Sarah K. Berke

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

It is easy to think about biology as a discipline of facts, forgetting that facts are only useful when they are applied. Students in my courses practice using and applying their biological knowledge through problem solving, data analysis, experimental design, and critical writing. My goals are to foster students' life-long interest in the biological world surrounding us, prepare them to be citizens of that world, and help advance their expertise in the learning, thinking, and communicating skills that will serve them throughout their lives.

What I Love About Siena

I love Siena students -- they are inquisitive, fun, and hardworking, and kind.  They remind me every day why I wanted to become a college professor.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

I teach Biostatistics, Invertebrate Biology, General Biology, Science Writing, and Marine Ecology . I don't think I could choose a favorite -- I love them all in different ways.

My Professional Experience

Current Research

As an ecologist, I care about what organisms do. Every phenotype has myriad effects--on the individual, on the systems in which it participates, and on the evolutionary fate of its lineage. Understanding how functional traits operate across these scales is at the core of my work. From crabs to worms to clams; from individual growth to size distributions of global faunas; from manipulative field experiments to database-oriented statistical modeling, I work in varied systems using varied approaches.Current projects include (i) understanding how an invasive alga is affecting coastal invertebrates in the Eastern United States and (ii) using marine bivalves as a model system for understanding global patterns in biodiversity.
See more at my personal website: https://sites.google.com/siena.edu/dr-berke/home

Articles & Book Reviews

• A review of Diopatra ecology: current knowledge, open questions, and future threats for an ecosystem engineering polychaete
  Biology (MDPI)
  2022
• Oil disturbance reduces infaunal family richness but does not affect phylogenetic diversity
  Frontiers in Environmental Science, vol. 1154
  2022
• Shallow infaunal responses to the Deepwater Horizon event: implications for studying future oil spills
  Frontiers in Environmental Science, vol. 1179
  2022
• Student‐led field studies of herbivory: Hands‐on experiences for remote (or in‐person) learning
  Invertebrate Biology, vol. 140
  2021
• A double-edged sword: infaunal responses to Gracilaria vermiculophylla in the mid-Atlantic United States
  Estuaries and Coasts, vol. 42
  2020
• Grazer interactions with invasive Agarophyton vermiculophyllum (Rhodophyta): comparisons to related vs. unrelated native alga
  Biological Bulletin, vol. 238
  2020
• Sublethal effects of oil exposure on infaunal behavior, bioturbation, and sediment oxygen demand
  Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol. 635
  2020
• Climate hindcasts: exploring the disjunct distribution of Diopatra biscayensis.
  Integrative and Comparative Biology, vol. 135
  2016
• Non-linear climatic gradients shape broad-scale patterns in geographic range size and diversity.
  Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 24
  2015
• Origination and migration drive latitudinal gradients in marine functional diversity
  PLoS ONE, vol. 9
  2014
• Beyond Bergmann's Rule: size-latitude relationships in marine Bivalvia worldwide
  Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 22
  2013
• Out of the tropics, but how? Fossils, bridge species, and thermal ranges in the dynamics of the marine latitudinal diversity gradient
  PNAS, vol. 110
  2013
• The sampling and estimation of marine paleodiversity patterns: implications of a Pliocene model
  Paleobiology, vol. 39
  2013
• Biogeographic variability in the abundance, behavior, and ecosystem engineering of the tube-building polychaete Diopatra cuprea (Bosc)
  Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol. 447
  2012
• Diopatra (Onuphidae: Polychaeta) from intertidal sediments in Southwestern Europe
  Zootaxa, vol. 3395
  2012
• Global environmental predictors of benthic marine biogeographic structure
  PNAS, vol. 109
  2012
• Functional groups of ecosystem engineers: a proposed classification with comments on current issues
  Integrative and Comparative Biology, vol. 50
  2010
• Range shifts and species diversity in marine ecosystem engineers: patterns and predictions for European sedimentary habitats
  Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 19
  2010
• Behavioral and morphological aspects of decorating in Oregonia gracilis (Brachyura: Majoidea)
  Invertebrate Biology, vol. 238
  2009
• Sublethal predation in ecosystem engineering polychaetes
  Biological Bulletin, vol. 217
  2009
• Energetic costs, ontogenetic shifts and sexual dimorphism in decorator crabs
  Functional Ecology, vol. 22
  2008
• Tube decoration may not be cryptic for Diopatra cuprea Bosc (Polychaeta: Onuphidae)
  Biological Bulletin, vol. 214
  2008
• Modelling the energy-mortality tradeoffs of invertebrate decorating behaviour
  Evolutionary Ecology Research, vol. 8
  2006
• Reversion of the glycopeptide resistance phenotype in Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates
  Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, vol. 44
  2000

Presentations

• Teaching about teaching: Sally Woodin's legacy in biology education
  January, 2015
  Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, West Palm Beach, Florida
• Epifaunal and infaunal community responses to an invasive species
  2015
  Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, West Palm Beach, Florida
• Interactions between invasive algae and native invertebrates in Virginia's coastal bays
  2015
  Invited professional lectures/symposia: Mt Holyoke College, Mt. Holyoke, Massachusetts
• A regime shift in progress? New effects of an invasive alga in Virginia's coastal bays
  January, 2014
  Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas
• Algal showdown: invasive Gracilaria vermiculophylla vs. native species in Virginia's coastal bays
  January, 2014
  Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas
• Does oceanography constrain marine bivalve invasions?
  2013
  Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah