Pursuing evidence that could help explain how certain species are formed and how the genome has changed with evolution, a UB evolutionary biologist and nine of his students have embarked on a two-week research expedition to the arctic climes of Alaska.

The trip is providing a rare opportunity for the students—particularly the undergraduates—to do research in the field.

The focus of the trip is on marine organisms, or aquatic invertebrates, which, explained Derek Taylor, assistant professor of biological sciences, "tend to grow faster and larger" in the arctic environment.

"We really don't know much about them in nature...(but) what we do know is they do well in extreme environments, such as the tops of mountains and polar environments," Taylor said during an interview before leaving for Alaska on July 18.

The researchers are based in Nome, a former goldmining town with a largely Inuit population of approximately 3,500 that serves as the final destination for the world's longest dog sled race, the Iditarod. The students have been divided into two research groups-those seeking to tackle a terrestrial question and those studying an aquatic one. They will use methods such as DNA fingerprinting to identify and analyze the species, Taylor said, and can do some interesting things based on the fact that "many arctic plants and animals have both given up sexual reproduction and increased their chromosome complement." Called polyploids, these species have a chromosome number more than double the basic.

The group's research, then, is aimed at trying to determine how these polyploid species are formed, how their genome evolves and why they thrive in the arctic, he explained.

"Nobody will have addressed these questions before, so they are truly exploring and advancing science," said Taylor, who last year received a $478,000 Early Career Development Grant from the National Science Foundation. One part of that grant involves developing an educational component, and this work in Alaska, he says, fulfills the NSF's mission of integrating research and education. "I think that's a very positive experience for students," Taylor added.

It's also somewhat unique to the field, as the UB students are among just a handful throughout the country for whom this type of research is a possibility.

"It's not the only opportunity, but it's a rare opportunity," Taylor said.

The trip is part of a new course, Arctic Molecular Ecology, that Taylor's students will complete in the fall with a mini-conference. The field research, however, is happening some 4,000 miles from any university laboratory.

A pilot project Taylor and two graduate students conducted at the same location last year went swimmingly, with the trio collecting from more than 120 ponds and lakes aquatic specimens on which they conducted genetic analysis.

Already, the results promise to be groundbreaking. Taylor said the fact that they're close to uncovering the origin of a particular polyploid species is remarkable, given the difficulty in the details of speciation.

"We pretty much think we've identified the parent species for this common, arctic micro-crustacean," Taylor said. "It's going to be one of the few cases where you can actually say how an animal species is formed."

Students this year will have the same opportunity to track the evolution of any number of micro-organisms right in the field. "So if students make a discovery," he explained , "instead of making that discovery in the lab and saying, 'Well, now, I'm x-thousand miles away and I can't collect more,' they can go out the next day and collect more and actually test out the idea."

The days are long, Taylor said, both in hours of daylight—roughly 19 for Nome—and for students, who work nearly that duration.

"We spend most of the day out on the land and then we come home, and then we have to preserve and sort out the animals," he explained.

What makes the area particularly interesting for field research, he said, is that it served as a kind of hideout-or refugium-for a number of plants and animals during the last ice age. While the rest of North America was blanketed under thick ice, Alaska remained ice-free. Many of those species, he said, colonized the continent by migration via the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago.

"(The area is) more diverse because it was a refugium, and also because you get these Asian species that aren't found anywhere else in North America," he said, explaining that Nome boasts unique fauna akin to some of what is present in Asia-largely due to the land bridge. During periods of glaciation, Taylor noted, many animals and plants could have been distributed via the bridge, which was broken some 10,000 years ago.

"You can see things you can't see anywhere else on the planet," he said.