Paul G. Harnik

Research Interests

Evolutionary Macroecology

Understanding the influences of biotic and abiotic factors on the evolutionary dynamics of species and clades is one of the most provocative themes in evolutionary biology and paleontology. While considerable attention has been devoted to this subject, the bulk of this work has concentrated on patterns of selectivity during mass extinctions and probabilities of turnover in Recent environments. Relatively little is known about the influences of species’ macroecology on evolutionary rates during the recovery periods following mass extinctions or those intervals of geologic time characterized by background intensities of extinction and origination. For my doctoral research I am tracking several bivalve superfamilies (Carditoidea, Pectinoidea, and Veneroidea) from the Danian through Rupelian (65 - 30 million years ago) in the Gulf Coastal Plain of the southcentral United States to test causal models of the interactions between species macroecology and evolutionary rates during the recovery and diversification of bivalves following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Whereas previous studies have tended to concentrate on individual ecological factors, I am using path analysis and structural equation modeling to assess simultaneously the strength of direct and indirect interactions between multiple macroecological characteristics (i.e., abundance, body size, biomass, and geographic range) and evolutionary rates as mediated by preservation and sampling. This research combines field work in the Gulf Coastal Plain, use of museum collections, and data augmentation from the primary literature.

Abundance and Time-Averaging

Student-Scientist Partnerships

Enabling teachers and students to participate in the process of doing science is among the most effective and compelling ways of teaching and interesting them in science. Participation in actual ongoing scientific research is perhaps the ultimate example of this kind of hands-on, inquiry-based involvement. SSPs using local paleontological materials solve the pedagogical problem of how to get students in touch with real science that is interesting to them, connects to their lives and prior knowledge, but requires little background or training to make a contribution to data acquisition and analysis. While at the Paleontological Research Institution, my colleagues and I developed the Devonian Seas Project, an SSP which engaged upper elementary through high school students and teachers in paleoecology research using the abundant Devonian marine fossil record of central New York State. Participants were involved in classroom-based research experiences and field-based professional development workshops. The goals of the project included specific substantive educational and scientific results and also the creation of a model by which other institutions might institute similar partnerships in the geosciences. To facilitate a dialogue amongst researchers and educators working nationally on SSPs, and to aid in the dissemination of project results, Rob Ross (PRI Director of Education) and I convened two topical sessions at annual meetings of the Geological Society of America (2001, 2002) and edited a theme issue on SSPs in the geosciences for the Journal of Geoscience Education.

Publications