#ComeForASemesterOfUndergradResearchStayForALifetime
March 18, 2022
Drew Kanes has been in our lab since Fall 2019. That's right, since BEFORE the pandemic. Joining as a sophomore, it seemed to everyone that Drew would 'be around forever'. So Dr. Bewick, Daniel Malagon, and the rest of the Bewick Lab were surprised when 2022 rolled around, and we suddenly realized that Drew was a senior. Wait... what? Drew will be.... leaving????!!!???? Not sure what we would do without our top meme-maker, Dr. Bewick quickly acted to remedy the situation. The obvious solution, of course, was to recruit Drew Kanes as a graduate student. Good news, after some modest scheming and prodding, Dr. Bewick's efforts paid off! Drew has committed to staying in the Bewick Lab to work on a Master's Degree. This means two things. First, Drew will be having an awesome time studying lizards and fish (ok, the Bewick Lab has never done fish research before... but Drew likes aquatic systems... and some compromises had to be made to keep him). Second, the Bewick Lab will be adding new memes to our amazing meme page for at least two (maybe three?) more years. Drew is also in talks with Dr. Bewick to develop a reality TV show, but no one else in the lab believes that this will happen. We shall see... oh yes, we shall see.*
March 18, 2022
Drew Kanes has been in our lab since Fall 2019. That's right, since BEFORE the pandemic. Joining as a sophomore, it seemed to everyone that Drew would 'be around forever'. So Dr. Bewick, Daniel Malagon, and the rest of the Bewick Lab were surprised when 2022 rolled around, and we suddenly realized that Drew was a senior. Wait... what? Drew will be.... leaving????!!!???? Not sure what we would do without our top meme-maker, Dr. Bewick quickly acted to remedy the situation. The obvious solution, of course, was to recruit Drew Kanes as a graduate student. Good news, after some modest scheming and prodding, Dr. Bewick's efforts paid off! Drew has committed to staying in the Bewick Lab to work on a Master's Degree. This means two things. First, Drew will be having an awesome time studying lizards and fish (ok, the Bewick Lab has never done fish research before... but Drew likes aquatic systems... and some compromises had to be made to keep him). Second, the Bewick Lab will be adding new memes to our amazing meme page for at least two (maybe three?) more years. Drew is also in talks with Dr. Bewick to develop a reality TV show, but no one else in the lab believes that this will happen. We shall see... oh yes, we shall see.*
*If you are a TV producer, and are interested in producing our Reality TV series, please reach out at [email protected].**
**Yes, I have a pitch already written.***
***No, I'm not joking.****
****And no, Drew never wears a shirt.
Congrats to Drew! October 10, 2021 Shout-out to Drew, who was just awarded Best Undergrad Poster at the South Carolina Entomological Society Annual Meeting! Drew has been studying the invasive needle ant (Brachyponera chinensis) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Sadly he's found them in a number of locations where they haven't been found previously. The good news, though, is that they appear to be limited to fairly small areas in the locations where they've established. This is despite the fact that they've been in one of those locations for over 10 years. So if we act fast, and we act now, maybe we can prevent further demise of ant communities in the national park! |
Photo credit: Eden McCall
And just in case exploring the ecology of a highly understudied amphibian group wasn't reward enough, just look at the sunsets that Ben gets to enjoy while doing fieldwork on the Osa Peninsula! |
Congrats to Ben! June 22, 2021 Congrats to Ben who was just awarded a Ugalde-Forsyth Fellowship to study caecilians on the Osa Peninsula. Home to at least three species - Dermophis occidentali, Gymnopis multiplicata, and the endemic and enigmatic Oscaecilia osae, the fossorial nature of all caecilians means that we know hardly anything about their ecology. Fortunately, Ben has 6 months to find out. Although Ben doesn't expect to encounter many individuals, he is going to subject those that he finds to a range of sequencing techniques to learn everything he can about these mysterious marvels. |
#BewickLabTrainsForFieldworkDuringAPandemic
December 15, 2020
During the Fall 2020 semester, the Bewick Lab piloted an intra-lab running competition to see who could run the furthest, and how much money we could raise for the Nature Conservancy. Between September 25th and December 14th, members of the Bewick Lab ran a total of 650 miles, and raised $130 for conservation. Great job team! And a special shout-out to Daniel for this awesome idea!
December 15, 2020
During the Fall 2020 semester, the Bewick Lab piloted an intra-lab running competition to see who could run the furthest, and how much money we could raise for the Nature Conservancy. Between September 25th and December 14th, members of the Bewick Lab ran a total of 650 miles, and raised $130 for conservation. Great job team! And a special shout-out to Daniel for this awesome idea!
It was a fight to the finish... but in the end, #TeamMereMortals (Anna, Daniel, Simon and Dr. Bewick) narrowly beat out #TeamBen (literally just Ben) for first place. Okay, okay... so MAYBE it wasn't a fair fight. And no, I'm not talking about the 4:1 advantage... MAYBE it was a bit unfair of Dr. Bewick to send Ben out to do fieldwork for 3 of the 11 weeks (a full 25% of the time period). But #TeamMereMortals is still going to claim this victory! |
#TeamMereMortals (aka 'The Victors')
*These are all post-run pictures. It's pretty clear that Anna can barely stand, Daniel is WORN OUT, and Dr. Bewick is sweatier than on a hot day of fieldwork. No one is quite sure why Simon looks so put together
#TeamBen (was a poor loser and refused to send a picture)
#TeamDrew
Wait! #TeamDrew? How far did #TeamDrew run?
Well... let's just put it this way... #TeamDrew's redemption is coming next semester. #TeamDrew also ran the last 3 miles that put us over the 650 mile mark! And #TeamDrew DID scale the most snowplow piles during his runs, so he had that to contend with.
|
Think you can beat us? Register to compete against our lab (and others!) next semester as part of the
COVID Cross-Country Conservation Challenge!
COVID Cross-Country Conservation Challenge!
Daniel is on a Winning Streak! December 11, 2020 Congrats to Daniel! Again! 'For what?' you may ask... 'For having the COOLEST mask on the planet?' Nope (although we all agree, he definitely does). This time the big shout-out goes to Daniel for winning a Biological Sciences Graduate Professional Development Course: Grants in Aid of Research Grant. Daniel plans to use the money to study Eastern spotted newt microbiomes (or possibly some other salamander microbiomes, depending on where we can travel under COVID restrictions)! Daniel is DEFINITELY the winningest grad student in our lab... possibly the winningest grad student in our department... and maybe even the winningest grad student in the history of Clemson University. We are all SO proud of you Daniel! |
Tick Tock
November 15, 2020
Ticks? We're studying ticks now?!?! Never one to turn down an arachnid (or a source of funding) Dr. Bewick has gotten the lab mired in a small tick project. Does Dr. Bewick know anything about ticks? No. Is this a problem? Yes. How did we get here? COVID.
November 15, 2020
Ticks? We're studying ticks now?!?! Never one to turn down an arachnid (or a source of funding) Dr. Bewick has gotten the lab mired in a small tick project. Does Dr. Bewick know anything about ticks? No. Is this a problem? Yes. How did we get here? COVID.
Ok, so let me explain. Like any good scientists who knows nothing about ticks, Dr. Bewick had a fool-proof plan. Dr. Bewick was going to compensate for her inexperience by ordering ticks online. (And yes, you can order ticks online... at least Dr. Bewick knew that!) But then came the pandemic. And suddenly ordering ticks online, storing ticks in a shared incubator, and doing indoor lab experiments seemed... well... unappealing. What seemed MORE appealing was doing everything outdoors (doesn't it always?). On the surface, the back-up plan was simple - we'd just go out and find the ticks ourselves. Then we'd do a few behavioral assays in the field. As it turns out, though, Upstate South Carolina is not ideal for black-legged ticks. After days of flagging and dragging, we came up empty handed... no ticks... no assays... nothing.
Okay... so there was less swimming and shell collecting, and more swatting at flies and scrambling through scrub... but Ben still came back with a tan... so he still made the rest of us jealous. The other benefit of Ben's two week stay on Edisto was that he was isolated for the required 14-day quarantine. You guessed it! That made it possible to do another trip to the Smokies upon Ben's return.
|
Ben seems stoked, doesn't he?
So yes... from sea (Edisto) to sky (Smokies) in three weeks. Don't let Ben fool you with stories of 'tick bombs' and 'frostbite fingers'... he's definitely living the dream. |
We Miss You Daniel!
September 20, 2020 After our June trip, opportunities for reconvening in the Smokies after a period of isolation didn't present themselves for a long while. However, in late July, Dr. Bewick sent Ben to New Mexico to scope out some lizard habitat (that's another project for another day). Camping alone in the desert for weeks on end, Dr. Bewick assumed Ben was almost certainly COVID-free when he returned home to South Carolina (that's not true... Dr. Bewick made SURE Ben was COVID-free by imposing a pile of rules regarding protocol for Ben's last two weeks in the desert). Anyways the point is that Ben and Dr. Bewick could finally do more fieldwork together. Sadly, Daniel was not able to isolate... but fortunately, he had his handy fieldwork companion (i.e., his fiancee... see story below), which meant he wouldn't be in the field alone either! And that's how we got in another round of sampling, right in the nick of time! |
Without Daniel, we had a bit less fun (okay, a lot less fun)... but there were still some memorable moments... like the hour we spent driving at 2 mph behind a pink jeep (what the h*ll is that?)... our ritual photo at the top of Brushy Mountain... or that time Dr. Bewick set her sifter down... in a pile of human poop.
And yes... that's Ben cleaning Dr. Bewick's sifter. Dr. Bewick is eternally grateful, and that's why she pays him the 'big bucks'. DIG IT IN FOLKS! ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT 2FT. OFF OF A TRAIL!
|
Congrats to Daniel!
June 10, 2020 Continuing on with his winning streak, Daniel just received a highly prestigious Sigma Xi grant to pursue research on the microbiomes of Eastern Red-Spotted Newts in Pennsylvania. Oh...and in case you couldn't tell from the photo, he also got engaged! Smart move Daniel. If she's willing to sift your litter*, she's definitely a keeper. |
*No, that's not a metaphor... get your mind out of the gutter.
|
Reunited and it Feels so Good!
June 10, 2020
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into Bewick lab plans for the spring and summer. How could we continue with 'phenologically explicit' sampling efforts when we weren't even allowed out of the house? And even if we were allowed out of the house, how could we possibly social distance and still do fieldwork? (Dr. Bewick is NOT good at remembering which aspirator is hers...) Miraculously, a solution came when Ben ended up living alone for a period of time, and Daniel managed to convince his fiancee to stay isolated for two weeks in return for a FREE trip to the Smokies (when I say 'free', I mean she was totally expected to work for her keep... also, no one told her how grueling it is to shake bags of litter... or how annoying the biting flies are at some of our sites). A plan was set in motion to isolate for two full weeks (Dr. Bewick's rules), and then join one another up in Cosby Tennessee for some much needed lab bonding.
June 10, 2020
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into Bewick lab plans for the spring and summer. How could we continue with 'phenologically explicit' sampling efforts when we weren't even allowed out of the house? And even if we were allowed out of the house, how could we possibly social distance and still do fieldwork? (Dr. Bewick is NOT good at remembering which aspirator is hers...) Miraculously, a solution came when Ben ended up living alone for a period of time, and Daniel managed to convince his fiancee to stay isolated for two weeks in return for a FREE trip to the Smokies (when I say 'free', I mean she was totally expected to work for her keep... also, no one told her how grueling it is to shake bags of litter... or how annoying the biting flies are at some of our sites). A plan was set in motion to isolate for two full weeks (Dr. Bewick's rules), and then join one another up in Cosby Tennessee for some much needed lab bonding.
At the very least, there's more opportunity for unexpected drop-ins. And drop-ins can really take a discussion in new directions, like 'What is that phylogeny anyways?' and 'Why wouldn't you get a Lepidopteran phylogeny tattooed on your body?' (Somehow the conversation always comes around to what lab tattoo we should all get together... and somehow Dr. Bewick's suggestion of Zoroptera always gets shot down... Pseudoscorpion rarely fares better). |
...I don't think anyone is going to argue when I say that lab meetings held in person are better than lab meetings held via Zoom. THIS is Dr. Bewick's new favourite picture of Ben. |
Now... I'm not going to pretend that our pandemic problems ended when we got to Tennessee. SOME people might even go as far as to say that Dr. Bewick is paranoid and does crazy things to avoid all risk of coming into contact with the virus. But it's really a matter of framing and perspective.
You COULD talk about how Dr. Bewick made you get up at 4 am to beat the crowds on the Trillium Gap Trail... ...or you COULD talk about how, by hitting the Trillium Gap Trail at the break of dawn, you finally managed to catch the llama train as they prepared to take food up Mount LeConte.
|
You COULD talk about how Dr. Bewick forced you to add 3 miles and some elevation gain to an already 10 mile hike by taking the Husky Gap Trail to Elkmont instead of the hugely popular Little River Trail...
...or you COULD talk about how the Husky Gap Trail is awesome, remote and completely undisturbed, and had nice views and cool reflecting ponds along the way... |
You COULD even talk about how Dr. Bewick wouldn't allow restaurant food (including take-out) after a long day in the field, because you never know when the virus is hidden in your cheeseburger...
...or you could talk about how Daniel is such a good cook that we wouldn't have had better food even if we'd picked the best restaurant in Gatlinburg*!
(Meg isn't bad either**)
|
*Ok... so maybe Gatlinburg isn't known for its food scene and fine cuisine. But Daniel REALLY IS a good cook!
**Dr. Bewick is NOT good at cooking. No one lets her in the kitchen. |
Fortunately, despite the many challenges that COVID-19 brought (or perhaps because of them), we still managed to have a good time.
And Dr. Bewick was super stoked to see her students! Even if five days was too short.
Congrats to Ben! April 9, 2020 A big shout out to Ben, who just received both the Outstanding Senior in Discovery Award and the Senior Faculty Award for Most Outstanding Student. There isn't a more deserving undergrad at Clemson, and the Bewick lab is beyond lucky to have him. Also, Dr. Bewick thinks that this is an epic photo, even if it doesn't show Ben doing fieldwork, or coding, or any of the other research activities that earned him these awards. |
Sampling in the Time of COVID-19
March 23, 2020
March 23, 2020
In the Bewick lab, we'd had Spring Break planned for months. Rather than hitting the beaches in Florida, though, our lab was going to spend the week doing field work in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Because who doesn't want to hang out with their boss when they're on holiday? Ironically, it turned out that doing hard manual labor over Spring Break would have been far preferable to what actually happened. In the end, only two of the six students in the Bewick lab were allowed to go. The rest were sent home to spend their holidays - and possibly the rest of their lives - with their parents. The decision to limit the trip to three people was not made lightly. Nor was the decision to proceed at all. In the end, though, Dr. Bewick, Daniel and Ben all agreed that it would be pretty safe to spend one last week in the woods together. Not surprisingly, there were times when Dr. Bewick questioned this decision. But only Daniel and Ben know the true story... and they will never tell. |
Dr. Bewick took every precaution to make sure that the trip was safe. She switched the rental to a cabin that had been vacant for 48 hours, she stocked up on enough food for the whole week before leaving Clemson, she wouldn't let anyone stop to use a public restroom, and she made sure that the cabin had a hot tub. Because nothing kills coronaviruses better than heat, humidity and alcohol*. *Dr. Bewick did raise an eyebrow when Daniel's arrived with a pack of Corona beer... but you have to admit, that's a pretty questionable choice, even when you're not in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic... |
The weather for most of the week was pretty hit or miss. When it was raining, we spent our time out on the cabin porch, contemplating the imminent end of the world.
As with almost every sampling trip, herpers outnumbered entomology-minded folks 2:1. And with the warmer weather, finding salamanders was a real possibility. Dr. Bewick tried to keep everyone on track, but she didn't always succeed.
Of course... no sampling trip is without minor set-backs. Due to an unfortunate series of events, we did drive over a log and get our car stuck in the mud at the Maddron Bald trailhead (no, Dr. Bewick was not trying to learn to drive). Despite what can only be described as a truly epic effort on Ben's part (seriously, who carries an ax in their car?), we eventually gave up and called a towing company.
Overall, however, the trip was a success. We spent some quality time together reflecting on a very uncertain future, Dr. Bewick was exposed to the fine musical stylings of 21 Savage and Kendrick Lamar, and we collected a total of 85 bags of litter. But most importantly, Dr. Bewick ensured that two somewhat skeptical millennials were social distancing sufficiently to prevent spread of COVID-19. So that's a big win for the Bewick lab! You know... doing our part to protect humanity and all. |
Returning from the field presented it's own set of unique challenges. Most notably, how do you hang 85 Winklers when you're not allowed on campus? Fortunately, we are a creative bunch. Closets. The answer is closets.
That's Daniel's closet on the left. It has 70 bags of litter. That's Dr. Bewick's closet on the right. It has 15 bags of litter. Someone is not pulling their weight. Also, Ben, please note the Huel Shaker Bottle in Dr. Bewick's closet. You know why that's there.
Congrats to Daniel x 2 March 2, 2020 Who deserves a round of applause? Daniel deserves a round of applause. And then another! Earlier this month, Daniel won a Biological Sciences Graduate Travel Grant to help pay for Simon, Trey and Drew to join us on sampling trips to Great Smoky Mountains National Park this spring. THEN, today Daniel won a 2020 Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Ctr. Research Program Grant titled 'Re-evaluating the Status of Invasive Ant Species in the GSMNP'. What could be more fun than looking for fire ants at Cades Cove? Why, looking for Needle Ants at Oconaluftee, of course! |
Frosty Field work February 3, 2020 New Year, New Ants! In January, the Bewick lab made good use of the MLK day long weekend and squeezed in some winter sampling. Although the weather started out nicely enough - at about 50 degrees on Friday - it took a turn for the worse on Saturday afternoon. Here we are sampling in what Dr. Bewick refers to as 'Ben wears a coat' cold... fortunately, it would not reach 'Ben wears pants' cold until Monday morning. |
In addition to the cold weather, another challenge associated with winter work is that all of the field stations are closed. That means we have no choice but to stay at a cabin. Ben, does this make up for our last lodgings... with no running water? ...and a distinct moldy smell that still permeates all of the sleeping bags? Oh, and look at how dedicated these students are... studying hard after a long day in the field! |
We don't always stay at a cabin... but when we do, it has to have a hot tub*.
Wait... what kind of professor lets their students chill (or bake?) in a hot tub... in the middle of the day... when they could be out doing fieldwork? The same kind of professor who makes their students get up at 4am and hike for 2 hours in the dark because there's a storm coming in at noon. I guess, when you put in 10 miles before 11am, you deserve a little bit of a break. And as they say... 'You shouldn't sift wet litter'. |
*no, seriously... it has to have a hot tub. It doesn't need to have enough beds - I mean, at least some of us can sleep on the floor... but there definitely needs to be a hot tub.
|
Dr. Bewick's dirty little secret is that she can afford the cabin rental because she forces her students to cook their own dinner. Restaurants? ...per diem? ...nobody needs per diem when we have a kitchen. Dr. Bewick refers to dinner preparation as a 'bonding' experience. That's definitely what appears to be going on here. |
There are two things to notice in this picture. First, we have officially reached 'Ben wears pants' cold. Second, Dr. Bewick is out in the field, freezing her butt off with her students. Dr. Bewick is also wearing pants... you could also notice that. Although maybe it's best not to - those pants are definitely not winning any style points - no one knows why Dr. Bewick insists on wearing them. |
The rest of January was a wash, at least weather-wise. We didn't make it back to the field until the last week! By then, though, it had warmed up substantially. Ben was back to his usual shorts and a T-shirt.
With the road in to Cade's Cove closed for construction, we had to hoof it from the Abrams Creek Campground. If you're down for an 18-mile hike, I highly recommend this trail! Also, you can reach Cade's Cove in about the same amount of time as you would driving through traffic from Gatlinburg.
With no cars or bikes allowed in or out, this may be the only time in our lives we have the Cove to ourselves. Well... us, a dead boar, and some vultures. Anna is enthusiastic about the 'find'. Ben seems to be contemplating the meaning of life.
|
On our final day of field work, we hit Brushy Mountain. Again, road closures - this time Roaring Fork - meant we had a long hike ahead of us. So there was no rest for the wicked... er... weary. Some of us had to start earlier than others. Dr. Bewick was glad that she didn't have any homework. She could sleep in until 5am, while her poor students had to get up early to finish assignments (yes, it was a school day... and yes, they were taking it 'off') |
Dr. Bewick felt a little bad for them... but when you get to spend the rest of the day hiking and bouldering*, can you really complain?
*rock-climbing is a prereq for joining the Bewick lab. No one is really sure why, since Dr. Bewick does not rock-climb herself... yet.
Congrats to Daniel (Again)!
November 28, 2019
Daniel is on a roll! He was just awarded a Graduate Travel Grant (GTG) from the Clemson University Graduate Student Government to cover travel to field sites during the Spring 2020 season. Daniel plans to use the grant to visit Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania to study microbiomes in a variety of newt populations. So yes... our lab is officially moving beyond invertebrates. How can Dr. Bewick say 'no' when Daniel keeps bringing in funding? Fortunately, Daniel has also lined up collaborators with expertise in newt biology, so we should be ok. Dr. Bewick is still partial to insects, so here's a picture of Daniel digging pitfall traps. |
Field Work, Round 2
On the first weekend, we had a little help from a friend. Dr. Bewick left it up to Ben to select the new field hand... so OF COURSE, we got another herper. Welcome Anna! We will convert you to an insect ecologist yet. |
November 18, 2019 Winter is coming... and so are the Winter Ants (Prenolepis imparis). That meant we had to go back out and collect. We hit 17 sites over two weekends, but even though our fingers may have had frostbite, views like this made it all worthwhile (also collecting ants... collecting ants made it all worthwhile). The leaves were still on the trees at the lower elevations... which made for some beautiful hikes and gorgeous drives. It also made for some pretty bad traffic through Gatlinburg and Cades Cove. But with a big bag of Snickers bars and some good conversation, we all survived! Dr. Bewick even learned a thing or two about snakes... like, how to handle them (in theory) |
Looking good guys!*
*Daniel, that's an inside joke for you...
*Daniel, that's an inside joke for you...
Last but not least, a shot of our resident sequencing guru preparing some hard-earned samples...
...Daniel, you're looking good too!*
*see reference to inside joke, above...
...Daniel, you're looking good too!*
*see reference to inside joke, above...
Congrats to Daniel!
November 5, 2019 Daniel was just awarded a College of Science Student Advisory Board Grant in Aid of Research (COSSAB GIAR) for his awesome proposal to study Aphaenogaster rudis microbiomes across space and time in Great Smoky Mountains National Park! Good thing Daniel has already extracted DNA from his first set of Aphaenogaster samples, and is ready to start sequencing next week! I still haven't taken any pictures of Daniel in the lab, so this photo of him in the field with the stunning Purchase Knob back-drop will have to do. |
Field Work First
When the trail is littered with Plethodon's (or are these Desmognathus? ...this is why we don't study salamanders...), there are fewer complaints about missing dinner. |
September 10, 2019 The Bewick Lab just completed our first sampling trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We spent 6 days collecting ants and beetles from the All Taxa Biodiversity Index (ATBI) sites. In order to squeeze 'field season' into 'field week' the days were long, the hikes were strenuous, and we always returned well after dark. Fortunately, if you're out in the field with herpers, they're almost enthusiastic about night hikes. Why are there two ATBI sites at the top of Mt. LeConte? This was our most grueling day - 17 miles in all... uphill both ways. At least we had a great view for lunch. We also found two carrion beetles preparing a salamander at the highest elevation site, so... winning? |
And now for a few more photos of our trip....
Litter, litter everywhere....