PELLSTON, Mich. — Samantha Molino lights up when talking about her summer research project in northern Michigan examining the relationship between mites and cinnamon ferns.
“I just love learning about the environment,” said Molino, who will be a junior in the fall at the University of Michigan.
The undergraduate student from Columbus, Ohio, is spending July at the University of Michigan Biological Station splitting her time between taking a class at the research and teaching campus along Douglas Lake and doing research in the lab of Dr. Marjorie Weber, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M who also is spending the month at UMBS to teach a summer course.
UMBS selected Molino to be the recipient of the 2024 Bach-Hazlett Fellowship, which covers tuition, room and board for one student to take classes during either spring or summer session and do a research project involving ecology and behavior.
“Sam is such a talented and smart young scientist—it has been awesome watching her develop and execute her research projects,” Weber said. “Having the opportunity to conduct experiments both on main campus and in the field at UMBS will be a great experience for Sam, and will allow her to evaluate what type of work she loves most, informing what career paths she wants to pursue next. She is a star, and it has been so fun to work with her and watch her conduct these awesome studies.”
Mites and Cinnamon Ferns
Molino, who studies ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M, said mites typically live in domatia on plants: small chambers made by tiny hairs on the underbellies of leaves.
“They’re hypothesized to be a kind of mutualistic relationship,” Molino said. “Mites might eat smaller herbivores on the leaf and then protect the plant in exchange for shelter. But that’s only been found in the angiosperm family.”
Her research focuses on cinnamon ferns — “which are not angiosperms, but of the division polypodiophyta, which is hundreds of millions of years older than angiosperms.”
“Ferns are an older order than angiosperms. And they have what we’re calling pseudo-domatia. They have little hair-like structures right before the pinna on their leaves. We’re hypothesizing that they act the same as the domatia on angiosperms and give shelter to mites.”
Having finalized her study methods, Molino will next be tarring shut pseudo-domatia on a series of fern plants. After that, she’ll see if mites are less abundant on them compared to the control group of fern leaves.
“If there are more on the control, it would be really cool,” she said. “It would support the hypothesis that the pseudo-domatia have a similar purpose to regular domatia, and that the relationship between mites and domatia is strong enough to have developed independently twice.”
Forest Ecosystems Course
In addition to her research at the field station, Molino is taking the Forest Ecosystems course at UMBS this summer taught by Dr. Inés Ibáñez, a professor in the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), and Dr. Stella Cousins, an assistant research scientist and lecturer in SEAS.
“It is a class that's really cool to be taking here. We have a great case study here in Michigan. We have many different types of forests,” she said.
She’s passionate about studying the ecology of plant defense as well as plant-insect relationships, and hopes to follow this into a future career. However, she said, her academic path wasn’t always so clear.
“When I came to Michigan I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Molino said.
She took Introductory Biology with Dr. Marjorie Weber, who encouraged her to join the Weber lab as a freshman. Molino credits her current passion for ecology to her experience working with this research group.
“That really opened my eyes to truly the possibilities at U-M and in this field,” Molino said. “I didn’t think this was an option for me.”
Living and Learning at UMBS
It was also through Weber’s lab that Molino learned about the University of Michigan Biological Station and the Bach-Hazlett Fellowship.
“I think this is an amazing opportunity,” said Molino of her time at UMBS. “Being in this environment is informing my research a lot, and is helping form questions and driving curiosity.”
Beyond that, Molino says the experience is special being surrounded by like-minded students in such a tight-knit community.
“I’ve met a lot of really nice people who have the same passions as me. I've been loving the experience.”
From hiking the trails and swimming with new friends to living in cabins nestled along Douglas Lake, she said the experience in northern Michigan has been enriched simply by “being able to experience the outdoors and being in such close proximity to people.”
“This fellowship made the Biostation a possibility for me,” she said.
Looking to the future, Molino dreams of continuing to do similar ecological research.
“I want to keep working in this field. I want to get published,” she said. “And I’d love to get my Ph.D.”
Founded in 1909, the U-M Biological Station is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations. For 116 years, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe have studied and monitored the impact of environmental changes on northern Michigan ecosystems.
The core mission of the Biological Station is to advance environmental field research, engage students in scientific discovery and provide information needed to understand and sustain ecosystems from local to global scales. In this cross-disciplinary, interactive community, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe come together to learn about and from the natural world and seek solutions to the critical environmental challenges of our time.
