Sean Giery
Education
Ph.D. North Carolina State University
Biography
I earned my B.S. in Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. I then spent two years working as a Research Assistant at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies followed by several years doing environmental consulting work before returning to school for my Master’s (University of Hawai’i) and Ph.D. (North Carolina State University) in ecology. Afterwards, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Mark Urban at the University of Connecticut (2017-2019) before landing an Eberly Research Fellowship at Pennsylvania State University in 2019. I joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Ohio University in Fall 2023.
Research Interests
I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in the evolutionary origins and ecological consequences of phenotypic diversity. My research program bridges traditionally separate fields of evolutionary biology and community ecology to explore the reciprocal interactions between evolutionary and ecological processes. This integrative program leverages large datasets, stable isotopes, genomic data, and large-scale field experiments to test core predictions of an emerging eco-evolutionary synthesis in a range of model systems and vertebrate taxa. The overall goal of this program is to advance our understanding of the consequences of global change for wild populations, communities, and ecosystems.
Representative Publications
Kolbe, J.J., S.T. Giery, O. Lapiedra, K. Lyberger, J.N. Pita-Aquino, M. Leal, D. A. Spiller, J.B. Losos, T.W. Schoener, and J Piovia-Scott. 2023. Experimentally simulating the evolution-to-ecology connection: divergent predator morphologies alter natural food webs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 120(24):e2221691120.
Giery, S.T., Drake D.L., and M.C. Urban. 2021. Microgeographic evolution of metabolic physiology in a salamander metapopulation. Ecology 102(11):e03488.
Giery, S.T., M. Zimova, D.L. Drake, and M.C. Urban. 2021. Balancing selection and drift in a polymorphic salamander metapopulation. Biology Letters 17(4): 20200901.
Urban, M.C., F. Pelletier, S.M. Carlson, S.Y. Strauss, E.P. Palkovacs, L. De Meester, A.L. Angert, M.A. Leibold, A.P. Hendry, S.T. Giery. 2020. Evolutionary origins for ecological patterns in space. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, USA 117(30): 17482-17490.
Giery, S.T. and C.A. Layman. 2019. Ecological consequences of sexually selected traits: An eco-evolutionary perspective. The Quarterly Review of Biology 94(1):29-74.
Giery, S.T., and C.A. Layman. 2017. Dissolved organic carbon and unimodal variation in sexual signal coloration in mosquitofish: a role for light limitation? Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284:20170163.
Giery, S.T., and C.A. Layman. 2015. Interpopulation variation in condition dependent signaling: predator regime affects signal information. The American Naturalist 186:187-195.
Giery, S.T., N.P. Lemoine, C.M. Hammerschlag-Peyer, R.N. Abbey-Lee and C.A. Layman. 2013. Bidirectional trophic linkages couple canopy and understorey food webs . Functional Ecology 27:1436–1441.