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Dr. Andrew Felton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences within the College of Agriculture at Montana State University-Bozeman where he is Principal Investigator of the Felton Lab. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, majoring in Biology, Society, and Environment. Afterwards, he was awarded his PhD in ecology from Colorado State University. Next, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Utah State University. He then received a U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and he conducted research at Chapman University before joining the faculty at Montana State University. In our interview, Andrew shares insights and stories from his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:14)
Living in Bozeman, Montana, Andrew enjoys spending time in the mountains and the beautiful National Parks nearby, including Yellowstone. In the winter, he is an avid downhill skier, and he likes to go rock climbing in the summer. His other hobbies include playing guitar, listening to music, reading, drinking great coffee, going out to eat, and spending time with family and friends.
The Scientific Side (6:23)
Andrew splits his time between teaching and his research lab. His research focuses on dry land ecosystems, which includes deserts, grasslands, and shrublands. Studies in his lab examine how these ecosystems function, what plants and animals are present, and how the ecosystems respond to changes in the availability of water. Climate change impacts the size of precipitation events and increases evaporation through higher temperatures, and Andrew’s lab is also working to understand the implications of these changes for ecosystems that are already water-limited.
A Dose of Motivation (8:34)
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” – Charles Swindoll
What Got You Hooked on Science? (11:58)
One particular book sparked Andrew’s interest in science and the natural world. The Song of the Dodo, by David Quammen, weaves together the theory of natural selection, biographical stories of the influential naturalists Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, and relevant historical and recent research. Andrew was fascinated by this book, and it got him thinking about studying biodiversity. He did an internship in college at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, which has one of the longest running biodiversity experiments in the world. There, Andrew spent a summer weeding plots for experiments, and while it wasn’t glamorous work, his interests in biology and biodiversity continued to grow. Andrew later received an undergraduate fellowship that allowed him to do his own independent research, and this is when everything started coming together for him. He really enjoyed applying things he learned in class to design and conduct his own experiments. Pursuing graduate school was a logical next step, and Andrew’s PhD research focused on how extreme weather conditions impact grassland ecosystems. He began using satellite datasets during his postdoctoral fellowship, and his lab now integrates field experiments with satellite remote sensing to better understand how water-limited systems are influenced by changes and water availability.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:54)
During Andrew’s second postdoc, his advisor was interested in understanding and quantifying the time it takes for the water that a plant absorbs through its roots to make its way through the plant, exit through tiny pores on a plant’s leaves, and evaporate into the air. Their research to answer this question began in 2021, and they just recently published the study earlier this year. They faced a variety of challenges throughout the project, including learning a new programming language to handle their complex data structures. When they first submitted the paper with the results, a peer reviewer requested that they extend the data to include more than one year. To address this feedback, they brought on a new collaborator to help with the data and modeling, and it took about six months to resolve the issue. Then another peer reviewer identified that they were measuring a new and important quantitative measure in the natural world, and they asked if the team had uncertainty estimates for their measurements. This required more brainstorming, but Andrew and his colleagues were eventually able to solve this challenge. In the process, their analyses became stronger and more robust.
Another memorable challenge happened during Andrew’s PhD project. He aimed to manipulate rainfall levels by excluding rain from his experiments. To accomplish this, Andrew built clear plastic rain shelters so his experimental plots wouldn’t get water through rain, but they could still get sunlight. However, when strong storms came through, the roofs sometimes blew off of his plots, ruining the experiment. When things like this happen in the field, the only thing you can do is take note of what happened, factor it in, and rebuild. Andrew learned that experimentally imposing drought is actually quite complicated, and you have to be resilient.
A Shining Success! (27:59)
For the project examining the time it takes for the water to move through a plant, Andrew spent four years working with an interdisciplinary team, and it was so exciting to see their results finally published in the prestigious journal Nature Water. Their findings also represent a really cool advance in our understanding of the water cycle. In the paper, they provide estimates for the amount of fresh water that is stored in plants globally. They also give estimates of the travel time in terms of how long it takes for water to move through plants. While vegetation represents a small portion of the total fresh water on Earth, this water in plants is a really dynamic and particularly fast component of the water cycle. Their work opens up avenues to better understand how vegetation will factor into climate change and the water cycle itself. It was a difficult road to get to this point, but it’s also been really rewarding.
Book Recommendations (4:14)
On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci MD; and Walter Isaacson’s biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs
Most Treasured Travel (31:42)
Andrew’s scientific travel has brought him to the Mongolian Steppe in China; Dublin, Ireland; Leipzig, Germany; and many other places. However, one of the most memorable travel experiences was their recent field campaign conducting research on the seasonal origin of water resources. This project allowed him to travel to very remote parts of the country with remarkably pristine grasslands. Their research included a stop in the Nebraska Sandhills, which are large sand dunes held together by mixed grasses and other vegetation. They also visited Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming, which was also amazing. Not only was Andrew able to see remarkable ecosystems, but he was excited to be collecting data for a project where he was in charge of every step. He came up with the idea, got the funding, recruited an outstanding team, and led the research. The whole experience felt like an important transition in his career from being a trainee to being an independent investigator leading his own research program.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (34:55)
Many scientists that Andrew has interacted with have a fantastic sense of humor and have excellent interpersonal skills. These traits may not be the first thing that people think of when characterizing scientists. In terms of quirky traditions, during his PhD, the lab Andrew worked in went on a Labor Day Weekend data collection trip to eastern Kansas every year. The group piled into a van together and made the trek from Colorado to the Konza Prairie Biological Station to spend the whole long weekend clipping grass. They had multiple ongoing experiments there examining how different factors influenced biomass production over the course of a year. It was a long drive, and the work was tedious, but these trips were a great source of camaraderie through shared experiences.
Advice For Us All (41:43)
Attitude is very important. Try to see the potential good that can result from any situation, or the positive impacts you can have. Focus on what you can control and try to keep moving forward. Andrew draws a lot of optimism thinking about the trainees he mentors who are curious and motivated, as well as the people who continue to support and mentor him. It is a really exciting time to be part of the scientific enterprise because so much is being discovered about the natural world, and the pace of our discoveries seems to be increasing.
Guest Bio
Andrew’s primary research interest is in understanding how water-limited ecosystems, such as deserts and grasslands, respond to climate-driven changes in water availability, such as drought intensification. Andrew’s primary research expertise comes from a variety of fields but are ultimately root in the fields of plant and ecosystem ecology. He enjoys using a diversity of research tools, from conducting small-scale field experiments to analyzing large-scale datasets of ecosystem functioning derived from satellite observations. Outside of work, Andrew has a variety of interest that currently include taking full advantage of the Rocky Mountains via skiing, rock climbing, and visiting state and national parks. Andrew has played guitar since he was a teenager and loves all things music. He also enjoys relaxing just much and thus loves reading and a good TV show to dive into. These interests is made with with friends and family, especially his wife and their beloved orange tabby cat.
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