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).

Castellanos, Adrian A., Jerry W. Huntley, Gary Voelker, A. Michelle Lawing. 2019. Environmental filtering improves ecological niche models across multiple scales. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10: 481 – 492.

Casola, Claudio and A. Michelle Lawing. 2019. Nonrandom evolution of gene families. American Journal of Botany 106: 14 – 17.

Vermillion, Wesley A., P. David Polly, Jason J. Head, Jussi T. Eronen, and A. Michelle Lawing. 2018. Ecometrics: A trait-based approach to paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.  In D.A. Croft, S.W. Simpson, and D.F. Su (eds.), Methods in Paleoecology: Reconstructing Cenozoic Terrestrial Environments and Ecological Communities. Springer (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series), Dordrecht.

Struminger, Rhonda, Jill Zarestky, Rachel Short, and A. Michelle Lawing. 2018. Informal STEM learning at biological field stations. Bioscience 68: 969 – 978.

Ryberg, Wade A. and A. Michelle Lawing. 2018. Genetic Consequences and management implications of climate change for the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). pp. 123 – 153. In S. E. Henke and C. B. Eversole (eds.), American Alligators: Habitats, Behaviors, and Threats. Nova Science Publishers.