Austin Koontz

Research Consultant

Hoban Conservation Lab

Biography

I’m a Research Consultant for the Hoban Conservation Lab. Using population genetic data, I work with other members of the lab and folks from different botanic gardens and arboreta to inform the conservation of rare plant species.

Currently, I’m working on a project seeking to measure the correlation between geographic and genetic metrics of ex situ collection breadth. This is part of an IMLS grant which seeks to improve how botanic gardens utilize genetic data. I’m also conducting genetic analyses on red oaks distributed across Texas.

I received my Master’s of Science degree at Utah State University, where I worked in the Pearse Lab and the Wolf Lab. More information about the research I did in each of these labs can also be found below.

Download my CV.

Interests

Conservation Genetics
Plant Population Genetics
Bike touring

Education

MSc in Biology/Ecology, 2020

Utah State University
BSc in Neuroscience, 2014

University of Nevada, Reno

Experience

Research Consultant

Self-employed

Nov 2023 – Present Eugene, OR

I’m currently a Research Consultant for the Hoban Lab, where I continue to support the projects I worked on in my prior role as a Research Assistant with the Morton Arboretum. I also collaborate with researchers at other botanic gardens and arboreta, and serve as the system administrator for the Hoban Lab Linux server.

Research Assistant II

Morton Arboretum

Jul 2021 – Oct 2023 Lisle, IL

In my previous role with the Morton Arboretum, I conducted genetic analyses for projects focused on the conservation and management of rare trees, both in wild (in situ) and garden (ex situ) scenarios.

Applications Specialist

Hamilton Robotics

Jan 2015 – May 2018 Reno, NV

As an Applications Specialist, I wrote and supported method scripts for customers in the OEM setting and internally, for standardized laboratory protocols. I served as the primary application resource for customers from product development to launch, and worked with hardware and software engineers to design automation solutions.

Projects

Genetic Diversity Indicators

Along with an international team of conservation and population geneticists, I’ve helped develop and calculate genetic diversity indicators–metrics that serve as proxies for the genetic status of a species and which can be determined with or without genetic data. These indicators are included in the Center for Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity framework. I recently coauthored a paper outlining the calculation of these indicators for nine different countries, and am currently working on calculating indicator values for North American trees.

Geographic Genetic Correlation

Botanic gardens and arboreta strive to protect not just species diversity, but the genetic diversity within those species. In order for genetic diversity to be conserved ex situ, wild individuals need to be sampled and genotyped fairly intensely, which can be time-consuming and expensive. This project seeks to understand how well a strong geographic representation of a species is predictive of a thorough genetic representation. This project builds off of gap analysis approaches used to assess how ex situ conservation can be improved.

Ex situ conservation of oaks using RADseq vs. microsatellite markers

Myself and others the Hoban Lab conducted a comparison of SNP and microsatellite markers from 2 rare oaks (Quercus acerifolia and Q. boyntonii) to examine how using each impacts ex situ conservation metrics. The paper can be found here! This work is part of the larger Global Conservation Consortium of Oaks, and was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Publications

Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Jessica M. da Silva, Catherine E. Grueber, Luis Castillo-Reina, Viktoria Köppä, Brenna R. Forester, W. Chris Funk, Myriam Heuertz, Fumiko Ishihama, Rebecca Jordan, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Victor Julio Rincon-Parra, Maria Alejandra Rodriguez-Morales, Libertad Arredondo-Amezcua, Gaëlle Brahy, Matt DeSaix, Lily Durkee, Ashley Hamilton, Margaret E. Hunter, Austin Koontz, Iris Lang, María Camila Latorre-Cárdenas, Tanya Latty, Alexander Llanes-Quevedo, Anna J. MacDonald, Meg Mahoney, Caitlin Miller, Juan Francisco Ornelas, Santiago Ramírez-Barahona, Erica Robertson, Isa-Rita M. Russo, Metztli Arcila Santiago, Robyn E. Shaw, Glenn M. Shea, Per Sjögren-Gulve, Emma Suzuki Spence, Taylor Stack, Sofía Suárez, Akio Takenaka, Henrik Thurfjell, Sheela Turbek, Marlien van der Merwe, Fleur Visser, Ana Wegier, Georgina Wood, Eugenia Zarza, Linda Laikre, Sean Hoban (2024). Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Ecol Letters.

Cite DOI

Austin C. Koontz, Emily K. Schumacher, Emma S. Spence, Sean M. Hoban (2024). Ex situ conservation of two rare oak species using microsatellite and SNP markers. Evol Appl.

Cite DOI

Austin Koontz, William D. Pearse, Paul Wolf (2022). Pronounced Genetic Separation Among Varieties of the Primula cusickiana Species Complex, a Great Basin Endemic. SysBot.

Cite DOI

Thomas P. Smith, Michael Stemkovski, Austin Koontz, William D. Pearse (2022). AREAdata: A worldwide climate dataset averaged across spatial units at different scales through time. JOSS.

Cite DOI

Jacob D. Stachewicz, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Austin Koontz, Hillary Woolf, William D. Pearse, Amanda S. Gallinat (2021). Strong trait correlation and phylogenetic signal in North American ground beetle (Carabidae) morphology. Ecosphere.

Cite DOI

Austin Koontz, Benjamin Brandt, Curtis Dyreson, William D. Pearse (2020). SymbiotaR2: An R Package for Accessing Symbiota2 Data. JOSS.

Cite DOI

Jonas L. Lembrechts, et al (2020). SoilTemp: A global database of near-surface temperature. GCB.

Cite DOI

Presentations

Quantifying the Impact of Genetic Markers on Measures of ex situ Conservation

Jul 20, 2022 12:00 AM Reno, NV, USA

Resolving the systematics of an endangered primrose species complex (Primula cusickiana) to inform management in the Great Basin region of the United States

Aug 6, 2020 12:00 AM Salt Lake City, UT, USA

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Awards

Margaret Williams Research Grant

Nevada Native Plant Society Apr 2019

Dr. Lawrence H. Piette Graduate Student Scholarship

Utah State University, College of Science Apr 2019

USU Biology Dr. Ivan J. Palmblad Graduate Research Award

Utah State University, Biology Department Mar 2019

Ecology Center Graduate Research Award

Utah State University, Ecology Program Mar 2019