Katie Schneider

Advisor: Dr. William Fagan

Previous Education:
M.S. Biology American University, Washington D.C.
B.S. Biology American University, Washington D.C.

Research Interests:
I am studying how the availability of nutrients and energy influences the biodiversity of cave ecosystems. Specifically, I am interested in how the quantity and quality of allochthonous inputs into caves support the obligate cave species that depend on these resources. I am also interested in the stoichiometry of cave arthropods (that is, their chemical composition, namely C: N: P), and it’s relationship to cave adaptation. Many of the cave-adapted life history strategies may be correlated with changes in body stoichiometry, such as slow growth and thin cuticles (associated with low P and N, respectively). I will test this hypothesis through experiments both in the field and in the laboratory. I suggest that typical cave-adapted traits such as slow growth rates and thin exoskeletons, which classically have been interpreted as the result of relaxed selection pressures or the accumulation of neutral mutations, may be alternatively interpreted as adaptations to the unique stoichiometric challenges of cave environments.

Location of Research:
Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

Publications:
Fagan, W.F., F. Lutscher, and K. Schneider. 2007. Population and community consequences of spatial subsidies derived from central place foraging. The American Naturalist. 170(6): 902-915.

Culver, D.C., T. Pipan, and K. Schneider. Vicariance, dispersal, and scale in the aquatic subterranean fauna of karst regions. Freshwater Biology (Online early).

Schneider, K. & D.C. Culver. 2004. Estimating subterranean species richness using intensive sampling and rarefaction curves in a high density cave region in West Virginia. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 66 (2): 39-45.

Schneider, K. 2003. The Biogeography of the Subterranean Invertebrate Fauna of West Virginia [Thesis]. American University: Washington (DC). 82pp. Available from: UMI Microforms, Ann Arbor, MI; 1413637

Funding Sources:
2006 West Virginia Association for Cave Studies Research Grant
2004 Cave Conservancy Foundation, Ph.D. Fellowship

Awards:
2006 Tom Kane Memorial Award for Interdisciplinary Research in Karst Science from the Cave Research Foundation

2003 James G. Mitchell Award: Best Scientific Paper by a Young Researcher
National Speleological Society Convention