Summer 2023 Fellows
Heidi Abresch
Program: Ecology & Evolution
PI: Scott Miller
"Genome evolution and transmission of an emerging nitrogen-fixing organelle."
Tight-knit endosymbiotic relationships are integrated across genetic, metabolic, and cellular levels. To understand the mechanisms driving this integration, I study diatoms in the family Rhopalodiaceae, which have nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial endosymbionts called spheroid bodies (SBs). Here, I focus on sequencing a wide range of SB and host genomes to understand SB genetic and metabolic capacity and test for strict vertical inheritance of SBs.
Mark Kreider
Program: Forest & Conservation Sciences
PI: Andrew Larson
"Post-fire climate impacts on long-term forest development."
Increasing high-severity fire and hot, dry climate in the western U.S. are prompting concern whether reduced post-fire tree regeneration will cause permanent ecosystem shifts to non-forest. Using a fire-prone Northern Rockies wilderness area, I am investigating how post-fire climate (0-5 years) influences long-term forest development (80+ years). This work extends timescales of existing research, helping us understand how climate change may impact western U.S. forests.
Ryan Schroeder
Program: Systems Ecology
PI: Akasha Faist
"Rangeland soil seed bank dynamics: Understanding how soil properties and land management strategies influence seed bank suitability and pathways for ecosystem restoration."
Soil seedbanks – the living seeds in the soil profile and on the soil surface – are important components of rangeland community ecology and assembly. Understanding seed-soil-plant relationships and interactions with ecological restoration treatments can help predict ecosystem vegetation trajectories to help invest resources strategically into rangelands for their restoration and conservation.