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ASN Long Island meeting: registration open!

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Registration is now open for the ASN’s meeting on January 8–12, 2027! Please click here (amnat2027.org) to register or find out more information.

The ASN is meeting at The Mansion at Glen Cove, NY. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to attend this unique and exciting gathering!

The American Society of Naturalists will hold its biennial stand-alone meeting from January 8–12, 2027 at The Mansion at Glen Cove on Long Island, New York. For the last several iterations, this meeting has been held in Pacific Grove, CA, and has been referred to as the Asilomar Meeting. We’re shifting to the east coast this time to make the meeting easier for the other side of the country. Registration is now open and will remain so until the meeting reaches capacity:
amnat2027.org.

This is a small meeting, limited to 200 attendees, that allows many opportunities for networking, collaboration, and discussion of science, including meals and evening activities. Research presented at the meeting typically includes a broad range of topics in ecology, evolution, and behavior. The meeting kicks off at dinner on Friday evening (Jan 8) and concludes with breakfast on Tuesday morning (Jan 12). Half of each day is devoted to selected symposia with the other half devoted to contributed talks. Evening activities include a poster session, a presidential debate, and many opportunities for conversations. This year’s symposia are focused on three topics:
(1) Coevolutionary processes in the Genomic Era: Integrating mechanisms & ecological interactions
(2) What we lose when we limit participation in science
(3) The Synthetic Naturalist: ecological and evolutionary theory in an age of engineered organisms

The registration cost for the meeting is all-inclusive and includes lodging, meals, and conference costs. You might experience some sticker shock at the price, but remember that this includes everything except for travel, so it’s actually comparable to other conferences. In order to register, you’ll need to also submit your title and abstract if you plan to present a talk or poster. Abstracts will be used to group talks into sessions but will not be published. If you plan to share a double room, you and your roommate will need to submit each other’s names during registration. If you are searching for a roommate, the ASN Grad Council is helping with roommate matching.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email one of the organizers:

Kate Eisen (katherine.eisen@lmu.edu)
Lily Khadempour (lily.khadempour@rutgers.edu)
Casey terHorst (casey.terhorst@csun.edu)

ASN Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Award

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Madeline Eppley

The recipient of the ASN Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Award at the ASN’s conference at Evolution, June 2026, is Madeline Eppley (Northeastern University) for the poster, “Range-wide population genomics of the eastern oyster reveals divergent environmental adaptation and parasite mitigation strategies between two ancestral groups.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: Identifying adaptive loci from wild populations is a priority for designing multi-trait genomic selection programs for aquaculture, particularly as climate change necessitates breeding for resilience to novel and variable environments. One such desired trait is parasite load mitigation, an urgent priority for aquaculture scientists and shellfish growers alike as they look to source broodstock that will perform positively under projected future intensification of marine diseases. Parasite load is theoretically debated to be mitigated by two non-exclusive strategies. With targeted adaptation, specific immune-related loci mitigate load. Comparatively, general heterozygote advantage and linkage disequilibrium can work in tandem to produce immune advantage across the genome. To close this gap, we conduct the first range-wide genomic study for the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) across thousands of miles (Texas, USA to Eastern Canada) using a 200K SNP array. We use population structure analyses to identify two ancestral groups with a phylogeographic break between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts (FST = 0.06). We then statistically test parasite mitigation hypotheses by examining the relationship between individual-level parasite load and underlying genotype for each ancestral group. We find divergent adaptation strategies, where (1) logistic regression reveals general genome-wide heterozygosity mitigates parasites in Gulf oysters, but not in Atlantic oysters; and (2) Gulf and Atlantic ancestral groups have divergent targeted loci in statistical association with infection, sharing no overlap at the SNP, gene, or pathway level. Lastly, we identify three genes from heat shock protein families involved in adaptation to both high temperature and parasite resistance – a biologically significant response as parasites proliferate under high temperatures. Our results ultimately identify genomic targets for aquaculture breeding programs aimed at climate resilience and contribute to a growing body of evidence that marine species with a previously thought propensity for genetic panmixia can exhibit structure and adaptive differentiation across the seascape.

Honorable mention for the 2026 ASN Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Award goes to Sara Padula (University of Colorado Boulder) for the poster “Genome-wide signatures of recent positive selection overlap genes involved in neuronal development in black-capped chickadees.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: Food-caching chickadees provide a powerful system for studying the evolution of spatial memory in the wild. Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) are non-migratory songbirds that cache tens of thousands of seeds during periods of abundance and rely on spatial memory to recover those caches during winter. Populations experiencing harsher climates exhibit enhanced spatial memory performance and larger hippocampi with increased neuron numbers and neurogenesis, and differences in hippocampal gene expression associated with these traits have been documented across populations. However, the evolutionary processes shaping this cognitive variation remain poorly understood.
Here, we investigate how selection at both range-wide and local scales may contribute to genomic variation associated with spatial memory in black-capped chickadees. We hypothesize that spatial memory is an important target of selection in this species, such that some genomic regions will show signatures of recent positive selection across the range, and that environmental heterogeneity, particularly variation in winter temperature and snow conditions, will drive genotype–environment associations at loci related to spatial memory.
To test these hypotheses, we analyzed whole-genome resequencing data from 28 individuals sampled across North America. We first characterized population structure using principal component analysis and ADMIXTURE, and evaluated isolation by distance to assess the contribution of geographic structure. We then tested for genotype–environment associations using LFMM and Sambada, and identified candidate regions under selection using SweepFinder2 and Tajima’s D. Finally, we assessed overlap among candidate loci identified by these approaches and evaluated whether these regions intersect with genes previously implicated in spatial cognition through genome-wide association studies and differential gene expression in the hippocampus.
By integrating population structure, environmental association, and selection-based analyses, this study aims to identify candidate genomic regions involved in spatial memory and to disentangle the roles of shared and spatially variable selection in shaping cognitive traits across the range of a wild bird species.

Honorable mention for the 2026 ASN Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Award goes to Shouta Iyoda (Kyoto University) for the poster “Interspecific interactions drive evolutionary divergence in thermal physiological traits among species but no evidence from within species comparison: multi-scale tests in Japanese Plestiodon.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: The thermal niche partitioning hypothesis is widely assumed to be an evolutionary mechanism driving divergence in thermal physiology among competing species. However, empirical tests based on sympatric-allopatric comparisons remain limited, leaving the scale at which these processes operate unclear.
Here, we tested whether interspecific interactions drive divergence in thermal physiological traits using a comparative framework across Japanese Plestiodon lizards. Specifically, we combined 1) an interspecific comparisons of preferred body temperature (Tpref) across seven species along a latitudinal thermal gradient, 2) a detailed comparison of microhabitat use and thermal physiological traits between two sympatric species (P. toyamai and P. marginatus), and 3) an intraspecific comparisons of P. marginatus populations between sympatric and allopatric islands.
At the interspecific level, environmental temperature did not explain variations in Tpref. However, consistent with the hypothesis, P. marginatus showed significantly higher Tpref than its sympatric congener, P. toyamai. Microhabitat and physiological comparisons further supported this, showing that P. marginatus occupied more open, warmer environment and exhibited higher thermal traits relative to P. toyamai. In contrast, inter-population comparisons of P. marginatus revealed no clear evidence of difference between sympatric and allopatric populations, indicating a scale-dependent pattern. While divergence was evident at the specific level, it was absent within the species. This discrepancy may be attributed to strong behavioral buffering, where precise thermoregulatory behavior reduces selective pressures on thermal physiological traits following ecological release after isolation from conspecific at the last glacial maximum. Considering the no effects of environmental temperature on the evolution of thermal physiology of Plestiodon species, these results highlight strong behavioral buffering in Plestiodon. However alternative mechanisms such as species filtering cannot be ruled out. Further research is necessary to distinguish the relative influence of interspecific interactions and other evolutionary driver in shaping the higher thermal physiology of P. marginatus.

The ASN Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Award was established in 2012 to recognize a student who has presented an outstanding poster at the annual meeting or at the stand-alone meeting of the American Society of Naturalists.

It was established in memory of Ruth Patrick, a renowned limnologist, past president of the American Society of Naturalists (1975), and Lifetime Honorary Member of the ASN.

ASN Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Award

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Rachel Pitt

The recipient of the inaugural ASN Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Award at the ASN’s conference at Evolution, June 2026, is Rachel Pitt (Binghamton University) for the poster, “Divergence of drought resistance strategies in ecogeographically isolated monkeyflowers.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: Early stage divergence is often driven and maintained by multiple factors, including pollinator preferences and local adaptation. Ecogeographic reproductive isolation can limit gene flow and promote divergence in traits such as drought resistance. Drought resistance strategies are typically categorized as avoidance, tolerance, or escape. Sticky monkeyflowers (Diplacus aurantiacus), native to southwestern Oregon and California, occupy semi-arid environments and exhibit much variation. The ecotypes longiflorus and calycinus are in the earliest stages of parapatric divergence with distinct floral morphologies associated with different pollinator syndromes. Longiflorus occurs in southwestern California while calycinus occupies more inland regions, including the Sierra Nevada mountains. In addition to floral divergence, these ecotypes differ in several physiological and morphological traits, including stomata density, resin production, anthocyanin concentration, and trichome density. Longiflorus exhibits traits consistent with drought tolerance and avoidance, with higher anthocyanin and resin concentrations, and greater stomatal density. In contrast, calycinus flowers earlier, suggesting a favor for drought escape in more inland, harsh environments. This study addresses how divergence in drought resistance strategies manifest across natural populations along an ecogeographic cline. Specifically, whether these trait differences are directly linked to drought resistance or reflect other selective pressures.

Juan José Ramírez-Morales

Honorable mention for the 2026 ASN Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Award goes to Juan José Ramírez-Morales (Universidad del Quindío–EECO) for the poster “Toe-pads as a functional trait associated with parental care and habitat use in neotropical poison frogs.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: The superfamily Dendrobatoidea are a diverse lineage with high phenotypic, behavioral, and ecological variation. A key trait of their biology is parental care, which includes clutch attendance and the transport of tadpoles to water bodies where they complete their metamorphosis. In some species, tadpoles are deposited by males in arboreal phytotelmata located up to 20 m above the ground; in these species, males exhibit wider toe-pads than females. However, it remains unknown how this trait changes across species with different reproductive microhabitats and between sexes when the female is in charge of parental care. In this study, we evaluate (1) whether toe-pads size differs between species that transport tadpoles to arboreal phytotelmata and those that do not, and (2) whether there are intraspecific differences between males and females depending on which sex is responsible for tadpole transport. To assess how toe-pads size is associated with the sex performing parental care and the type of phytotelmata used for tadpole deposition, we used standardized photographs obtained both in the field and from natural history museum collections. We measured body size and toe-pads width in males and females across Dendrobatoidea species. Subsequently, we will perform a phylogenetic comparative analysis to control for the effect of phylogenetic relationships among species. Our results show differences in toe-pads size associated with the reproductive microhabitat and but not in the sex responsible for transport. This suggests an evolutionary relationship among reproductive ecology, sexual selection, and functional morphology, offering new perspectives on the role of functional traits in the evolution of parental care in amphibians.

Ren Horn

Honorable mention for the 2026 ASN Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Award goes to Ren Horn (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign) for the poster “The effects of benthic-pelagic ecology on evolutionary rates of body shape of Leuciscidae.” Congratulations!

Poster Abstract: The evolution of body shape can be influenced by habitat characteristics, such as association with the benthos in fishes. Ecological shifts between benthic and pelagic habitats in fishes have been previously shown to affect rates of morphological evolution due to inhabiting a new niche. One fish family that shifted between benthic and pelagic habitats is minnows (Leuciscidae). Previous research demonstrated that pelagic species evolve more slowly in trophic traits than benthic species, despite a higher rate of speciation. However, how habitat preference drives other aspects of fish morphological evolution was not studied. We developed a novel unbending method for mitigating non-biological shape variation due to preservation artifacts affecting posture. This was tested against the unbending method in the R package LOST that uses a similar method to TPSutil. Our approach was similar to LOST in accuracy, with much greater computing speed, and greater flexibility in the types of curves that can be fit. We then quantified shape for 2,684 specimens across 274 species of North American Leuciscidae. With mouth angle as a proxy for benthic association, we tested how mouth angle correlated with evolutionary rates of body shape by dividing species into quartiles by mouth angle. We found no significant difference in rates of body shape evolution among mouth angle quartiles using compare.evol.rates (geomorph). Ongoing MuSSCRat analysis in RevBayes to account for background evolution are being performed. These findings will provide further insight into the role of ecological shifts in driving functional trait evolution in diverse clades.

The ASN Outstanding Student Poster Award was established in 2026 to recognize an undergraduate student who has presented an outstanding poster at the annual meeting or at the stand-alone meeting of the American Society of Naturalists.

These are the inaugural honorees!

The ASN is coming to the East Coast!

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The ASN’s last seven stand-alone meetings have taken place either at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, or once virtually during the pandemic. Although we love it at Asilomar, we have also taken to heart participants’ and nonparticipants’ feedback that alternating to a different venue would boost participation and open the conference up to those for whom travel to the West Coast is too much of a reach. We are therefore very excited to announce our 2027 meeting venue, The Mansion at Glen Cove on Long Island, New York—a lovely Georgian manor house designed by Charles A. Platt that once served as a Herber Hoover’s summer White House. The venue is within sight of Long Island Sound and just around the corner from Clark Botanical Gardens, Theodore Roosevelt’s historic home in Oyster Bay, Planting Fields Arboretum, the African American Museum and Center For Education and Applied Arts, whale watching, and more!

ASN at Evolution 2026 in Cleveland

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT

As usual, the ASN is pleased to present a variety of enticing symposia, plenaries, and activities at the Evolution 2026 meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. The following lists regular scheduled ASN and tri-society events at the conference. All times listed are local (Eastern Daylight Time).

Sunday (June 21) from 8:00 to 9:15 AM in Grand Ballroom A: ASN Presidential Plenary with Becky Fuller
Sunday (June 21) from 9:30 to 10:45 AM and 11:15 AM to 12:30 PM in Grand Ballroom A: ASN Vice Presidential Symposium with Renée Duckworth
Sunday (June 21) from 12:45 to 1:45 PM in Room 25A: ASN members business meeting, open to all ASN members
Sunday (June 21) from 2:30–3:45 and 4:15–4:45 PM in Grand Ballroom A: ASN Eary Career Investigator Awards
Sunday (June 21) from 5:30 to 8:00 PM: ASN Graduate and Undergraduate Poster Competition
Monday (June 22) from 5:45 to 7:00 PM in Room 20: Science in Solidarity mixer
Tuesday (June 23) from 12:30 to 2:30 PM in Room 20: ASN Grad Mixer
Wednesday (June 24) from 9:30–10:45 AM and 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM in Grand Ballroom A: Tri-Society Symposium on Indigenous Data Sovereignty and the Future of Evolutionary Biology Practices
Wednesday (June 24) from 6:00 to 11:00 PM: Super Social Dinner and Dessert/Dancing

This is to say nothing of the diverse range of mixers and other events along the way. We hope to see you there!

In addition, the following ASN events are restricted to members of the ASN Executive Committee and/or of editors, associate editors, data editors, and staff of The American Naturalist:

Saturday (June 20) from 1:00 to 5:30 PM in Room 18: ASN Executive Committee entrance meeting
Monday (June 22) from 12:30 to 2:15 PM in Room 15: Am. Nat. Editorial Board lunch
Wednesday (June 24) from 12:30 to 2:30 PM in Room 15: ASN Executive Committee exit meeting