Matthew L. Carlson

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Ph.D. University of Alaska Fairbanks

Program Botanist
Alaska Natural Heritage Program (AKNHP)

Office: EBL 116 & ENRI 103H
Phone: 907.786.1327 & 907.786.6390
Email: afmlc2@uaa.alaska.edu
Website: Alaska Natural Heritage Program

Research Interest: Students in my lab and I research plant evolutionary ecology and plant conservation biology. Specifically, we are studying the genomic and ecological consequences of loss of function mutations in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway for arctic plants, the impacts of non-native species on pollination networks and soil ecology, reproductive ecology of rare plants, and vulnerabilities of Alaska’s plant species. I also manage the state’s rare plant and non-native plant databases.

Education:

• 2002 University of Alaska Fairbanks, Ph.D. Biology
• 1994 Willamette University, M.S. Biology and Art

Current Research Grants:

• 2011 USDI, BLM - Lime Hills, Kuskokwim Mountains, and Yukon Lowlands Rapid Ecoregional Assessment, ($980,000)
• 2011 USDI, BLM – Plant and Animal Cooperate Animal and Plant Inventory ($212,000)
• 2011 Alaska Department Environmental Conservation - North Slope Wetlands Inventory ($105,000)
• 2011 USDI, BLM - Seward Peninsula Rapid Ecoregional Assessment ($1,200,000 total, $285,000 at UAA)
• 2010 USDI, BLM - Campbell Tract Invasive Plant Management ($64,000)
• 2010 USDA, USFS - AKEPIC Database Support ($22,000)
• 2009 USDA\CSREES - Are Alaskan Pollinators Abandoning Native Berries for Exotic Clover? ($494,000 total Co-PI with Christa Mulder, UAF, Jeff Conn and Steve Seefeldt AK ARS, $200,000 at UAA)
• 2009 National Science Foundation Supplemental Award - Research Experience for Undergraduates: Linking Ecology & Genomics to Understand Flower Color Evolution in the Arctic ($6000)
• 2007 National Science Foundation, (NSF # 0733078) - Flower Color Evolution in the Arctic: Integrating Genomic Research and Undergraduate Education in Polar Environments ($480,000 total with Co-PI Justen Whittall, Santa Clara University, $210,000 at UAA)

Selected Publications:

• Butler, T., M. L. Carlson, C. Dick, and J. B. Whittall. Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Cause and Consequences of the Loss of Floral Anthocyanins in an Arctic Mustard. Submitted PLoS ONE
• Fulkerson, J., J. B., Whittall, and M. L. CarlsonReproductive Ecology and Severe Pollen Limitation in the Tundra Plant, Parrya nudicaulis (Brassicaceae): Why Are So Many Ovules Produced? Submitted PLoS ONE
• Sowerwine, J., M. J. Rinella, and M. L. Carlson. Invasive plant Melilotus alba lacks population-level variation in competitive ability. Submitted Western North American Naturalist.
• Carlson, M.L., R. Lipkin, C. Roland, and A. Miller. Recent notable vascular plant collections from south-central and southwestern Alaska.  Submitted Rhodora
• Dick, C. A., J. Buenrostro, T. Butler, D. J. Kliebenstein, M. L. Carlson, J. B. Whittall.  2011.  Arctic mustard flower color polymorphism controlled by petal-specific downregulation at the threshold of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. Plos One 6(4): e18230. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018230.
• M. L. Carlson, L. A. Flagstad, L. A., F. Gillet, and E. A. D. Mitchell. 2010. Community development along a proglacial chronosequence: Is aboveground and belowground community structure controlled more by biotic than abiotic factors? Journal of Ecology 98:1084-1095.
• Whittall, J. B., and M. L. Carlson. 2009. Plant defense: a pre-adaptation for pollinator shifts, New Phylotogist 182:5-8.
• Carlson, M. L., I. V. Lapina, M. Shephard, J. S. Conn, R. Densmore, P. Spencer, J. Heys, J. Riley, and J. Nielsen. 2008. Invasiveness ranking system for non-native plants of Alaska. USDA, Forest Service, Gen. Tech. Rep. R10, R10-TP-143.  218 pp.
  Carlson, M. L., and R. J. Meinke.  2008. Hybridization between a rare and introduced Oenothera along the North Pacific Coast.  Western North American Naturalist 68:161-172.
• Conn, J., K. Beattie, M. Shephard, M. L. Carlson, I. V. Lapina, M. Hebert, R. Gronquist, M. Rasy. 2008. Alaska Melilotus (Fabaceae) Invasions:  Distribution, Origin, and Susceptibility of Plant Communities. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 40:298-308.
• Carlson, M. L., S. D. Gisler, and S. Kelso. 2008.  The role of reproductive assurance in the Arctic: a comparative study of a homostylous and distylous species pair Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 40:39-47.
• Carlson, M.L., and M. Shephard. 2007. The spread of invasive exotic plants in Alaska: is establishment of exotics accelerating? Harrington, T.B. and S.H. Reichard (tech. eds.). Meeting the Challenge: Invasive Plants in Pacific Northwestern Ecosystems. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-694.
• Pélabon, C., T. F. Hansen, M. L. Carlson, and W. S.Armbruster. 2006. Patterns of asymmetry in the twining vine Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae): ontogenetic and hierarchical perspectives. New Phytologist 170:65-74.
• Whittall, J. B., M. L. Carlson, P. Beardsley, R. J. Meinke, A. Liston. 2006.  The Mimulus moschatus Alliance (Phyrmaceae): molecular and morphological phylogenetics and their conservation significance.  Systematic Botany 31:380-397.
• Pélabon, C., M. L. Carlson, T. F. Hansen, and W. S. Armbruster.  2005. Effects of crossing distance on fitness and developmental stability in Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae).  American Journal of Botany 92:842-851.
• Pélabon, C., M. L. Carlson, T. F. Hansen, N. G. Yoccoz, and W. S. Armbruster 2004.  Consequences of interpopulation crosses on developmental stability and canalization of floral traits in Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae).  Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17: 19-32.
• Pélabon, C., T. F. Hansen, M. L. Carlson, and W. S. Armbruster 2004.  Variational and genetic properties of developmental stability in Dalechampia scandens.  Evolution 58: 504-514.
• Hansen, T. F., C. Pélabon, W. S. Armbruster, and M. L. Carlson.  2003.  Evolvability and genetic constraint in Dalechampia blossoms: components of variance and measures of evolvability.  Journal of Evolutionary Biology 16: 754-766.
• Hansen, T. F., W. S. Armbruster, M. L. Carlson, and C. Pélabon.  2003.  Evolvability and genetic constraint in Dalechampia blossoms: Genetic correlations and conditional evolvability.  Journal of Experimental Zoology 296(B): 23-39.