Academic interests
My research combines the use of museum collections and trait databases of paleo- and modern species to investigate how inter- and intra-specific traits change across time and space.
Please see my website for more information on my research interest.
I am also on Twitter @megbalk and Research Gate.
Courses taught
Background
Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 2017
Department of Biology
Concentration in Interdisciplinary Science
B.S., University of California, Davis, 2010
Department of Evolution, Ecology, & Biodiversity
Minor Paleobiology, Department of Geology
Appointments
- 2023, Postdoctoral Fellow, Evolution and Paleobiology Group, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
- 2021-3, Environmental Scientist I, National Ecological Observatory Network, Battelle Memorial Institute
- 2021, Assistant Research Scientist, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona
- 2019-21, Postdoctoral Research Associate, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona
- 2017-9, Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
- 2013-5, Programs in Interdisciplinary Biomedical and Biological Sciences Fellow, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico
Selected publications
Balk, M.A., Deck, J., Emery, K.F., Walls, R.L., Reuter, D., et al. 2022. A solution to the challenges of interdisciplinary aggregation and use of specimen-level trait data. iScience, 25(10): 105101. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105101.
Kim, S., Yeakel, J.D., Balk, M.A., Eberle, J., Zeichner, S., Fieman, D., et al. 2022. Decoding the dynamics of distributions: insights from shark demography and dispersal. 289(1977): 20220808. Proc. R. Soc. B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0808
Sahneh, F.†, Balk, M.A.†, Kisley, M., Chan, C.-K., Fox, M., et al. 2021. Ten simple rules to cultivate transdisciplinary collaboration in data science. PLOS Computation Biology. e1008879
Fraser, D., Soul, L.C., Tóth, A.B., Balk, M.A., Eronen, J.T., et al. 2021. Investigating biotic interactions in deep time. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 36(1): 61–75.
Gallagher, R.V., Falster, D.S., Maitner, B.S., Salguero-Gómez, R., Vandvik, V., et al. 2020. Open science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 4: 294–303 (doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1109-6)
Burger, J.R., Anderson, R.A., Balk, M.A., and Fristoe, T.S. 2019. A constraint-based model of dynamic island biogeography: environmental history and species traits predict hysteresis in populations and communities. Frontiers of Biogeography, 11(3): e44383 (doi: 10.2.1425/F5FBG44383)
Balk, M.A., Betancourt, J.L., and Smith, F.A. 2019. Investigating (a)symmetry in a small mammal's response to warming and cooling events across western North America over the late Quaternary. Quaternary Research, 92(2), 408–415.
Smith, F.A., Payne, J.L, Heim, N.A., Balk, M.A., Finnegan, S., et al. 2016. Body size across the Geozoic. Annual Reviews Earth & Planetary Science, 44:523–553 (doi: 10.1146/annurev-earth-060115-012147)
Pimiento, C. and Balk, M.A. 2015. Body-size trends of the extinct giant shark Carcharocles megalodon: a deep-time perspective on marine apex predators. Paleobiology, 41(3): 479–490 (doi: 10.1017/pab.2015.16)
McClain, C.R., Balk, M.A., Benfield, M.C., Branch, T.A., Chen, C., et al. 2015. Sizing Ocean Giants: Patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna. Peer J: e715 (doi.org/10.7717/peerj.715)
Published
Feb. 27, 2023 8:30 AM
- Last modified
Mar. 2, 2023 10:58 AM
