Amy Angert

Professor Amy Angert is a population ecologist and evolutionary ecologist, working in the Botany and Zoology departments and Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. Her research is known for pioneering experimental approaches to study species geographic distributions.

Angert in 2018

Research

Angert co-authored one of the most influential reviews of the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that limit species geographic ranges.^[1] Her synthesis of climate-driven range shifts highlighted the difficulty in predicting which species will be able to track climate change.^[2]

She has pioneered creative experimental approaches to studying range limits. She was the first to use experimental evolution to test evolutionary mechanisms for species range limits in the field,^[3] showing that adaptive trade-offs could limit evolution at range edges. Experiments with Seema Sheth showed that range-edge populations can harbour substantial adaptive variation and responded to artificial selection. Much of her work involves plant in the genus Mimulus as ecological and evolutionary models.^[4]

Career

Angert did her PhD with evolutionary biologist Doug Schemske at the University of Washington and Michigan State University. She was hired as a professor of biology at Colorado State University in 2008, and moved to the University of British Columbia in 2012. She won a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair which was renewed for a second term.^[5] In 2023 she was elected vice-president to the American Society of Naturalists.^[6]

References

1. Sexton, Jason P.; McIntyre, Patrick J.; Angert, Amy L.; Rice, Kevin J. (2009). "Evolution and Ecology of Species Range Limits". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 40 (1): 415–436. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.110308.120317. ISSN 1543-592X.
2. "Coping with climate change: Can we predict which species will be able to move far or fast enough to adapt?". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
3. Angert, Amy L.; Bradshaw Jr, H. D.; Schemske, Douglas W. (2008). "USING EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION TO INVESTIGATE GEOGRAPHIC RANGE LIMITS IN MONKEYFLOWERS". Evolution. 62 (10): 2660–2675. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00471.x.
4. Sheth, Seema; Angert, Amy (1 October 2014). "THE EVOLUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOLERANCE AND RANGE SIZE: A COMPARISON OF GEOGRAPHICALLY RESTRICTED AND WIDESPREAD MIMULUS". Evolution. 68 (10): 2917–2931. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
5. "Dr. Amy Angert and Dr. Xin Li appointed as new Canada Research Chairs | UBC Botany". botany.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
6. "ASN election result". www.amnat.org. Retrieved 2023-11-16.