MS Projects for Prospective Students
Louise Egerton-Warburton
Graduate students have the opportunity to be affiliated with our NSF-funded BII project on re-imagining restoration (http://www.newrootsforrestoration.org). One suite of BII projects addresses the broadscale applicability of perennial agroecosystems as a way to improve soil health and C capture, while a second project tests the effects of plant richness and functional diversity on the soil microbiome, nutrient cycling, and C sequestration. Graduate students will be expected to develop independent research using these projects as a base. There are also expanding opportunities to examine the diversity and functioning in orchid mycorrhizal associations.
Jeremie Fant
Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) is a federally threatened plant endemic to the western Great Lakes that is listed as endangered in Illinois and Indiana, threatened in Michigan and Wisconsin. Recent long-term studies have indicated that successional advancement is causing the decline of Pitcher’s thistle at blowouts but that populations are thriving on perched dune bluffs and large dune landscapes. To augment declining populations, we mixed seed sources from throughout the range to create genetically diverse and more viable populations. We are looking for a student to work with us to better understand and improve augmentation and restoration programs. We propose a series of studies to address efficacy of these methods for Pitcher’s thistle conservation. Previous genetic variation analysis (Fant et al. 2013-2014 and Sefton 2020) at these Great Lakes parks provides a unique opportunity to monitor temporal change in these populations and quantify the effectiveness of augmentation and reintroduction on generating genetically diverse populations, as well as examine impacts of weevil infestation on the genetics of this species. One goal is to quantify the effectiveness of population management. One site has improved diversity and connectivity between subpopulations through the use of temporal monitoring of genetic variation and the use of paternity analysis to look at seed and pollen movement. This project will require a combination of both field and lab work.
Hector Ortiz
Traditional knowledge of ancestral plants, building meaningful relationships with community partners, a community work framework beyond academia.
Amy Iler
Effects of biodiversity on plant phenology
It had been reported that decreases in biodiversity can advance plant phenology but this idea has received very little attention. This project will take place at established research plots at Morton Arboretum that vary in several aspects of plant diversity. Understanding how diversity affects phenology is important for understanding and correctly attributing to phenological shifts to different global change drivers.
Natalie Love
Conservation potential of lawn alternatives: Assessing the cooling potential of diverse plantings
Urban heat island (UHI) effect occurs in areas when greenspace is replaces with pavement and buildings, which absorb and retain heat. Urban greenspaces can mitigate the UHI effect by providing cooling services to surrounding communities. The magnitude of cooling provided by greenspaces to surrounding areas can vary, and mainly depends on greenspace size, distance to greenspace, and vegetation type (i.e., grass vs. trees). However, whether the composition of vegetation (i.e., plant species diversity) affects the cooling capacity of urban greenspaces has not been well explored. In partnership with the Chicago Parks District, this project aims to assess the effect of plant biodiversity on air temperature in the city's urban greenspaces. Field work will involve measuring summer temperatures among (1) plots in diverse existing habitats among the parks (e.g., traditional lawn, low-growing native plant communities, and restored prairie) and (2) experimental plots with varying levels of plant diversity.