"2023 Graduate Student Research Grant recipient"
The Biodiversity Institute seeks annual proposals that enhance biodiversity research efforts of UW graduate students, because graduate students are a major engine of biodiversity research and future leaders of conservation.
Successful conservation of biological diversity requires both basic and applied research to better inform current and future policy decisions. The Biodiversity Institute (BI) is providing grants to enhance or expand ongoing graduate student research at the University of Wyoming that addresses how biodiversity is generated, maintained, or restored.
All of the funds that will be distributed are available because of the generous contributions of donors. Donors choose to give to the BI because of the quality of the research we support, and the high-quality communication of that research to the public. As the BI strives to increase the amount of funding available to students in the future from our donors in Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain region, and around the world, we require that proposals communicate the value of the research to the public. Awardees will be required to present their research to the public in a BI-sponsored Science Cafe, as well as 1) volunteer at a BI-sponsored outreach event or 2) develop your own community engagement activity (a menu of BI outreach options is available here.) Awardees are required to attend a science communication training, tentatively scheduled for September 24 and 25, 2024, 6 - 8 pm.
We have two grant options. Please read through the options carefully before submitting your application. Requests for more than one award will be accepted, but must be budgeted separately.
Funding is available from May 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025 (or until date of graduation, whichever comes first). Awards cannot be extended.
Feb 12 RFP announced
March 22 Proposals due
April 12 Awards announced
May 1 Funding begins
September 24 & 25, 6-8 pm Required science communication training for awardees. Awardees must attend both sessions.
August 31, 2025 Last day of funding period
October 1, 2025 Final reports due
Department of Zoology and Physiology
The California Floater (Anodonta californiensis) and Western Pearlshell (Margaritifera falcata) are two species of freshwater mussels that co-exist in the Bear River drainage of Wyoming and are Species of Greatest Conservation Need (NSS1). They are essential for the continuation of healthy river basins because they filter water, are a rich food source for wildlife, recycle nutrients, and provide habitat and food for aquatic invertebrates. In Wyoming the California Floater mussel is declining throughout their native range. Western Pearlshell mussels are also declining but their populations appear healthy in the state. Currently, little information is known regarding California Floater recruitment or distribution throughout the Bear River Watershed and few live juveniles have been found during the last decade. The goals of this project are to better understand the life cycle of the California Floater by measuring what factors may inhibit reproduction and to learn more about their status and reproductive strategies. We will also simultaneously survey Western Pearlshell mussels as a comparison. This project aims to provide critical information on the distribution, abundance, and reproduction of these mussels within the Bear River Watershed to inform management decisions.
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management
Objective:
My objective is to test the efficacy of Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) in capturing ecosystem services provided by beavers, specifically the provisioning ecosystem service, biodiversity production. I aim to answer the overall question regarding the ability of BDAs to replicate the ecological effects of beaver dams on biodiversity in Wyoming streams.
Summary:
Beavers, as ecosystem engineers, can offer ecosystems great value, and it is extremely important to preserve and protect wetland habitats that can be created by beavers. Beavers can be utilized for the creation and maintaining wetlands. Many declining amphibians, reptiles, birds, and other animal species rely on wetlands as refugia. Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) are one way to increase a stream system's hydrological potential and could maximize biodiversity without introducing beavers into a system. Understanding the ecological value of BDAs can be critical to maintaining biodiversity in degraded stream systems. My project is on Red Canyon Ranch (RCR) in Lander, Wyoming, managed by The Nature Conservancy. Within RCR, I am studying three stream reaches that display the desired conditions of beaver presence, little to no beaver presence, and BDA installation. These reach conditions will allow us to test how BDAs work ecologically compared to beaver dams.
Department of Zoology and Physiology
Harsh environments tend to have lower biodiversity because of the physiological challenges associated with surviving there. My research aims to discover why H. diversipes selects for the extreme environments it inhabits. I hypothesize these beetles select for harsh habitats because they have less biotic interactions (e.g., predators and competitors). I also hypothesize these beetles are subjected to harsh conditions near their physiological limits and are unable to achieve optimal fitness. This challenges the paradigm that rare and endemic species are physiologically adapted to the abiotic conditions of their specific locality and love it there. The goal of this project is to determine the habitat characteristics this species selects for, the conductivity limits of this species, and how predicted effects of climate change may alter the habitat this rare beetle occupies. Accordingly, I am conducting habitat selection surveys, performing two salinity laboratory experiments, and analyzing the hydrology of these habitats.
Department of Ecology and Evolution
Objective:
This research aims to fill a key knowledge gap in the promise of trait-based ecology by empirically linking population fitness in different environments to plant functional traits. Although functional traits have been shown to differ across environmental gradients, strong empirical links between traits and vital rates are lacking. A link between these will be necessary if we hope to use traits to understand and predict the response of plant communities under climate change. Moreover, traits conferring fitness in different environments may further differ depending on biotic interactions with the neighbor community. In my M.S. research I showed that the more dissimilar the traits of a focal species are from the traits of the community the better that species did under drought stress. This current research will elucidate how both trait by environment and trait by neighbor interactions effect demographic performance. The differential performance of cooccurring species directly influences realized community assembly and biodiversity.
Background:
It is well-supported that fitness varies along environmental gradients. Different species are successful in different environments because they have characteristics that make them suitable for their environment and less suitable for others. Our understanding and ability to predict community assembly through environmental filtering is enhanced by considering how particular plant traits, instead of whole species, preform across environments. These plant functional traits are broadly defined as morpho-, physio-, phenological characteristics and have been posed as a holy grail for plant community ecology. A strong link between traits and demographic performance under different conditions would allow us to make strong predictions about the future of grasslands under climate change for example. Despite the strong theoretical connection between traits and fitness in different environments, empirical tests for the net effects of traits on fitness are still lacking.
Department of Anthropology
The goal is to assess the integration of stakeholder knowledge into caribou conservation and management in Alaska, with the goal of highlighting the validity and importance of collaborative approaches to wildlife management and biodiversity conservation. The other primary objective of this thesis is to further understand the diversity present within human-environmental relationships through the process of agent-based modeling programs that simulate caribou hunting by Dene (Athabascans).
Department of Zoology and Physiology
The objective of this project is to equip wildlife managers and researchers with foundational data on bumble bee parasites and the conditions of parasitism. To achieve this, we are 1) surveying bee communities and sampling bumble bees, 2) measuring parasite loads of a variety bee species in different ecoregions using PCR and 3) comparing parasite loads to explore significance of different biological and environmental factors.
Department of Zoology and Physiology
This project takes advantage of a unique study design to test (1) how the interactive impacts of global environmental drivers (precipitation and fragmentation) drive variation in avian community structure and species roles and (2) how species roles interact with precipitation and fragmentation to influence the structure and stability of biotic interactions.
“I am honored to receive the 2022 Richard Baldes Native American Excellence Fund award from the Biodiversity Institute. I hope to inspire other Native American students to go to college and acquire critical training to help advance tribal sovereignty."
Albert Mason - Masters Student, 2022 Grant Recipient
Eligibility:
Grants are available to any masters or doctoral student in good standing at the University of Wyoming at the time the award is made.
Graduate students must continue to be enrolled, with good standing, at the University of Wyoming throughout the duration of their proposal timeline (which cannot extend beyondAugust 31st, 2023).
Research must have ongoing support in the form of existing resources to the student or advisor, access to appropriate equipment, and already approved field or other permits.
the The Biodiversity Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grant Program is supported by the following donor funds:
The Ann and Richard Boelter Biodiversity and Conservation K-12 Excellence Fund to foster excellence and provide financial support to the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute’s K-12 outreach and education programs.
Don and Judy Legerski UW Teton Graduate Scholars in Biodiversity Fellowship to support biodiversity research as overseen by the Biodiversity Institute and associated with the mission of the University of Wyoming AMK Ranch.
The Committing to Excellence in Biodiversity Fund started by lead donors Michael and Edith Allen and Patrick and Nora Ivers. To date, over 70 donors have contributed to this fund including a recent significant gift from the Charles Piersall Chapter of the Izaak Walton League in Casper.
"2023 Graduate Student Research Grant recipient"
""I am honored to be awarded a grant from the Biodiversity Institute! I have greatly admired the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database and the Biodiversity Institute since I began working with them as a field technician in 2021. Organizations like the Biodiversity Institute are essential for informing the community about small, rare animals like the beetle I study! I am very grateful for this award because it paid for my fall tuition and became the gas money I needed to complete…"