Nyquist working in an Icelandic stream

2018 Awardees and Fellowship Recipients

Take a peek inside recent research and field work

Published05/01/2019

Natural History Award and Fellowship recipients have done all kinds of exciting research and projects in the past year. Click through the slide show for details about some of the awardees’ recent work.

2018 Natural History Awards

Davenport Fund

Evan Whiting – Earth Sciences, CSE
Exploring the responses of lizard communities to rapid climate change 56 million years ago
Advisor: David Fox

Zacky Ezedin – Plant & Microbial Biology, CBS
Tropical plant systematics
Advisor: George Weiblen

Dayton Fund

Anna Peschel – Conservation Biology, CFANS
Predicting the adaptive capacity of Chamaecrista fasciculata to climate change in the tallgrass prairie
Advisor: Ruth G. Shaw

Christina Marie Smith – Plant and Microbial Biology, CBS
Plant response to water availability and drought in a changing world
Advisor: Jennifer Powers

Jamie Mosel – Natural Resources Science and Management, CFANS
Adaptive silviculture and forest responses to climate change stressors
Advisor: Rebecca Montgomery

Katharine Zlonis – Integrated Biosciences, UMD
Conservation genomics at the southern range margin of a low arctic species: Primula mistassinica (Primulaceae)
Advisor: Briana Gross

Laura Toro-Gonzalez – Plant and Microbial Biology, CBS
The role of ectomycorrhizae and arbuscular mycorrhizae in plant survival and performance in tropical dry forests and their applicability in restoration projects
Advisor: Jennifer S. Powers

Monica Watson – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Evolution of virulence of fungal entomopathogens as a consequence of migration of lepidopteran hosts
Advisor: Georgiana May & Kathryn Bushley

Pu Wang – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Investigating the possibility of experimentally evolving multicellular protozoans
Advisor: Michael Travisano

McKinney Fund

Amy Waananen – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Towards a mechanistic understanding of how pollinators mediate connectivity of fragmented habitats
Advisor: Dan Cariveau & Diane Larson

Corrie Nyquist – Entomology, CFANS
Assessing chironomid longevity in thermally variable Icelandic streams
Advisor: Leonard Ferrington

Thomas Gable – Conservation Sciences, CFANS
Do beavers buffer moose populations from wolf predation?
Advisor: Joseph Bump

Wilkie Fund

Alexander Shephard – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Hormesis as a form of phenotypic plasticity enhancing survival to evolutionarily novel stressors: is reduced fecundity a cost?
Advisor: Emilie Snell-Rood

Megan Kobiela – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Predicting evolutionary responses to anthropogenic change: life history tradeoffs and stress tolerance in monarchs exposed to road salt
Advisor: Emilie Snell-Rood

Zoological Society Fund

Rebekah Mohn – Plant & Microbial Biology, CBS
Dissecting North American sundew (Drosera) evolution
Advisor: Ya Yang

Samuel Weaver – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Exploring patterns of environmentally mediated gene flow and adaptation along an elevational gradient between two hybridizing species of Plethodontid salamanders
Advisor: Ken Kozak

Charles H. Bell Avian Conservation Fund

Shanta Hejmadi – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Evolutionary history and extinction risk in raptors (Falconiformes and Accipitriformes): A new framework for integrating phylogeny and community assembly in risk assessment.
Advisor: Keith Barker

2018 Natural History Fellowships

Dayton Fund

Sean Keogh – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Graduate recruiting fellowship
Advisor: Andrew Simons

Amanda Gorton – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
Adaptation in ragweed across timescales of environmental change
Advisor: Peter Tiffin

Simons Fund

Dakota Rowsey – Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, CBS
The roles of ecological opportunity and incumbency in the macroevolution two island-endemic rodent clades
Advisor: Sharon Jansa