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Amber Rice, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University

Amber Rice

Associate Professor

610.758.5569
amr511@lehigh.edu
D216 - Iacocca Hall
Education:

Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Biology

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Research Areas

Additional Interests

  • Hybridization
  • Speciation
  • Animal Behavior

Research Statement

When the ranges of two distinct species overlap, individuals from one species will sometimes mate with individuals of the other species. When offspring are produced, this is called hybridization. Natural hybridization is widespread, and provides an opportunity to study the mechanisms that impact gene exchange between groups or species and maintain species boundaries. In my research, I seek to understand the multiple forms of reproductive isolating barriers acting between hybridizing species, and how these barriers and signatures vary with the environment and across space.

My lab uses naturally hybridizing black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina chickadees (P. carolinensis) as our study system. These small North American songbirds hybridize along a narrow region stretching east-to-west from Kansas to New Jersey. Currently, Lehigh University is located within the hybrid zone. Likely as the result of climate change, the hybrid zone is rapidly moving northward. Based on species distribution modeling, we have predicted that opportunities for hybridization will increase in the eastern half of the hybrid zone but decrease in the western half, due to geographic variation in how climate change will impact chickadee ranges (McQuillan & Rice 2015).

When chickadee individuals interact, they can use odor to distinguish between members of their own versus members of the other chickadee species (Van Huynh & Rice 2019). Such odor discrimination and preferences may help them to avoid hybridization. Previous work has shown that hybridization can cause reduced hatching success in chickadees, and results from my lab suggest that hybridization can have additional impacts on traits important for fitness. For example, hybridization can affect learning and memory abilities (McQuillan et al. 2018). The fitness outcomes of such impacts may vary depending on environmental conditions.

Ongoing projects in my lab are focused on understanding the impacts of hybridization on: learning and memory in different environments and across different seasons; call learning abilities; and microbiome diversity. With collaborators, I also seek to uncover the genomic variation and neuroanatomical features associated with chickadee cognition; genomic signatures of selection on learning and memory; and the impact of hybridization on metabolic function and its corresponding influence on fitness. 

Biography

Amber Rice is an Associate Professor at Lehigh University in the Department of Biological Sciences. She earned a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2008, where she investigated ecological character displacement and its consequences for population divergence and speciation in spadefoot toads. She then completed a postdoc on hybridization in flycatchers at Uppsala University in Sweden from 2008-2010. In 2011, Amber returned to UNC for a postdoc studying reproductive character displacement’s ability to initiate speciation. Later that year, she started at Lehigh University, where she focuses on using naturally hybridizing chickadees to understand the factors influencing hybridization and its consequences. 

Publications

Schweizer, R. M., Romero, A., Tobalski, B. W., Semenov, G. A., Carling, M. D., Rice, A. M., Taylor, S. A., and Cheviron, Z. A. 2023. Thermal acclimation in a non-migratory songbird occurs via changes to thermogenic capacity, but not conductance. Journal of Experimental Biology 226: jeb245208. doi: 10.1242/jeb.245208.

Van Huynh, A. and Rice, A. M. 2021. Odor preferences in hybrid chickadees: Implications for reproductive isolation and asymmetric introgression. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 129. doi: 10.1007/s00265-021-03069-2.

Rice, A. M. 2020. The overlooked influence of hybridization on cognition. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8: 39. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2020.00039 (invited contribution to research topic "Links Between Cognition and Fitness: Mechanisms and Constraints in the Wild").

Van Huynh, A. and Rice, A. M. 2019. Conspecific olfactory preferences and interspecific divergence in odor cues in a chickadee hybrid zone. Ecology and Evolution 9: 9671-9683.

Rice, A. M. and McQuillan, M. A. 2018. Maladaptive learning and memory in hybrids as a reproductive isolating barrier. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285: 20180542.

McQuillan, M. A., Roth, T. C., Van Huynh, A., and Rice, A. M. 2018. Hybrid chickadees are deficient in learning and memory. Evolution 72: 1155-1164.

McQuillan, M. A., Van Huynh, A., Taylor, S. A., and Rice, A. M. 2017. Development of 10 novel SNP-RFLP markers for quick genotyping within the black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina (P. carolinensis) chickadee hybrid zone. Conservation Genetics Resources 9: 261-264.

Pierce, A. A., Gutierrez, R., Rice, A. M., and Pfennig, K. S. 2017. Genetic variation during range expansion: Effects of habitat novelty and hybridization. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284: 20170007.

Rice, A. M., McQuillan, M. A., Seears, H. A., and Warren, J. A. 2016. Population differentiation at a regional scale in spadefoot toads: Contributions of distance and divergent selective environments. Current Zoology 62: 193-206. (invited contribution to special column)

McQuillan, M. A. and Rice, A. M. 2015. Differential effects of climate and species interactions on range limits at a hybrid zone: Potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change. Ecology and Evolution 5: 5120-5137.

Kawakami, T., Backström, N., Burri, R., Husby, A., Olason, P., Rice, A. M., Ålund, M., Qvarnström, A., and Ellegren, H. 2014. Estimation of linkage disequilibrium and interspecific gene flow in Ficedula flycatchers by a newly developed 50k single-nucleotide polymorphism array. Molecular Ecology Resources 14: 1248-1260. 

Pfennig, K. S. and Rice, A. M. 2014. Reinforcement generates reproductive isolation between neighbouring conspecific populations of spadefoot toads. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281: 20140949. (featured on cover)

Rice, A. M. 2013. The genetics of speciation: Considering early-acting isolation, hybrid evolution, and epigenetic mechanisms. Current Zoology 59: 654-657. (invited editorial)

Rice, A. M., Vallin, N., Kulma, K., Arntsen, H., Husby, A., Tobler, M., and Qvarnström, A. 2013. Optimizing the trade-off between offspring number and quality in unpredictable environments: Testing the role of differential androgen transfer to collared flycatcher eggs. Hormones and Behavior 63: 813-822.

Ålund, M., Immler, S., Rice, A. M., and Qvarnström, A. 2013. Low fertility of wild hybrid male flycatchers despite recent divergence. Biology Letters 9: 20130169.

Abbott, R., Albach, D., Ansell, S., Arntzen, J. W., Baird, S. J. E., Bierne, N., Boughman, J., Brelsford, A., Buerkle, C. A., Buggs, R., Butlin, R. K., Dieckmann, U., Eroukhmanoff, F., Grill, A., Cahan, S. H., Hermansen, J. S., Hewitt, G., Hudson, A. G., Jiggins, C., Jones, J., Keller, B., Marczewski, T., Mallet, J., Martinez-Rodriguez, P., Möst, M., Mullen, S., Nichols, R., Nolte, A. W., Parisod, C., Pfennig, K., Rice, A. M., Ritchie, M. G., Seifert, B., Smadja, C. M., Stelkens, R., Szymura, J. M., Väinölä, R., Wolf, J. B. W., and Zinner, D. 2013. Hybridization and speciation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26: 229-246.

Vallin, N., Rice, A. M., Bailey, R. I., Husby, A., and Qvarnström, A. 2012. Positive feedback between ecological and reproductive character displacement in a young avian hybrid zone. Evolution 66: 1167-1169.

Vallin, N., Rice, A. M., Arntsen, H., Kulma, K., and Qvarnström, A. 2012. Combined effects of interspecific competition and hybridization impede local coexistence of Ficedula flycatchers. Evolutionary Ecology 26: 927-942.

Rice, A. M., Rudh, A., Ellegren, H., and Qvarnström, A. 2011. A guide to the genomics of ecological speciation in natural animal populations. Ecology Letters 14: 9-18.

Qvarnström, A., Rice, A. M., and Ellegren, H. 2010. Speciation in Ficedula flycatchers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365: 1841-1852.

Rice, A. M. and Pfennig, D. W. 2010. Does character displacement initiate speciation? Evidence of reduced gene flow between populations experiencing divergent selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23: 854-865.

Rice, A. M., Leichty, A. R., and Pfennig, D. W. 2009. Parallel evolution and ecological selection: Replicated character displacement in spadefoot toads. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276: 4189-4196. (featured on cover)

Rice, A. M., Pearse, D. E., Becker, T., Newman, R. A., Lebonville, C., Harper, G. R., and Pfennig, K. S. 2008. Development and characterization of nine polymorphic microsatellite markers for Mexican spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata) with cross amplification in Plains spadefoot toads (S. bombifrons). Molecular Ecology Resources 8: 1386-1389.

Rice, A. M. and Pfennig, D. W. 2008. An analysis of range expansion in two species undergoing character displacement: Why might invaders generally “win” during character displacement? Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 696-704.

Pfennig, D. W. and Rice, A. M. 2007. An experimental test of character displacement’s role in promoting postmating isolation between conspecific populations in contrasting competitive environments. Evolution 61: 2433-2443.

Pfennig, D. W., Rice, A. M., and Martin, R. A. 2007. Field and experimental evidence for competition’s role in phenotypic divergence. Evolution 61: 257-271.

Rice, A. M. and Pfennig, D. W. 2007. Character displacement: in situ evolution of novel phenotypes or sorting of pre-existing variation? Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20: 448-459.

Pfennig, D. W., Rice, A. M., and Martin, R. A. 2006. Ecological opportunity and phenotypic plasticity interact to promote character displacement and species coexistence. Ecology 87: 769-779.

Marko, P. B., Lee, S. C., Rice, A. M., Gramling, J. M., Fitzhenry, T. M., McAlister, J. S., Harper, G. R., and Moran, A. L. 2004. Mislabelling of a depleted reef fish. Nature 430: 309-310.

Conner, J. K., Rice, A. M., Stewart, C., and Morgan, M. T. 2003. Patterns and mechanisms of selection on a family-diagnostic trait: evidence from experimental manipulation and lifetime fitness gradients. Evolution 57: 480-486

Teaching

BIOS 317: Evolution
BIOS 326/426: Coevolution
BIOS 334/434: Speciation