Field Inclusive, Inc.

Experience Reflection: Amanda Potts

“Being awarded this grant was quite significant in that it allowed me to purchase the necessary equipment to run the natural selection experiments for my dissertation…Most importantly, this grant greatly boosted my confidence as a young Black woman in ecology and evolutionary biology—a space where women like me have not traditionally been represented. It gave me the chance to break barriers and demonstrate that I truly belong in this field.”

BY AMANDA POTTS

One day, as my 7th birthday was approaching, my father asked what I would like for a birthday gift. I answered quickly with, “a frog!” The confounding look on his face said it all as he quickly said no and moved to ask what else I wanted. As far back as I can remember, I have had an intricate fascination with the natural world. At that young age of 7, I could see that my interests would not be widely accepted within my African American family. With this in mind, I was hesitant to display any excitement toward nature with my family. My outlet at the time was my 1st grade class, jubilantly waiting for the revisit of my teacher’s 10-foot albino Burmese python, actively observing the frogs and turtles we had as class pets, and periodically going to the zoo to visit the amphibian and reptile exhibits and watching informative nature documentaries. I knew that someday I wanted to work with animals but was not sure of the career path I would take.

It was not until I took biology for the first time in high school that my teacher, Ms. Crow, explained that I could pursue a career in ecology, conservation, and evolution. Eyes wide open, I now had a target to aim for. Career in mind and interests at hand, I attended Texas Southern University (TSU), an HBCU where the majority of students and faculty are African American. When telling other faculty and students what I wanted to do with my degree in biology, I was met with faces that read “black people don’t do that”. However, one professor, Dr Hector Miranda Jr, taught Organismal Biology and displayed an interest in animal diversity, phylogenetics and evolution. After getting to know Dr Miranda and telling him about my interest, he suggested that I volunteer at the Houston Zoo. Still, something felt a little odd at the zoo, there were no African Americans in this department and very little working for the other animal husbandry departments in the Houston Zoo. This along with the feedback from my family as well as the response from faculty and students at TSU solidified my suspicions that black people were underrepresented in the field of ecology, conservation, and evolution. My ever-growing passion for animals and the need to actively address racial diversity has quickened my desire to pursue a career as a research professor where I can provide knowledge and be a role model to increase minority representation in this field of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Now as a PhD Candidate at Rice University’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program, my main interest lies in how environments shape specific phenotypes leading to divergent evolution and convergent evolution. The focus of my research is the phenotypic color convergence of 3 species of tiger beetles (family: Cicindelidae) on the white sands of the young geologic land mass of Laguna Del Pero in New Mexico. At Laguna Del Pero, the Eunota globicollis, Cicindela willistoni and Ellipstopter nevadica all exhibit dramatically light coloration as opposed to populations of these species exhibiting darker coloration on the darker substrate which surround Laguna Del Pero. Because the surrounding landscape is darker, these tiger beetles face a divergent selection environment at the interface on the light and dark substrate giving us a natural experiment in how quickly and repeatedly evolution can act.

More specifically, I will compare the percentage of lightness on the dorsal surface of the tiger beetles looking to see how similar coloration is between the different lineages, as well as how coloration has differed within each species. Along those lines, I am looking to see the overall percentage of lightness from the various locations looking to see if there is a correlation between substrate and coloration.

With these tiger beetles facing a divergent selection environment, I am also looking at what selective forces could be at play in those exhibiting lighter coloration on the young geologic landmass of Laguna Del Pero. My two main hypotheses are crypsis to avoid predation as well as thermoregulation. This is where the Field Inclusive Research Award aided my research the most. One of my experiments included creating paper model tiger beetles with a special kind of paper ,Whatman filter paper (no. 1001–240), that resembles the reflective properties associated with insect exoskeletons. Special paper causes for a special printer. With the awarded funds I was able to purchase the Canon TS9500 inkjet printer. These tiger beetles exhibit thermoregulatory behaviors so the ambient atmospheric temperature as well as the temperature of the substrate were important data points to gather in regards to my hypothesis. Along with the printer, I was able to purchase the HSF Tools HF96 Thermometer Gun which aided in gathering substrate surface temperature and gather temperatures of stationary tiger beetles.

Being awarded this grant was quite significant in that it allowed me to purchase the necessary equipment to run the natural selection experiments for my dissertation. The data gathered from these experiments provided critical information toward my hypothesis and will now allow me to move on to other chapters of my overall research. Most importantly, this grant greatly boosted my confidence as a young Black woman in ecology and evolutionary biology—a space where women like me have not traditionally been represented. It gave me the chance to break barriers and demonstrate that I truly belong in this field. Moving forward, I hope to use my platform not only to share my research, but also to encourage and empower young minority scientists to follow their dreams.