Eliz Miranda
McNair Scholar 2025
- Major(s): Wildlife Biology
- Classification: Senior
- Anticipated Graduation Date: Spring 2026
- Career Aspirations: After earning my bachelor’s degree, I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a focus on wildlife behavior. My goal is to pursue a career in conservation policy.
“The most valuable part of the McNair experience was having the chance to grow as a scientist while conducting my own research alongside supportive mentors and fellow scholars. This experience gave me the confidence and skills to continue pursuing my future goals.”
“Comparative Analysis of Growth Rates in Black Widow Spiders: Rural versus Urban Environments”
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dale Stevens
Urbanization introduces novel stressors such as artificial light at night (ALAN) and elevated temperatures from the urban heat island (UHI) effect, which can significantly alter ecological and behavioral processes in wildlife. The Western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus), a species known to persist across rural and urban habitats, provides a valuable model for investigating how developmental plasticity and potential local adaptation mediate responses to urban stressors. This study examines how ALAN and temperature interact to influence growth rate and sibling cannibalism in juvenile black widows from urban (Amarillo, TX) and rural (Palo Duro Canyon, TX) populations. Spiderlings will be reared in a 2×2 factorial design (light × temperature), simulating natural dark and illuminated conditions alongside cool and warm microclimates representative of urban environments. Developmental metrics, including molting frequency, latency to cannibalism, and survival, will be analyzed using linear mixed models in R, with family ID as a random effect. We predict that exposure to ALAN and elevated temperatures will accelerate cannibalism and growth in urban-origin spiderlings, reflecting context-dependent plasticity or early adaptation to urban conditions. Conversely, rural-origin individuals may exhibit stress-induced developmental delays or higher mortality under the same treatments. By clarifying how multiple anthropogenic stressors shape behavioral and physiological responses, this study contributes to understanding how urban environments act as both selective pressures and drivers of ecological divergence in arthropods.