As we transition from New Zealand back to the US I’m grateful for the kindness and generosity of those that that I work for and with whom I do research. First, BYU for providing this professional leave. Second, I need to give a special thanks to Landcare Research and the University of Otago for hosting me. I worked closely with two scientists—Bill Lee, one of the foremost evolutionary ecologists in NZ who is a senior scientist at Landcare, one of the Crown Research Institutes in NZ, and with Steve Higgins, a professor and chair of the department of botany who is an internationally renowned biogeographer and modeler. In addition, I shared an office with incredibly talented people, including Edmond February, a professor at the University of Cape Town (he grew up during Apartheid and still made it through the university system in South Africa with a PhD and professorship) and Matt Larcomb, a newly minted PhD from Tasmania who solved nearly all of my programming problems. It was stimulating to be around these bright people who have unique perspectives. New Zealand provided an ideal laboratory to explore questions of environmental controls over the distribution of grass species and the traits that allow some species to thrive over others. Without the generosity of the Hellaby Trust, BYU’s Kennedy Center, BYU’s Undergraduate Education, and my department and college, we would never have been able to do something this ambitious.
I had two major professional goals for our visit to NZ—to add an evolutionary perspective to my work and to develop skills in programming and modeling. I’m nearly done with one paper that links the physiology of two groups of grasses that dominate NZ to a trait that is overexpressed in these grasses. Globally, 97% of all grasses maintain their leaves after the leaf dies. For two genera in New Zealand, over 50% of the species are deciduous—they senesce their leaves. There is a bit of a controversy about why NZ grasses have evolved this trait and we looked at the chemistry of the leaves and patterns of photosynthesis to try to address one of the main hypotheses—dehiscence benefits plants in the absence of mammalian grazing. I’m also working on a second paper where we have used records of where these species are found to model their climate niche in NZ. We can then use evolutionary trees to understand how ecology influenced patterns of speciation.
I will miss having morning “tea” with my friends and colleagues but I’m excited for the coming years as I use new skills to train students at BYU. My NZ colleagues showed me new approaches to training students, to foster collegiality, and to produce compelling research in a highly collaborative environment. I appreciate all of my professional experiences in New Zealand.
