The University of Wyoming’s Biodiversity Institute recently issued nearly $200,000 in grants to nine graduate students studying biodiversity.
“I am tremendously appreciative of the opportunities this grant has provided me and my fellow graduate students. I look forward to sharing my results.” Bailey Kirkland, a graduate student from the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, said.
Biodiversity Institute Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grants are awarded to doctoral and master’s students looking to enhance their research regarding the variety of life on Earth.
“With biodiversity studies you can answer questions that provide insight into how ecosystems respond to disturbances, stressors, or experience natural variation through time,” Jordan Von Eggers, a graduate student from Washington, said.
Made possible by generous donors, the Biodiversity Institute was able to fund nine different projects of UW students from across the nation.
Von Eggers plans on dedicating grant funds to continued study of bacteria, phytoplankton, and zooplankton DNA in an effort to understand alpine ecosystems throughout time.
“I was able to collect 11 sediment cores across the western United States this past summer but lacked the funds to explore the entirety of my research questions,” Von Eggerts said. “This grant will be a huge help towards using sedimentary DNA archives to reveal past changes in alpine aquatic biodiversity in the past 500 years.”
Kirkland, a student from South Carolina, plans to continue his research into Wyoming’s natural capital, a concept that refers to the stock of natural resources and their combined benefits to people.
“With the help of the grant, I will be able to direct my full attention to building a natural capital account for elk in Wyoming to help assess the economic and ecological trade offs of alternative management decisions,” Kirkland said.
Those interested in the Biodiversity Institute’s projects and grants should visit wyomingbiodiversity.org or contact the institute at biodiversity@uwyo.edu.
