Philippa Kaur

The University of California, Los Angeles, suspended ecologist Priyanga Amarasekare without salary or benefits for one year, and will cut her salary by 20% for two more years.Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty

In April of last year, the Ecological Society of America awarded Priyanga Amarasekare one of the highest honours in the field of ecology: the Robert H. MacArthur Award. A little over two months later, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), placed Amarasekare on a one-year suspension without pay or benefits, and forbid her from accessing her laboratory, maintaining her insect colonies, managing her grants or contacting students. Now scientists from around the world, who call Amarasekare a “highly distinguished ecologist”, “a committed teacher and outstanding mentor” and a “tireless advocate for under-represented groups”, are calling for her reinstatement.
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The precise allegations that led to her suspension are unknown. UCLA has declined to release them, and barred Amarasekare from discussing the matter publicly. But long-standing tensions between Amarasekare and the university are no secret. A native of Sri Lanka and one of two women of colour who have tenure in the ecology and evolution department, she has previously accused the university of discrimination for repeatedly denying her promotions that were granted to colleagues. Former students and faculty members who are familiar with the situation think that Amarasekare’s suspension was retaliation for speaking out.Some 315 scientists raised concerns about her suspension in a petition that was delivered to the university on 23 January, arguing that Amarasekare “has long been denied significant advancement within her department, out of keeping with her contributions to the field”. Moreover, the sanctions levied against Amarasekare — including the one-year suspension and 20% salary reduction for an additional two years — represent “the kind of punishment normally applied only to the most egregious wrongdoings”, including scientific misconduct and sexual harassment violations, the petitioners write.In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, the scientists ask that UCLA rescind the disciplinary actions and fully compensate Amarasekare.Officials with UCLA say that the university “supports freedom of expression and does not condone retaliation of any sort”. They declined to discuss the accusations against or in support of Amarasekare, saying the university is “bound to respect the privacy of the numerous individuals involved in this matter”. Amarasekare also declined to comment.A confusing decisionColleagues told Nature that Amarasekare is the rare ecologist whose research spans the theoretical, computational and experimental realms. One project in her laboratory that touches on all of these areas focuses on the impact of climate change on insect communities. “She’s really several years ahead of everybody else,” says Andy Dobson, an ecologist at Princeton University in New Jersey who led the petition. Dobson has written letters to support Amarasekare’s various applications for promotion at UCLA and says he has been baffled by the university’s decisions. “She complained, and most of what’s happened seems to be a reaction against that,” he says.
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Nature spoke to several former students and faculty members who defended Amarasekare in administrative hearings in September 2021. Although none knew the specific details of the charges against her, they all thought she had been targeted for speaking out against what she saw as discrimination within the department. In particular, they said Amarasekare vented about her own experience at UCLA on a departmental e-mail listserve created to discuss issues of racism and discrimination in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, whose death in May 2020 sparked national protests.“That’s why she got into trouble. She ended up criticizing pretty much the entire department — with good reason,” says Marcel Vaz, an ecologist at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who was a graduate student in the department at the time. He and other students came forward to support her. “We demanded some explanation,” Vaz says, “but we never got any feedback.”Peter Kareiva, a former UCLA faculty member who spoke on Amarasekare’s behalf during the administrative proceedings, calls her a brilliant scientist as well as a terrific teacher and student mentor. Kareiva witnessed Amarasekare raise uncomfortable issues and challenge internal policies in faculty meetings. He says she might have made mistakes in terms of “facilitating harmony” among fellow faculty members, but that her goal was always to improve the department.
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“I am still incredulous by the punishment levied,” says Kareiva, who now serves as president of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.It is unclear what happens next, but scientists and former students and faculty members contacted by Nature are concerned about the impact on Amarasekare’s current students, the disruption of federally funded research and the potentially irretrievable loss of time-sensitive experiments that could provide insights regarding the ecological impacts of climate change.As the recipient of the MacArthur award, Amarasekare is expected to discuss this research when she delivers her keynote address at the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, in August. More

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Bt rice led to the redistribution of soil nitrogenTo characterize the influence of Bt rice on soil environmental biochemistry, samples were first separated into two portions including soils and surface waters. Bt proteins were not detected in surface waters from all cultivars (Supplemental Table S2). However, Bt protein contents for rhizospheres from all three cultivars and bulk soils ranged between 64.14 and 126.68 pg/g soil (Supplemental Table S3). Bt protein contents in samples from Bt rice grown in IRRI rice nutrient solution reached 850 pg/ml (Supplementary Table S1). We speculated that the vast majority of Bt protein released from Bt plants was bound tightly to soil particles and was thus difficult to isolate, purify, and detect. Total N, NH4+-N, NO3−-N, and NO2−-N contents in T1C-1 rhizospheres were significantly higher than in the Minghui 63 rhizospheres, although the soil pH of T1C-1 rhizospheres was also significantly lower than for Minghui 63 soils (Supplemental Table S3). Interestingly, the total N, NH4+-N, and NO3−-N contents in the Zhonghua11 rhizospheres were significantly higher than in the Minghui 63 rhizospheres, pointing to an apparent impact of genotypic differences from different conventional cultivars on soil nitrogen. No differences in organic matter and total P contents were identified among all soil samples (Supplemental Table S3). In addition, the surface waters of T1C-1 exhibited higher NO3-N contents than Minghui 63 soils, but lower pH values than Minghui 63 (Supplemental Table 2), consistent with soil results.
Bt rice altered soil microbial communities, but not surface water communitiesSoil and surface water samples were collected and analyzed to characterize metagenomic profiles associated with different cultivars. A total of 11,529,157 and 2,880,919 genes were obtained for soil and surface water samples, respectively (Supplementary Table S4). The α diversity indices, Shannon–Wiener index (H’), Simpson index (D), and Evenness (E) were significantly higher in soils than in surface waters, but significant differences were not observed for Richness (R) (Fig. 2A). Except for R, the α diversity indices E, H′, and D were significantly higher in the T1C-1 rhizosphere than in the other samples, suggesting that Bt rice increased soil microbial diversity rather than altering taxonomic compositions. Differences in α diversity indices were not observed among all of the surface water samples (Supplementary Table S5). Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) (Fig. 2B) based on microbial taxonomic level (genera) and functional classifications (clusters of orthologous groups of proteins, COG) indicated that soil samples from different rice cultivars and bulk soils formed distinct clusters in ordination space. These distinct groupings were not observed for surface water samples, suggesting that Bt rice cultivation altered soil microbial community composition and functions, but these changes did not occur in surface waters. The rhizospheres of T1C-1, Minghui 63, and Zhonghua 11 shared substantial overlap in total genera (Supplementary Fig. S2A). In addition, 40 genera specifically inhabited T1C-1 rhizospheres (Supplementary Fig. S2B). To further identify taxa that were differential between T1C-1 and Minghui 63 soils, the 50 most abundant genera that were differentially abundant for T1C-1 or Minghui 63 were specifically analyzed using a T-test. Among these, 33 were elevated in T1C-1 soils compared with Minghui 63 soils (Supplementary Fig. S3). Thus, the strongest enrichment was observed for taxa in T1C-1 soils, which is consistent with the general increased α diversity indices for T1C-1 communities (Supplementary Table S5).Fig. 2: Comparison of soil and surface water shotgun metagenomic sequencing data.A Differences in α-diversity metrics, Shannon–Wiener index (H′), Simpson index (D), Richness (R), and Evenness (E) between soil and surface water communities. Black asterisks indicate that the α-diversity index was significantly higher in soils (***, p  More