A. Michelle Lawing

Dr. Lawing is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology . She is primarily interested in using methods and models from modern ecology and evolutionary biology combined with evidence from the fossil record to inform our understanding of how species and communities respond to environmental change through time. Her work includes the investigation of geographic, evolutionary, and morphological responses of species and communities to environmental changes in the Late Pleistocene and throughout the Miocene to present. She is involved in developing species distribution models (SOM), geometric morphometric methods (GMM), and phylogenetic comparative methods (PCM). Before becoming an Assistant Professor, Dr. Lawing was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). She earned a PhD double major in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior and in Geological Sciences from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Climate change biology, paleobiogeography, morphometrics

The Lawing Lab uses methods and models from modern evolutionary biology combined with evidence from the fossil record to inform our understanding of how species and communities respond to environmental change through time. The research team’s work includes the investigation of geographic, evolutionary, and morphological responses of both species and communities to environmental changes in the past, present, and future. The Lawing Lab is involved in developing and combining methods such as species distribution modeling (SDMs), geometric morphometrics (GMs), and phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs).

Lawing, A. Michelle. 2021. The geography of phylogenetic paleoecology: integrating data and methods to better understand response of species and communities to climate change. Paleobiology 47: 178-197. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2021.14

Struminger, Rhonda, Rachel A. Short, Jill Zarestky, Lauren Vilen, A. Michelle Lawing. 2021. Biological Field Stations Promote Science Literacy through Outreach. BioScience, biab057, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab057

Siciliano-Martina, Leila, Jessica E. Light, A. Michelle Lawing. 2021. Changes in canid cranial morphology induced by captivity and conservation implications (Mammalia: Carnivora). Biological Conservation 257: 109143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109143

Lawing, A. Michelle, Jessica L. Blois, Kaitlin C. Maguire, Simon J. Goring, Yue Wang, Jenny L. McGuire. 2021. Occupancy models reveal regional differences in detectability and improve relative abundance estimations in fossil pollen assemblages. Quaternary Science Reviews 253: 106747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106747

Short, Rachel A., Rhonda Struminger, Jill Zarestky, James Pippin, Minna Wong, Lauren Vilen, and A. Michelle Lawing. 2020. Spatial inequalities leave Spatial inequalities leave micropolitan areas underserved by informal STEM learning institutions. Science Advances 6:eabb3819. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb3819