ScholarWorks

ScholarWorks is an open access repository for the capture of the intellectual work of Montana State University (MSU) in support of its teaching, research and service missions. MSU ScholarWorks is a central point of discovery for accessing, collecting, sharing, preserving, and distributing knowledge to the Montana State University community and the world.

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Scholarship & Research

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To diversify or not to diversify: a preliminary report on farmers’ perspectives on diversification in the U.S. Midwest
(Cambridge University Press, 2025-01)
Asprooth, Lauren
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Arbuckle, J. Gordon
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Traldi, Rebecca
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Church, Sarah P.
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Floress, Kristin
Diversifying the simplified landscape of corn and soybeans in the Midwest is an emerging priority in both the public and private sectors to reap a suite of climate, social, agronomic, and economic benefits. However, little research has documented the perspectives of farmers, the primary stakeholders in diversification efforts. This preliminary report uses newly collected survey data (n = 725) from farmers in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa to provide descriptive statistics and tests to understand what farmers in the region think about agricultural diversification, including their perspectives on its benefits, barriers, and opportunities. For the purposes of the study, we define diversification as extended rotations, perennials, horticulture, grazed livestock, and agroforestry practices. We find that a majority or plurality of farmers in the sample believe that diversified systems are superior to non-diversified systems at achieving a range of environmental, agronomic, and economic goals, although many farmers are still forming opinions. Farmers believe that primarily economic barriers stand in the way of diversification, including the lack of affordable land, low short-term returns on investment, and lack of labor. Farmers identified key opportunities to increase diversification through developing processing capacity for local meat and specialty crops, increasing demand for diversified products, and providing more information on returns on investment of diversified systems. Different interventions, however, may be needed to support farmers who are already diversified compared to non-diversified farmers. Building on these initial results, future studies using these data will develop more detailed analyses and recommendations for policymakers, the private sector, and agricultural organizations to support diversification.
Replicate geographic transects across a hybrid zone reveal parallelism and differences in the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation
(Oxford University Press, 2025-04)
Semenov, Georgy
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Kenyon, Haley
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Funk, Erik
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Anderson, William
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McQuillan, Michael
Determining the genetic architecture of traits involved in adaptation and speciation is one of the key components of understanding the evolutionary mechanisms behind biological diversification. Hybrid zones provide a unique opportunity to use genetic admixture to identify traits and loci contributing to partial reproductive barriers between taxa. Many studies have focused on the temporal dynamics of hybrid zones, but geographical variation in hybrid zones that span distinct ecological contexts has received less attention. We address this knowledge gap by analyzing hybridization and introgression between black-capped and Carolina chickadees in two geographically remote transects across their extensive hybrid zone, one located in eastern and one in central North America. Previous studies demonstrated that this hybrid zone is moving northward as a result of climate change but is staying consistently narrow due to selection against hybrids. In addition, the hybrid zone is moving ~5× slower in central North America compared to more eastern regions, reflecting continent-wide variation in the rate of climate change. We use whole genome sequencing of 259 individuals to assess whether variation in the rate of hybrid zone movement is reflected in patterns of hybridization and introgression, and which genes and genomic regions show consistently restricted introgression in distinct ecological contexts. Our results highlight substantial similarities between geographically remote transects and reveal large Z-linked chromosomal rearrangements that generate measurable differences in the degree of gene flow between transects. We further use simulations and analyses of climatic data to examine potential factors contributing to continental-scale nuances in selection pressures. We discuss our findings in the context of speciation mechanisms and the importance of sex chromosome inversions in chickadees and other species.
Community living causes changes in metabolic behavior and is permitted by specific growth conditions in two bacterial co-culture systems
(American Society for Microbiology, 2025-05)
Ellis, Elizabeth
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Fulte, Sam
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Boylan, Skyler
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Flory, Alaina
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Paine, Katherine
Although bacteria exist in complex microbial communities in the environment, their features and behavior are most often studied in monoculture. While environmental enrichments or complex co-cultures with tens or hundreds of members might more accurately represent the natural communities of bacteria, we sought to create simple pairs of organisms to learn what conditions create successful co-culture and how bacteria change transcriptionally when a partner species is present. We grew two pairs of organisms in co-culture, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. At first, both co-cultures failed, with one organism outcompeting the other. However, through manipulating media and environmental conditions, we created co-cultures with stable member ratios over many generations for each community. We then show that changes in the expression of metabolic genes are present in all studied species, with key catabolic and anabolic pathways often upregulated in the presence of another organism. These changes in gene expression fail to occur in conditions that will not lead to successful co-culture, suggesting they are essential for adapting to and surviving in the presence of others.
The Sound in the Night
(Montana State University, 2026)
Johnson, K.E.
A poem that reflects an unfortunate childhood memory.
Review of Platform Power and Libraries. Edited by Christine F. Smith. Library Juice Press, 2025. 151 pp.
(Duke University Press, 2026)
Mannheimer, Sara
Think back to your first music collection. Did you have a shelf of vinyl? Mixtapes shared by friends? CDs borrowed from your library? At the end of each year, when Spotify Wrapped presents each user with an analysis of their listening behavior, I encounter a flurry of social media posts sharing the year's statistics. In 2025, Spotify informed us of our “listening age.” Maybe it was fifty-nine (“You were into music from the early ’80s. You're an old soul”), or maybe it was eighteen (“You were into music from the early 2020s. Your taste is trending”). Of course, I love sharing music with friends. But what lies beneath the glossy veneer of the Wrapped feature? Spotify dominates the streaming market, controls access to our entire music library, tracks the minutiae of our behaviors, and algorithmically recommends music, creating an echo chamber that further entrenches our “listening age”—all while charging us a monthly fee.