for his STEM poster about his zoo research at AU's Research Week.  Enrique will be a great vet.

enrique doster - 2nd place poster

March 2013

  • Our Chapel Hill water quality workshop was equally fun and effective.  Great group of folks showed up at UNC for the meeting.  I love these workshops.

chapel hill workshop

  • We just held our first of two water quality workshops associated with our USGS project on cyanobacterial blooms throughout the Southeast at the wonderful USGS facility in Orlando, FL.  Thanks, Barry Rosen, for letting us visit you again to teach our great students how to sample and identify algae. 

USGS workshop - field sampling  USGS project - phytoplankton identification

February 2013

  • Kyes Stevens and Doug Goodwin joined me for my science lecture about eutrophication at an Alabama men's medium security prison.  My students were unbelievable.  Tons of energy and questions.  I can't wait to go back.

  • My lab, Michael Chislock, Jo-Marie Kasinak, Brie Olsen, and Enrique Doster, and one limnology student, Chris Smith, attended the ASLO meeting in New Orleans.  A wonderful venue for a wonderful meeting.

ASLO 2013 new orleans - michael chislock, brie olsen, enrique doster, jo-marie kasinak, chris smith

  • The Daily Tar Heel just wrote a little story about our new Water in Our World seminar course at UNC-Chapel Hill

  • Kyes Stevens, Doug Goodwin, and I just learned that our 2013 Outreach Grant was funded.  With this support, we will further enhance our prison science seminar series with new courses at Alabama prisons over the next year.  Thank you, Nalini Nadkarni, for making me aware of prison outreach!

  • Justin Havird's meta-analysis project was just accepted for publication.  Justin put together an incredible dataset synthesizing the literature related to the physiological responses of critters to salinity shifts.  Good work, Justin.  Havird, J. C., R. P. Henry, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Altered expression of Na+/K+-ATPase and other osmoregulatory genes in the gills of euryhaline animals in response to salinity change: a meta-analysis of 59 quantitative PCR studies over 10 years. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part D: 8(2):131-140. (PDF)

January 2013

  • During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., my family found our long lost buddy from Auburn, John Roberts, at his new place of employment - The National Zoo.  We miss John.

john roberts, kristi wilson  national zoo

GRI fellows - Chad Staddon, Alan wilson, Ben Meier, Clarissa Brocklehurst, Urooj Ahmed, and Joe Brown

December 2012

  • Michael Chislock just got his first first-authored publication accepted in Water Research.  I think this work is paradigm shifting.  Awesome job, Michael!  Chislock, M. F., O. Sarnelle, L. M. Jernigan, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Do high concentrations of microcystin prevent Daphnia control of phytoplankton? Water Research 47(6):1961-1970. (PDF)

  • Enrique Doster, Brittany Holt, and I lead a great discussion about NSF REU programs at Tuskegee University this week. 

alan wilson and richard whittongton at tuskegee university alan wilson REU program tuskegee university

November 2012

  • Michael and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Can Tho, Viet Nam, to teach limnology.  Once again, our students were spectacular!

michael chislock and alan wilson teaching limnology in can tho vietnam  michael chislock and alan wilson at ho chi minh statue

  • Before traveling to Viet Nam, I hung out with my new friends, Zhou Yang and his students, at Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing, China.  The fried dumplings were too good to be true. 

alan wilson nanjing normal university seminar announcement alan wilson and zhou yang nanjing china

October 2012

alan wilson at nc a&t univ with millie worku  alan wilson at livingstone college with sashi sabaratnam

  • Michael and I are headed to the Ozarks to attend the 37th annual Great Plains Limnology Conference at the University of Arkansas.  We are excited to reconnect with our midwestern colleagues.

September 2012

  • We are currently accepting applications for our third and final REU summer program in warm-water aquatic ecology.  The deadline is 15 January 2013 and applications can be completed here.  Please spread the word.

  • We have been very fortunate to have two of our pals visit the lab and give cool departmental seminars about paleolimnology.  Gretchen Gerrish (chilling with Aubie before the LSU game) came all the way from the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse and Matt Waters (checking out a current field experiment) made the drive from Valdosta State University. 

gretchen gerrish and aubie  matt waters from valdosta state univ

  • We got another new addition the lab - Matthew Schenone.  He is our first business major to join the lab.  Welcome to the group, Matt.

August 2012

  • The WilsonLab is growing again!  Welcome Brie, a new Biological Sciences graduate student, and Ross, our new lab organizer.

  • Our friend Nara Souza, from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, visited us last week to learn how to enumerate phytoplankton.  She was a terrific student!

Nara Souza counting phytoplankton   Nara with Jo-Marie and Brie

  • The news report mentioning the seminar that my colleagues from Georgia Power, Tom Broadwell and Tony Dodd, and I gave to the Jackson Lake Homeowners Association is available now.  Check it out at Covington News.

July 2012

  • Our REU program is winding down.  The student head back home at the end of the month :(

  • Our report to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to help them develop nutrient criteria for the Tallapoosa watershed has been submitted.  Fowler, S., W. Deutsch, A. E. Wilson, and E. Reutebuch. 2012. Tallapoosa River basin numerical nutrient criteria for wadeable streams. Final Report for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Agreement ADEM-C00594051. (PDF)

June 2012

  • I gave a seminar about water quality to the Jackson Lake Homeowners Association with my Georgia Power colleagues, Tony Dodd and Tom Broadwell, at the beautiful historic FFA camp.  The house was packed!

jackson lake homeowners association    jackson lake homeowners association - tony dodd and tom broadwell

  • Rusty Wright and I lead an outreach activity for our Tuskegee Univ colleague, Dr. Olga Bolden-Tiller, who is training 44 high school students from across the country in agricultural-related fields.  We taught the students how to collect fish with seines, castnets, and electroshocking. 

rachel zitomer training students how to seine  alan wilson teaching students how to use a castnet

  • The REU students have been keeping me very busy with trips to seine fish in Panama City Beach, Florida, and to checkout gators in the swamps around New Orleans.  I need a vacation!

seining fish at St Andrews State Park in Florida  Swamp tour

 

May 2012

  • My three REU students, Brittany Holt, Rachel Zitomer, and Enrique Doster, helped me sample the Ogeechee River near the one year anniversary of the largest fish kill in Georgia's history.  Joining us were Laura Warren, from WRDW, and the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, Dianna Wedincamp.  The students and I made it on television - check it out!

sampling ogeechee river with dianna wedincamp and laura warren  alan sampling king finishing discharge in ogeechee river

auburn REU warm-water aquatic ecology - welcome cookout

 

April 2012

  • Alan has been offered a semester fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Global Research Institute to participate in research, teaching, and outreach activities centered on global water issues.  Get ready, Chapel Hill!   

  • Daisuke's paper describing how hypoxia influences Lake Erie Daphnia mendotae has been accepted.  Good job, Daisuke!  Goto, D., K. Lindelof, D. L. Fanslow, S. A. Ludsin, J. J. Roberts, H. A. Vanderploeg, A. E. Wilson, and T. O. Höök. 2013. Ecological consequences of hypolimnetic hypoxia on survival and growth potential of Daphnia mendotae in the central basin of Lake Erie. Aquatic Biology. (PDF)

  • Michael has garnered another award - a Harry Merriwether Fellowship.  This award was given to only four AU graduate students for their outstanding scholarship.  You continue to rock, Michael!

  • Enrique has been offered a one-year AU Undergraduate Research Fellowship to continue conducting research in the WilsonLab.  He will be spending a significant amount of time at the MacArthur Agro-Ecology Research Center in Florida.  Good job, dude!  

  • Betina's awesome meta-analysis paper generally describing biodiulution of microcystin in aquatic foodwebs has finally been accepted.  Good work, Betina!  Kozlowsky-Suzuki, B., A. E. Wilson, and A. Ferrao-Filho. 2012. Biomagnification or biodilution of microcystins in aquatic foodwebs? Meta-analyses of laboratory and field studies. Harmful Algae. (PDF)

 

March 2012

  • Sadly, the court case associated with the Ogeechee River fish kill (the largest kill (38,000+ dead fish) in Georgia history) has been dismissed by the judge - read more here (GreenLaw) or here (SavannahNow)  Hutton Brown and Don Stack plan to appeal.  Go get 'em guys! 

  • We held our second water quality workshop associated with our USGS cyanobacterial bloom network project in Auburn.  Our students were awesome!

USGS Auburn workshop 2012   USGS workshop Auburn 2012

  • Del Anderson (2011 REU student), Katie LeMay (2011 REU student), Michael Chislock, Courtney Ellison (2011 REU student), Jo-Marie Kasinak, and Enrique Doster had a good time at SEEC 2012 in Clemson, SC.  Del, Michael, and Jo-Marie presented some of their research.  Good job, y'all!

SEEC 2012 - Clemson - Del Anderson, Katie LeMay, Michael Chislock, Courtney Ellison, Enrique Doster, Jo-Marie Kasinak

 

February 2012

  • Our Sparks in Science and Math prison seminar series has officially begun at Elmore Correctional Center thanks to support from the AU College of Agriculture, College of Science and Math, and Outreach office.  Kyes Stevens has been instrumental in this effort where seven AU faculty will give weekly lectures to our students at the prison.

Sparks in Science and Math - Elmore Correctional Center   Sparks in Science and Math - Elmore Correctional Center

  • Rusty Wright, Barry Rosen, and I just held our first water quality workshop associated with our new USGS project.  We had a bunch of excellent students.  We will be organizing a similar meeting in Auburn in March 2012.

workshop at USGS  barry rosen leading phytoplankton lecture

 

January 2012

  • I just completed another successful trip to Purdue to hangout with Tomas Höök and his students to discuss our Lake Michigan river plume project. 

  • I was able to return to a local daycare to teach the kids about aquatic foodwebs and aquatic-terrestrial linkages.  I wish I had the kids' energy and the teachers' patience.

alan at daycare   alan at daycare

  • The lab finally got a new grad student.  Welcome to Auburn, Jo-Marie!

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Recent papers

  • Chislock, M. F., E. Doster, R. A. Zitomer, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Eutrophication: Causes, consequences, and controls in aquatic ecosystems. Nature Education Knowledge. (PDF)

  • Havird, J. C., R. P. Henry, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Altered expression of Na+/K+-ATPase and other osmoregulatory genes in the gills of euryhaline animals in response to salinity transfer: a meta-analysis of 59 quantitative PCR studies over 10 years. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part D: 8(2):131-140. (PDF)

  • Chislock, M. F., O. Sarnelle, L. M. Jernigan, and A. E. Wilson. 2013. Do high concentrations of microcystin prevent Daphnia control of phytoplankton? Water Research 47(6):1961-1970. (PDF)

  • Wilson, A. E. and M. F. Chislock. 2013. Ecological control of cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater ecosystems.  Invited book chapter in Cyanobacteria: Toxicity, ecology, and management. Editor: A. Ferrão-Filho.  Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York. (PDF)

  • Vanderploeg, H. A., A. E. Wilson, T. H. Johengen, J. Dyble, O. Sarnelle, J. R. Leibig, S. D. Robinson, and G. P. Horst. 2013. The role of selective grazing by dreissenid mussels in promoting toxic Microcystis blooms and other changes in phytoplankton composition in the Great Lakes.  Invited book chapter in Quagga and Zebra Mussels: Biology, Impacts, and Control, Second Edition.  Editors: T. Nalepa and D. Schloesser.  CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

  • Fowler, S., W. Deutsch, A. E. Wilson, and E. Reutebuch. 2012. Tallapoosa River basin numerical nutrient criteria for wadeable streams. Final Report for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Agreement ADEM-C00594051. (PDF)

  • Goto, D., K. Lindelof, D. L. Fanslow, S. A. Ludsin, J. J. Roberts, H. A. Vanderploeg, A. E. Wilson, and T. O. Höök. 2012. Ecological consequences of hypolimnetic hypoxia on survival and growth potential of Daphnia mendotae in the central basin of Lake Erie. Aquatic Biology 16:217-227. (PDF)

  • Kozlowsky-Suzuki, B., A. E. Wilson, and A. Ferrao-Filho. 2012. Biomagnification or biodilution of microcystins in aquatic foodwebs? Meta-analyses of laboratory and field studies. Harmful Algae 18:47-55. (PDF)

  • Logan, S. W., L. E. Robinson, A. E. Wilson, and W. A. Lucas. 2012.  Getting the fundamentals of movement: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of motor skill interventions in young children as assessed by the test of gross motor development.  Child: Care, Health & Development 38(3):305-315. (PDF) 

  • White, J. D., R. B. Kaul, L. B. Knoll, A. E. Wilson, and O. Sarnelle. 2011. Large variation in vulnerability to grazing within a population of the colonial phytoplankter, Microcystis aeruginosaLimnology and Oceanography 56(5):1714-1724 (PDF)

  • Berry, J. P., E. Lee, K. Walton, A. E. Wilson, and F. Bernal-Brooks. 2011. Microcystin production by a persistent cyanobacterial bloom in Lago de Patzcuaro (Michoacan, Mexico), and apparent bioaccumulation of the toxin in small commercial catches of fish. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 30(7):1621-1628. (PDF)

  • Wilson, A. E., R. B. Kaul, and O. Sarnelle. 2010. Growth rate consequences of coloniality in a harmful phytoplankter. PLoS ONE 5(1):e8679. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008679 (PDF)

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Links

 

Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, 203 Swingle Hall, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849

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