Meet the Scientist

Name: Eve Emshwiller
Position/Title: Abbott Laboratories Adjunct Curator of Economic Botany
Department: Botany

1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?

Broadly, I am concerned about conserving the biodiversity of crops and their wild relatives. I am studying a tuber crop, called “oca,” or Oxalis tuberosa, that is cultivated as a food crop in the Andes Mountains of South America, as well as wild Oxalis species that are related to the crop.

In my work in systematic botany, I investigate how Oxalis species are related to each other. In the context of these phylogenetic relationships, it is possible to shed light on the origin of the crop itself. Oca is an octoploid (it has eight sets of chromosomes, rather than two sets like people and most animals). Therefore the question of its origins includes not only identifying its wild ancestor, but also the wild species that contributed its different genomes. DNA sequence data indicate that oca probably originated through hybridization between different wild Andean species within a group called the “Oxalis tuberosa alliance,” and received its multiple chromosome sets from these different ancestors. I also study the geographic distributions of these species in the variable environments of the Andes.

In my work in ethnobotany (the study of the relationships between plants and people) and in conservation genetics, I aim to understand the factors that affect the genetic diversity of oca varieties. How are oca varieties dispersed as the families that grow oca exchange varieties among communities? What social or environmental factors are threatening oca’s diversity? How might the Andean farmers’ classification system for oca varieties reflect the crop’s history and the farmers’ management of diversity? I hope that by understanding these factors, we can not only conserve the biodiversity of oca, but also of other clonal crops, which include any that are propagated vegetatively (potatoes, bananas) or by grafting (fruit trees).

2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?

I integrate methods from several disciplines:

DNA sequences and morphological study of plant specimens to infer how different species are related to each other

DNA fingerprints (AFLP) to study the diversity and distribution of clonal varieties of oca that are grown by traditional farmers in the rural communities in the Andes

GIS methods to map distributions of populations of the wild species of Oxalis

Ethnobotanical interviews with Andean agriculturists (mostly Quechua) to learn about the ways that they manage and exchange the diversity of oca varieties that they grow

3. Where do you study biodiversity?

Oca and its wild relatives are found in the Andean region of South America, one of the most biologically rich areas of the world. Wild Oxalis species related to oca are abundant in the cloud forests of the eastern flank of the Andes, and also occur in drier inter-Andean valleys and nearly to the limits of vegetation at high elevations. So far I have conducted field expeditions in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

4. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?

The diversity found within crops like oca and their wild relatives are important resources for potential use in future crop improvement. We cannot conserve this biodiversity without knowing more about it. We need to know where the wild species are found and how they are related to the crop. We need to know how the genetic diversity of the crop is distributed and the factors that affect it. We need to understand how vegetatively-propagated (clonal) crops differ from seed-propagated crops in their evolution and their needs for conservation. My research aims to provide this kind of information to help efforts to conserve crop genetic diversity.

5. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?

I have been a “plant person” ever since I was a little kid. I began playing with plants by sowing a few radishes in my mother's tiny vegetable garden, and by high school I had “taken over” the vegetable garden. My first forays into identifying wild plants were through the popular wild food guides of Euell Gibbons. So my scientific interests are really a continuation of my childhood interest in plants.

An influential early experience was a trip taken to Chiapas, Mexico, with my undergraduate roommate, which gave me a taste of both the difficulties and the attractions of fieldwork. My formal education in biology, systematic botany, and ethnobotany included undergraduate and graduate studies at Cornell University, which were separated by several years of living and working in Maine, always working with plants. I have been very fortunate to be able to begin working at The Field Museum immediately after completing my graduate studies, as this has allowed me to continue to build the research program that I began with my dissertation research.

6. Describe important collaborations for your scientific endeavors (describe your work with other researchers, organizations, or scientific groups, local or indigenous peoples, etc.)

My studies of the factors affecting the biodiversity of oca were conducted in three Comunidades Campesinas, Viacha, Sacaca, and Amaru, in the district of Pisac, Cusco Department, Peru, with briefer visits to the districts of Cuyo-Cuyo and Yunguyo in the department of Puno, Peru.

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