Shanna E. Carney
Office: (970) 491-1092
Fax: (970) 491-0649
e-mail: secarney@lamar.colostate.edu
Curriculum vitae

      Research Interests:

    I am interested in factors that affect the evolution of angiosperms. I am especially interested in aspects of plant reproduction, including the role of hybridization in evolution, seed dispersal mechanisms, and pollen competition.  The frequency of and potential importance of hybridization as an evolutionary mechanism has long been recognized by botanists. In fact, Edgar Anderson enthusiastically argued that introgressive hybridization is more important than mutation for creating the genetic variation necessary for evolution to occur. Numerous evolutionarily important outcomes can result from hybridization.  It can lead to the formation of a stable hybrid zone, the transfer of adaptations among taxa, the formation of new species, the fusing of taxa, or the extinction of one of the hybridizing species.  Which of these outcomes results depends on a myriad of factors, including the level of reproductive isolation between species, habitat preferences, life history characters, the fertility and viability of hybrids, and habitat disturbance through natural or human causes.  Many of my studies focus on how these factors affect the frequency of hybridization in plants and the long term outcome of hybridization episodes.

    My dissertation work (done in Mike Arnold's lab in the Genetics Department at The University of Georgia) focused on pollen tube growth phenomena as reproductive isolating mechanisms in the naturally hybridizing Louisiana irises.  I did my postdoctoral work in Loren Rieseberg's lab in the Biology Department at Indiana University.  There I studied speciation and genetic assimilation as a result of hybridization between wild annual sunflowers in California.

    There are several different research projects currently underway in my lab.  A project on pollination biology in the context of hybridization involves two native Colorado locoweeds, Oxytropis sericea and O. lambertii.  Seed dispersal is another interest of mine, and my collaborator David Holway (University of California, San Diego) and I are studying the effects of the introduced Argentine ant on seed dispersal of myrmecochores (plants that require ants for seed dispersal) in California.  I am also looking at how the interaction of invasive plants with native ants may aid in the spread and persistence of alien myrmecochores.  Finally, I am collaborating with Dr. Ruth Hufbauer in the Department of Bioagricultural Science and Pest Management at CSU on a study of the origin and hybridization in invasive knapweeds (Centaurea maculosa and C. diffusa). A list of my publications on these topics can be found in my CV.  Description of graduate student projects can be accessed by clicking on their names below.

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People in the Lab:
(Links provide info about each person's research interests)

    Shanna Carney, Assistant Professor
    Brooke Byerley, Ph.D. student in Biology
    Linda Courter, Ph.D. student in Biology
    Robin Marrs, Ph.D. student in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
            (co-advised; main advisor Dr. Ruth Hufbauer)
    Dan Cariveau, Ph.D. student in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
            (co-advised by Andrew Norton)
    Jennifer Jankowski, undergraduate researcher

Former lab Members:
    Donna Weedman; M.S. student in Biology
    Ryan Woodland, undergraduate student (Fall 2001)
    Jory Sorensen, High School teacher from Loveland, CO (Summer 2002)

Honorary Lab Members:
   Taran Henk and Zach Courter

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 Prospective Graduate Stuents:
    Click Here for information

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• During the Fall semester of alternating years (2000, 2002, etc.)  I teach BZ555 - Reproductive Biology of Higher Plants.
• Syllabus (2000)
• Fluorescent microscopy images of Callirhoe involucrata pollen tubes in the stigma and style (part of a class project)
• In the Spring semester each year I teach BZ104 - Basic Concepts of Plant Life; I am also teaching it fall 2003
• Syllabus (2001)
• In Fall 2001, I co-taught BZ346 - Population and Evolutionary Genetics - with Dr. Joan Herbers.
• Syllabus (2001)

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The Ant Course 2003

Pictures from the Southwest Research Station workshop on ants August 7-17, 2003

Assorted Links:

Biology Department, CSU

Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, CSU

My Personal Web Page (= Taran and Family)

Fort Collins, CO
Another Fort Collins Site
 

Selected Evolution Links:

The National Center for Science Education
Darwin Day at the University of Tennessee
Talk Origins
The Tree of Life
The National Academy of Science's Science and Creationism Page
Evolution, Science and Society - A publication of the Society for the Study of Evolution