Rebecca Yahr is an American lichenologist who works at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in Scotland. She was President of the British Lichen Society from 2019 until 2021.[1]
Rebecca Yahr | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Duke University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Lichenology |
| Institutions | Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Yahr |
Early life and education
editRebecca Yahr was born in the United States and grew up near the Appalachian Mountains.[2] She studied botany at University of California, Davis for her B. Sc. degree, awarded in 1994.[2] She gained her doctorate from Duke University in 2004 for research into how the relationship between the fungi and algae within a lichen evolve over time.[2]
Career
editFrom 1991 until 1998 Yahr worked as a botanical research scientist, firstly for the California Native Plant Society and then at Archbold Biological Station in Florida, USA, where she began to be interested in lichens.[2][3] In 2005 she took up a research fellowship at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK and from 2006 has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh in Scotland.[4] Her research concerns the evolution of lichens. She uses historical data and specimens, biogeography and molecular biology.[1] She also studies the processes that underlie the lichen symbiosis.[1]
She has served on the editorial boards of The Lichenologist and the Edinburgh Journal of Botany since 2010.[1][5]
From 2019 until 2022 she was President of the British Lichen Society, having served as Vice President from 2018 until 2019.[2]
Since 2020 she has been the co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Lichen Specialist Group.[6] She contributes samples to the Darwin Tree of Life Project.[2]
Yahr collaborated in the characterisation of Opegrapha viridipruinosa Coppins & Yahr (renamed Alyxoria viridipruinosa (Coppins & Yahr) Ertz)[7] and Phaeographis illitoraticola Lendemer, R.C. Harris & Yahr (now Phaeographis atromaculata (A.W.Archer) A.W.Archer).[8]
Publications
editShe is the author or co-author of over 45 scientific publications and several book chapters. These include:
- Gregory M. Mueller; Kelmer Martins Cunha; Tom May; Jessica Allen; James R. S. Westrip; Cátia Canteiro; Diogo Henrique Costa-Rezende; Drechsler-Santos; Aida Vasco-Palacios; Antony Martyn Ainsworth and others. (2022) What do the first 597 global fungal red list assessments tell us about the threat status of fungi? Diversity 14 (9), 736
- Steinová, J., Skaloud, P., Yahr, R., Bestová, H., Muggia, L. (2019) Reproductive and dispersal strategies shape the diversity of mycobiont-photobiont association in lichen symbioses. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 134 226-237.
- Yahr, R., Schoch, C. L., Dentinger, B. T. M. (2016) Scaling up discovery of hidden diversity in fungi: impacts of barcoding approaches. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B 371 (1702), 20150336
- Ellis, C.J., Yahr, R., Belinchón, R. & Coppins, B.J. (2014) Archaeobotanical evidence for climate as a driver of ecological community change across the anthropocene boundary. Global Change Biology 20 2211-2220.
- Yahr, R., Coppins, B.J., Coppins, A.M. (2013) Transient population dynamics in the conservation priority species, Cladonia botrytes. Lichenologist 45 265-276.
- Schoch, C.L., Seifert, K.A., Huhndorf, S., Robert. V., Spouge, J.L., Levesque, C.A., … and Fungal Barcoding Consortium. (2012) Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 6241-6246.
- James TY, F Kauff, CL Schoch, PB Matheny, V Hofstetter, CJ Cox, … and R Vilgalys.( 2006) Reconstructing the early evolution of Fungi using a six-gene phylogeny. Nature 443 818-822.
- Dolan, R.W., Yahr, R., Menges, E.S. & Halfhill, M.D. (1999) Conservation implications of genetic variation in three rare species endemic to Florida rosemary scrub. American Journal of Botany 86 1556-1562.
Awards
editIn 1994 she was awarded a Young Botanist Award from the Botanical Society of America.[9]
The lichen species Gyalectidium yahriae was named after her in 2000.[10]
In October 2023 the Systematics Association invited Yahr to give the society's annual Founders Lecture.[11]
Personal life
editYahr is married to ecologist Chris Ellis and they have two children together.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Dr Rebecca Yahr, Lichenologist". Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
- ^ a b c d e f g Rushton, Susie (2022). "Rebecca Yahr Lichenology 101". The Gentlewoman. No. 25. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ Rushby, Kevin (February 5, 2022). "What to see on a winter walk: an experts' guide to spotting birds, fungi and fossils". the Guardian. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
- ^ Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden. "Lichen conservation leads public on a trail of discovery". www.rbge.org.uk.
- ^ "The Lichenologist - Editorial board". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
- ^ "IUCN SSC Lichen Specialist Group". ICUN. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ Diederich, Paul; others, and (2012). "New or interesting lichens and lichenicolous fungi from Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France. XIV" (PDF). Bull. Soc. Nat. Luxemb. 113: 95–115.
- ^ Lendemer, J C; Yahr, R (2004). "Phaeographis illitoraticola Lendemer, R.C.Harris & Yahr". Evansia. 21 (3): 128.
- ^ "BSA Young Botanist Awards". Botanical Society of America. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
- ^ Buck, William R.; Sérusiaux, Emmanuël (2000). "Gyalectidium yahriae, sp. nov. (Lichenized Ascomycetes, Gomphillaceae) from Florida and Papua New Guinea" (PDF). The Bryologist. 103 (1): 134–138. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(2000)103[0134:GYSNLA]2.0.CO;2. hdl:2268/175233. S2CID 85995500.
- ^ "Systematics Association Founders' Lecture 2023". The Systematics Association. Retrieved October 13, 2023.