Hughes Mentor:  Peter Marks

Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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A Day in the Life of an Undergraduate in the Marks Lab

I am willing to bet that my research experience in the Marks lab has been quite different from those of undergraduates doing research in most other labs. This is primarily because Peter Marks is in the process of retiring. As I’ve heard several people proclaim, it is truly “the end of an era” for the ecology and evolutionary biology department at Cornell, and I’d say for the field of ecology as a whole. The major effect that this has had on my research experience is that I am the only person working in the lab most of the time. The profusion of projects, undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs that other labs typically bustle with is absent from the Marks lab. I am not necessarily complaining since it is often nice to have the entire lab and all of its resources available to me at any time, but I am aware that it is an atypical situation.

I first knew Peter Marks as my professor for Field Ecology in the fall of my sophomore year. That class was the first one in which I’d ever been exposed to doing independent research and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Peter is an excellent professor and his class convinced me that I loved ecology. I became involved in the lab through an opportunity to work with his graduate student, Jill Anderson, who is also co-advised by Monica Geber. Through Jill, I learned how to conduct an experiment in a greenhouse. She taught me the ins and outs of plant management and I saw first-hand the scope and extent of work that large-scale ecological projects involved. She also brought me to her field site in South Carolina and introduced me to the extremely interesting cypress-tupelo swamp ecosystem that I would eventually base my (our) project on.

I work with Itea virginica, an understory shrub species that grows only on microsites elevated above the flood level in the swamp such as fallen logs, branches, stumps, the sides of trees, and cypress knees. This plant is fairly easy to work with because it has a great germination rate and the seeds, although extremely small and painstaking to collect, don’t need any special conditions to germinate and grow into healthy seedlings. In addition, adult cuttings root well and seem to grow happily under greenhouse conditions. I haven’t had any major problems with fungus, mildew, or insect pests, either.

Day-to-day lab work mostly includes just taking care of the plants in whatever life stage they’re in. I will have four experiments running by the time they’re all up: two seed, one seedling, and one adult experiment. For the seedlings I had to grow them up from seeds, and for the adults I had to take cuttings from the field and get them to root. All of the plants need to be watered daily and the flood levels and seed germination rates need to be monitored. There is often repotting of the plants involved, as well as growth measurements and mortality censusing. It is not too difficult to manage the plants during the school year; however it would have been extremely difficult for me to go through the bulk of the experimental design and planning process while balancing coursework, which is why I’m glad I had the summer to do so through the Hughes program. As far as relevant coursework goes, the most useful classes were Field Ecology, for basically teaching me how to do research, and Intro Botany, since I work with plants. Forest Ecology has also been useful in thinking about the dynamics of plant’s interactions in its habitat.

Meet a Researcher: Peter Marks!

Peter Marks is a plant ecologist in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. His broad research interests are field ecology and botany. He has a unique approach to research, in that the questions he studies are empirical and not based in theory or concepts. Instead, he starts in the field and observes closely what is occurring – then develops questions from patterns that emerge in the landscape. An example of a recent research project he was working on is a study of succession in abandoned agricultural lands. From observing many old farm fields, Professor Marks noticed that some fields became dominated by shrubs while others became early forests. He developed experiments to investigate the causes, and now the working hypothesis in his laboratory is that proximity to shrubs determines what type of plants will succeed fields, due to dispersal limitations of seeds.

Clearly, there is no theory pulled from the ecology literature that led this study to be conducted. Professor Marks developed this applied approach to research from a colleague he met when he first came to Cornell to teach; this professor retired over 25 years ago but left a lasting impression of how much can be learned about a phenomenom from close examination and making inferences.

The notion that only if one is aware can one build a story of what is happening in a landscape is central to how Professor Marks taught “Field Ecology.” Students are asked to start simply by observing and then piece together a “dialogue with nature” to deduce what’s occurring around them. He emphasized that this experience is one that many biology students at Cornell do not get to have – and that it’s valuable in a different way than more traditional lecture based classes. This course began in 1985, and he says that the applied nature really fit his style of teaching personality. Professor Marks also taught “Plant Ecology,” which is a more conventional lecture based class.

Although his professional career has been entirely centered around field and plant ecology, Professor Marks didn’t study ecology, or even biology, as an undergraduate. He attended Middlebury College as an undergraduate, and while he didn’t study biology, he planned on attending medical school upon graduation. However, early in his senior year he found out he didn’t get into any medical schools he applied to. So he applied to the Peace Corps and also two forestry schools, based on an admittedly naïve and romantic notion of what forestry was. He decided to attend Yale Forestry School for graduate studies, but given his weak life science background they requested he take a botany class the summer before starting.

Professor Marks is adamant that this botany class he took at Dartmouth in the summer of 1966 was what directly led him to becoming a plant ecology researcher. His professor introduced him to a colleague that was leaving Dartmouth to join the faculty at Yale. This professor was one of the founders of the infamous Hubbard Brook forest ecosystem studies station and became his mentor and advisor. As he says, “things just fell into place from there.” Upon receiving his degree from Yale, he applied directly for teaching positions since no ecology post-doctoral positions existed then. Therefore working at Cornell University is technically the first and last job Professor Marks has had, as he just retired this spring!

Once he came to Cornell, his research interests evolved from straightforward plant ecology to incorporate history, because “often what we see today is caused by something in the past.” He sees history as very complementary to how landscapes appear today and incorporates both science and history into his research and teaching. He claims his research interests developed “haphazardly” – another focus of his work was compiling a “Guide to Plant Communities of the Finger Lakes Region.”

When he isn’t teaching or conducting research, Professor Marks enjoys gardening, managing his own forest, woodworking, exercising, and traveling. He is retiring to focus on these hobbies. And in retirement, he plans on pursuing “lots of little things, not one big consuming passion.” In the immediate future, he will be a volunteer bus driver with an organization that assists people who cannot afford transportation. He is confident that he has gotten where he wanted to be professionally, and while he will no longer do formal science, he will always be a naturalist involved with the Finger Lakes Land Trust and Nature Conservancy.

When asked what piece of advice he would give undergraduate students in life sciences that he wishes someone had told him as a undergraduate, Professor Marks said that everyone should take advantage of all that Cornell has to offer while they’re here. “The biology major is demanding but use the time leftover from requirements to cherish and pursue other wonderful classes.” He emphasizes that it’s important to think about life more generally, rather than become too focused. Professor Marks thinks it’d be great if students took art history or developed an appreciation for music; just step back and live a life outside of science. He is resolute in that while students can plan and plan for a future they foresee for themselves, ultimately it is serendipity that will get everyone where they end up. From his own experience as a plant ecology researcher, it’s clear that this is true.