Maddisyn Braun is a second-year M.Sc. student in Wildlife Sciences in the Maerz Laboratory within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. She earned a B.A. in Biology and Classical Archaeology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before moving to Georgia to pursue graduate research focused on the ecology and conservation of amphibians. She is especially grateful to the Georgia Museum of Natural History for supporting her research.

Her current work focuses on the natural history and evolution of morphology in Plethodon salamanders. Specifically, she investigates whether climate influences minimum size at maturity, a trait with important implications for population dynamics and demography. Because hybridization is common among Plethodon species where they co-occur, she also examines how hybridization may affect the climate-size relationship by testing whether hybrid salamanders exhibit greater variation in minimum size at maturity and, consequently, a greater capacity to adapt to local environmental conditions than non-hybrid salamanders.

Her research combines field surveys of non-hybridizing salamanders across a hydroclimate gradient with more than twenty years of existing data from hybridizing Plethodon populations. In addition, she is collecting morphological measurements from Plethodon specimens housed in the Smithsonian Institution collections. Overall, Braun's research seeks to determine how climate, hybridization, and evolutionary history interact to shape adaptation in amphibian species, providing valuable insight into how different species may respond to current and future environmental change.

Rachel Correia is a second-year PhD student in the Deer Lab under the direction of Dr. Gino D’Angelo and Dr. Bynum Boley. Her research is focused on managing chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Georgia, a fatal disease affecting deer. Managing CWD requires collaboration between the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GADNR) and deer hunters, and relies heavily on hunters changing their behaviors to reduce the spread of the disease. Rachel will experimentally evaluate how educational message framing affects hunters' willingness to reduce supplemental feeding, which congregates deer and increases the risk of CWD spread. Her research will be among the first to evaluate the effect of CWD message framing and will assist the GADNR and other state agencies in designing educational outreach programs. The Laerm award will allow Rachel to offer incentives to hunters who participate in her study. This will increase response rates and ensure her study captures a broad range of hunters’ experiences, attitudes, and feeding practices, strengthening the relevance of her findings. Additionally, the incentives will provide a way to thank hunters for their time and for contributing to research that will help inform CWD management in Georgia. She sincerely thanks the Georgia Museum of Natural History for supporting this research.

Annabelle Hartley is a master's student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia, where she conducts research in Dr. Birch's Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab. Her interest in zooarchaeology grew out of her coursework in the archaeological sciences and her family's work in the dairy industry. 
When a calf stops nursing, the shift from milk to solid food leaves a chemical record in its growing teeth. This makes cattle weaning age a valuable, but underused, tool for reconstructing herd management and dairying in the archaeological record. Her thesis pilots a sampling method that recovers both dentine collagen (δ13C, δ15N) and enamel (δ13C, δ18O) from a single tooth, rather than sampling separate teeth for each. Each section, cut across the tooth's growth axis, is split into its dentine and enamel portions, producing paired isotopic timelines of each animal's early diet. She will test the method on teeth from three modern cattle of known history and two Bronze Age cattle from La Muculufa and Grotta Marineo 3 in Sicily. Shifts in nitrogen isotopes along each tooth will help identify when weaning occurred, and she will compare the method's sample yield, processing time, cost, and cross-contamination against standard procedures. This novel method follows the principle of causing as little damage as reasonably achievable, and it aims to maximize data while minimizing destruction of limited archaeological collections. The results may also show whether herders weaned calves early on purpose to save milk for people, shedding light on the development of dairying in Bronze Age Sicily.
Annabelle expects to complete her degree in spring 2027. After graduating, she plans to work in cultural resource management and may pursue a PhD in the future.
 

Seungyeon Hong is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Anthropology. She investigates the dynamic interactions between past local communities and emerging state apparatuses by reconstructing high-resolution settlement chronologies and analyzing archaeological material culture. Focusing on the community-state relationships during the Three Kingdoms Period of Korea, her project examines how past local communities negotiated with, responded to or competed with changing central authorities, during periods of so-called 'state formation' and 'collapse'.
To understand the timing and nature of these community-state interactions, her project develops rigorous and integrative radiocarbon dating methods to establish regional settlement chronologies. This approach combines  dendrchronological wood analysis of charcoal samples recovered from archaeological settlements with systematic chemical pretreatment and Bayesian chronological modeling. With support from the Laerm Award, the refined radiocarbon-based regional chronology, integrated with archaeological material analysis, will provide a stronger spatio-temporal framework for reconstructing community–state dynamics and sociocultural transformation during major shifts in the political organization and statecraft of ancient Korea.tat gradients have not been characterized. Marisa will utilize fur samples from 90 years of catalogued specimens of big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), eastern red (Lasiurus , tricolored (Perimyotis subflavus), and evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) to assess temporal and spatial patterns of Hg burdens, establishing a historical baseline. Historical data from museum specimens will provide critical context for interpreting present-day Hg concentrations in bat populations, enabling a more comprehensive assessment of population health relative to long-term trends of pollutant exposure.

Devonian Locke is a second-year master’s student at the University of Georgia studying Ecology under Dr. Krista Capps. His work focuses on the impact of climate extremes, primarily drought, on soil carbon pools and physical properties. He aims to pair fine-scale, field-based observations with macro-scale remotely sensed indices to develop a scalable understanding of these impacts. Originally from Crowder, Oklahoma, Locke earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental science and political science from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. At the time, he conducted research on the chemistry of the restoration of a pastureland to develop an understanding of the effects of ecological restoration on elemental cycling and soil health.

Now, Locke works on riparian zones which connect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through exchanges of water, carbon, and nutrients. He examines how drought can disrupt riparian linkages by altering soil moisture, infiltration dynamics, and vegetation health to develop an understanding how fine-scale soil physical and chemical processes drive vegetation responses. This assessment is critical for observing landscape-scale drought impacts and improving monitoring and predictions.

To understand these dynamics, he has developed a study that examines the mechanistic relationships among riparian hydrology, soil organic carbon (SOC) stability, and vegetation stress across the Piedmont region of Georgia. To do this, the in-situ soil moisture was measured at 5-minute intervals and soil infiltration was periodically measured to quantify changes in soil hydrology as the riparian areas recovered from the drought. Further, Locke sampled soils up to 30 cm to characterize SOC pools across a period spanning extreme drought (D3) and subsequent recovery to abnormally dry conditions (D0).

He has worked to pair these ground-based observations with a drought severity index derived from multi-year Sentinel-2 moisture-related indices to evaluate how local soil properties mediate vegetation response observed at broader spatial scales. Preliminary results indicate that extreme drought increased soil hydrophobicity. However, when observations are scaled across the landscape, measured soil moisture remains significantly coupled with topographic wetness metrics. Locke is engaged in ongoing analyses to integrate these hydrologic observations with SOC fractionation measurements, including particulate organic matter (POM), mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM), and water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC), to evaluate the vulnerability and long-term stability of riparian soil carbon. Through the linking of in-situ measurements of soil properties and hydrologic processes with satellite-derived drought and vegetation indicators, Locke’s research seeks to develop transferable ecohydrological approaches for assessing riparian vulnerability and supporting watershed monitoring and management.

Mariana Matos is a Portuguese Ph.D. candidate in Integrative Conservation (ICON) and Anthropology at UGA. Her interests in wildlife conservation, behavioral ecology, and public health brought her to the ICON program, where she can combine natural and social sciences to study the relationships between wildlife, people, and the landscapes they share. She has been passionate about Madagascar since she first traveled there to study lemurs in 2016. Through ICON, she has expanded that work to consider the people who share lemurs’ habitats and how life in these shared landscapes may shape the health of both.

Her current research focuses on Perrier’s sifakas, striking black lemurs that live in the fragmented forests of northern Madagascar. They are among the world’s most endangered primates, and understanding how to protect them requires looking beyond the forest itself to how people and animals use the same places. Mariana studies how sifakas use their habitat, how people and domestic animals use the forest and surrounding landscape, and how these patterns may shape the risk of gastrointestinal parasite transmission.

Mariana’s work takes place in the Andrafiamena-Andavakoera Protected Area, Madagascar, where forests, villages, farmland, and grazing areas form a connected landscape. However, as forests become smaller and more fragmented, sifakas may need to spend more time on the ground, including when moving between forest patches. At the same time, people enter the remaining forest to collect resources or travel through it, sometimes accompanied by their animals. These movements create opportunities for different species to use the same places, often without ever meeting. Yet sharing a space can still bring them into indirect contact through what they leave behind. Some intestinal parasites spread through the environment when an infected animal passes parasite eggs or other infectious stages in its feces, which another animal may later encounter in contaminated food, water, or soil.

To investigate these connections, Mariana and her team followed three groups of Perrier’s sifakas living in areas with different levels of human activity, observing how they move through the forest, use the ground, and respond to changes in their habitat. Through interviews and questionnaires with nearby communities, they also documented the different uses of the landscape, including farming and forest resource collection, seasonal cattle movements, and people’s knowledge of parasites and practices that may affect their transmission. At the same time, they collected fecal samples from sifakas, cattle, and dogs to identify their intestinal parasites and explore how patterns of infection relate to the ways these species share the landscape.

This research is guided by a One Health approach, which recognizes that the health of wildlife, people, domestic animals, and their shared environment is interconnected. Understanding these relationships requires working across disciplines and alongside the people who know this landscape best. Mariana’s goal is to contribute to conservation strategies that protect Perrier’s sifakas while taking into account the needs and activities of the communities who share their home.

Kelsey M. Vaughn is a Ph.D. candidate in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, where she works in Dr. Craig Osenberg’s lab. She earned a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Arkansas and an M.S. in Marine and Environmental Science from the University of the Virgin Islands. Her work spans freshwater, marine, and human-modified ecosystems, but a common question connects all of her research interests: how does animal behavior shape ecological patterns?
For her dissertation work, Kelsey studies predator–prey interactions, with particular attention to the roles of animal behavior, cognition, and environmental conditions. Her current research examines how thermal stress affects cognition in aquatic animals. As temperatures rise, an animal may experience an immediate stress response, but its performance may change again as it acclimates to warmer conditions. Kelsey is working to disentangle these short-term effects from cognitive changes that persist after thermal acclimation; this distinction matters because a temporary response to heat stress may differentially alter an animal’s ability to cope with warming than its performance after sustained exposure to stress. Kelsey is also interested in what happens if alterations to cognition affect interactions between species. Learning can help prey recognize danger and escape, while helping predators find and capture prey. If higher temperatures alter those abilities differently in predators and prey, they could shift the outcome of their encounters. By studying learning on both sides of the interaction, Kelsey hopes to understand whether temperature-driven changes in individual behavior can scale up to affect predator–prey dynamics and population-level processes. Her broader goal is to bring behavior and cognition into how ecologists predict responses to climate change.
Beyond her dissertation, Kelsey studies long-term changes in Florida Keys coral reefs. Her work examines how coral populations respond to marine heatwaves and whether species often considered resilient are maintaining their abundance as ocean temperatures rise. Kelsey has taught undergraduate ecology laboratories and mentored students in fieldwork, data analysis, and independent research. Across these roles, she values helping others see the questions hidden in familiar environments and giving them the tools to investigate those questions. She aims to produce research that connects ecological understanding with conservation in a changing world.

Nele Weigt is a third-year PhD Student at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, advised by Dr. Greer. This part of her project focusses on crustaceans of the order Copepoda, one of the most numerous multicellular organisms on earth. They play a vital role in the food web of the continental shelf of the Southeastern US, a hotspot for biological productivity. She is going to conduct a morphological analysis on already collected copepod specimen from the South Atlantik Bight and the northern Gulf of Mexico. The results are going to be set in context with in-situ imaging data as well as stable isotope analyses to develop a better comprehension of the copepod community, their diversity and role in the food web on very fine spatial scales. The results are going to substantially help in unravelling the local dynamics within the zooplankton community that is so vital in sustaining the ecosystem on the US continental shelf. She sincerely appreciates the Georgia Museum of Natural History for its support of this research.

Nuzha Baksh's research will use museum specimens of the Old World fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus, to investigate genetic connectivity across their broad and highly fragmented range. Populations of this species extend across Africa, the Middle East, and even as far into Europe. Despite being extensively studied, the species’ expansion into the Palearctic and its fragmented distribution remains an ecological puzzle. 

To address this gap, her project will focus on developing methods for extracting DNA from preserved wing tissue from museum collections. We will also evaluate the suitability of different genetic markers for detecting allelic variation across subpopulations. With their optimized methods, they hope to characterize the population structure of R. aegyptiacus and conduct the first full-range assessment of genetic connectivity in this species.

Emma Briggs is a second-year doctoral student in Dr. Kamal Gandhi's Forest Entomology Lab at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. She will be using Laerm Award funds to complete a trap-nest study on the vertical stratification of cavity-nesting pollinator communities within streamside management zones (SMZs) of the Georgia Coastal Plain. SMZs are a commonly implemented state-approved forestry best management practice (BMP) to reduce nonpoint source pollution and protect water quality. These riparian buffers surround intermittent and perennial streams and may serve as important refugia for wildlife during and after nearby forestry operations. In landscapes of managed pine (Pinus spp.), SMZs also provide a mature hardwood component that may be beneficial for some species. Limited research has been conducted on insect pollinators within SMZs, including wild bee and stinging wasp communities (Hymenoptera: Aculeata), despite the potential floral and nesting resources available in these mixed pine-hardwood forest canopies. Emma's study will provide critical information on the role of SMZs in supporting pollinator conservation and help guide future management decisions to ensure long-term sustainability of private, working pine landscapes.

Doreen Chaussadas is a Ph.D. student co-advised by Drs. Hernandez and Hepinstall, broadly interested in studying natural history across ecological and evolutionary scales. Her research focuses on understanding how wildlife adjusts to human-dominated environments using the native White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) as a model species.

Florida is losing its natural wetlands to agricultural and urban development rapidly, which threatens local wildlife as their habitats shrink and degrade. Yet, despite these changes, flocks of White Ibises remain a common sight in urban parks, golf courses, and residential lawns. Once described as nomadic, carnivorous wetland specialists, these birds now thrive amid people, substituting their natural prey with carbohydrate-rich human foods. Although this diet contrasts sharply with what a wetland carnivore evolved to consume, current evidence suggests that urban ibises maintain good health, highlighting their remarkable adaptability.

Doreen’s project seeks to characterize this adaptability across three complementary levels: behavioral, physiological, and genetic. Behavioral adaptation: Using a custom-designed automated puzzle box, she compares problem-solving performance and social learning between urban and wetland ibis flocks to test whether access to anthropogenic foods is linked to greater behavioral innovation. Physiological adaptation: To determine whether ibises can efficiently process starch-rich foods, her study measures amylase activity (a digestive enzyme that breaks down starch) in saliva and pancreas samples from birds across habitats. Genetic adaptation: Finally, by sequencing amylase genes from urban and non-urban populations, she will assess whether observed differences in digestion reflect short-term flexibility or emerging evolutionary divergence.

By integrating behavioral, physiological, and genetic perspectives, Doreen’s work will provide one of the first comprehensive evaluations of how a wetland carnivore transitions into an urban generalist. This project will contribute to a broader understanding of how wildlife adapts to human-altered landscapes and the mechanisms that enable species to persist in an increasingly urbanized world.

Piper Cole's work incorporates techniques from the fields of chemical ecology, phylogenetics, botany, and entomology to study the evolution of floral signals in an ancient flowering plant lineage: the Magnolias. Throughout their ~100 MYA existence, members of the genus Magnolia have maintained a pollination strategy that relies mainly on beetles, an ancient lineage of insects. Together, Magnolias and their beetle pollinators provide a unique opportunity to investigate the ecology and evolution of pollination. I hope to understand how the floral signals of Magnolia shift over evolutionary time and geography, as well as how this has influenced their pollinators.

Flowering plants produce many cues that can be perceived by their insect visitors: color and UV patterning, scent, temperature, humidity, and CO2, to name a few that she has worked on. By mapping this floral signal data onto an existing phylogeny, along with data generated from a literature review including insect visitors, she can begin to describe the evolution of pollination in this plant lineage. This phylogenetic analysis will also help them understand whether Magnolias are adapting to a changing landscape of insect visitors, as some of her preliminary data suggests, and identify which floral signals are most important for different pollinators.

Though Piper has mainly focused on species of Magnolia native to North America thus far, she hopes to expand her project to include Asian and South American species as part of this larger, phylogenetic analysis. With the support of the Laerm Award, Piper will be travelling to the Scott Arboretum in Pennsylvania this spring to incorporate these species and increase my geographic and phylogenetic coverage of the genus. She is also excited to be working with the Georgia Natural History Museum to create a cross-referenced collection of Magnolia that encompasses not only the physical specimen, but floral signaling data from the same plant. Together, these preserved collections and data will provide a network of information pertaining to each Magnolia species that she plans to make publicly accessible.

Tabitha Dentice is a second-year master’s student pursuing her MA in Anthropology. Her research focuses on weaning practices at the 7th-5th c. BCE Greek colony of Himera in Sicily. Weaning practices can be observed using archaeological chemistry, examining the isotope signatures of collagen from bones and teeth. Tabitha utilizes permanent teeth from Himeran adults to reconstruct successful weaning strategies. She completed a pilot study in the spring of 2025 comparing the weaning trajectories of individuals who survived childhood and those who did not, finding that non-survivors were weaned significantly earlier.

Tabitha will use Laerm funds to support her goal of expanding her original sample size to obtain a more complete understanding of weaning practices at Himera. With a larger sample size, it is possible to detect demographic differences in weaning patterns or how they might have changed throughout the colony’s 239-year occupation.

Bryson Hilburn will use Laerm funds to explore the possibility of sympatric speciation events. He will merge genomic, ecological, and morphological data to consider both the roles of geographic isolation and ecological mechanisms in Percina darters (Etheostomatinae) in the upper Chattahoochee watershed of the Apalachicola basin, Georgia. The goal of Bryson’s study is to contribute to speciation theory by examining ecological and morphological characteristics that may be contributing to species boundaries while advancing the conservation of this rare Georgia native fish. This research builds upon work funded previously by the Laerm Award which Bryson will publish in 2025.

Camilla Nivison will use Laerm funds to identify conditions that enabled members of the coral species Acropora palmata to survive bleaching events at a few reefs while members of this same species died elsewhere. This ICUN-listed coral species experienced high mortality in the Florida Reef Tract during the 2023 heat wave, but some corals survived in refugia. Camilla’s objective is to identify microhabitat features such as prevailing currents, sedimentation rates, and nutrient levels as well as broader metrics such as sea surface temperature and wind velocity that enabled corals to recover in these refugia. She will use her results to suggest restoration objectives that may be associated with the survival of Acropora. Her fieldwork will be conducted in 2025 and she anticipates publishing the results in 2026.

 Bryson G. Hilburn received the Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students in 2023-2024. He will use the Laerm funds to explore patterns of inter-watershed vicariance along the Brevard Fault Zone. Vicariant events occur when a stream or river is diverted from its original watershed into an adjacent one. This introduces fish species into drainages where they were previously unknown, perhaps eventually giving rise to new varieties or species. The Brevard Fault Zone is a geologic feature that runs from Alabama to the North Carolina-Virginia border which may have contributed to vicariance in regional waterways. An alternate explanation is that when people empty their bait buckets they introduce fish species into waterways where they were previously unknown. These “bait bucket” fish are considered invasive. Bryson plans to assess the broad scale influence of the Brevard Fault on recent vicariant events in this region using a combination of geologic, spatial, and population genetic data. He is co-advised by Byron J. Freeman (Odum School of Ecology) and John P. Wares (Department of Genetics).

   Thomas N. Sheehan received Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students in 2023-2024. Thomas will use the Laerm funds to conduct a natural history study and biodiversity inventory of arthropods in Georgia’s longleaf pine and southern live oak canopies. Longleaf pine ecosystems are imperiled, which means that the canopy arthropods associated with these trees are also threatened. Beetles in this ecosystem currently are thought to include 641 species. Thomas predicts that he will find many more canopy species, that beetle canopy communities will differ between the two tree species, and that he will find differences between canopy and ground-based communities. Thomas plans to publish the results of his research and to deposit voucher specimens with the University of Georgia Collection of Arthropods. He is advised by Joseph V. McHugh (Department of Entomology)

The recipient of the 2022-2023 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Clayton Traylor. Clayton conducts doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Joseph McHugh, Department of Entomology. He will use Laerm funds to pursue genetic study of the phylogeographic history of the flightless Eastern Ironclad Beetle (Phellopsis obcordata). This fungus-feeding beetle requires a stable montane boreal forest habitat and dead wood. Because it is a poor disperser, it may be a marker for the expansion of boreal forests during the last glacial maximum ca. 20,000 years ago. Clayton will test whether the beetle’s range expanded south into the Piedmont during the last glacial maximum and if there was gene flow between populations on either side of the French Broad River. The beetle’s range subsequently contracted into the mountains where it is found today. Clayton will extract DNA from curated species as part of his study and deposit voucher specimens with the University of Georgia Collection of Arthropods.

The recipient of the 2021-2022 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Timothy J. Odom. TJ is conducting his doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Sonia Altizer, Odum School of Ecology, and Dr. Andrew Parks, Odum School of Ecology and Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine. He will use Laerm funds to continue his studies of consequences of changing environmental conditions and habitat availability in three Southern Appalachian salamander species (Plethodon jordani, P. glutinosus, P. shermani). As populations of salamanders move into new habitats in response to climate change, he expects novel interactions between invaders, their parasites, and the recipient host-parasite community. These changes are likely to affect parasite transmission and disease severity, suggesting the potential of parasites to mediate range shifts in mobile host species. Specimens of the parasite taxa will be curated at the GMNH.

The recipient of the 2020-2021 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Anna Willoughby. Anna is conducting her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Sonia Altizer, Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology. Anna will use Laerm funds to study how human-provided foods modify wildlife behavior and health. Her hypothesis is that the fur of small mammals feeding in areas of high human activity will exhibit anthropogenic nutritional signatures. To test this hypothesis, Anna will assess carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the fur of ringtails (Bassariscus astutus) and rock squirrels (Otospermophilus variegatus), small mammals observed eating candy bars, Cheetos, sandwich meat, and crackers. She will study isotopes in fur from historic museum specimens curated by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Zion National Park and modern fur from live individuals living in Zion National Park. This will allow her to analyze diets over a land-use and resource availability spectrum between 1900 and 2021 and to assess the degree to which consuming human food is associated with tourism intensity.

The recipient of the 2019-2020 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Samantha Bock. Samantha conducts her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Parrott, The Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology. Samantha will use Laerm funds to test the potential of using molecular markers as a consistent, reliable, and non-lethal approach to monitoring sex ratios in American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) hatchlings. Sex ratios of alligators and other crocodilians are governed by temperature, so that climate change is expected to alter sex ratios in these populations. If this method is successful, it has the potential to be an important conservation tool for managing threatened and endangered crocodilian species experiencing environmental change.

The other recipient of the 2019-2020 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Margot Popecki. Margot conducts her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Kathrin Stanger-Hall, Department of Plant Biology, and Dr. John Wares, Department of Genetics. Margot will use Laerm funds to study the genetic basis for mating signals in big dipper fireflies (Photinus pyralis). Fireflies emit flashes of green or yellow bioluminescent light to attract mates. Her work combines field studies, genetic analysis, and bioinformatics to study how they produce and receive these visual signals. Firefly abundance is declining and this research may clarify the roles of ambient light and urbanization on firefly reproduction rates and migration patterns.

One of the two recipients of the 2018-2019 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Henry Adams. Henry conducts his master’s research under the direction of Dr. Sonia Hernandez, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. He will investigate the susceptibility of salamanders in Costa Rica to fungal pathogens introduced to the Americas by the pet trade and other human activities. This multi-faceted project has two goals. The first is to determine whether exotic pathogens are present in wild Costa Rican salamander populations and in captive animals. The second is to test the susceptibility of Costa Rican salamanders to a specific East Asian pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. This epidemiological study of amphibian pathogens in the Central American tropics will contribute to global amphibian conservation efforts.

The other recipient of the 2018-2019 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is James Hunt. James conducts his master’s research under the direction of Dr. John C. Maerz, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. He plans to assess the status of gopher frogs (Rana [Lithobates] capito) in two Georgia wildlife management areas. Gopher frogs are listed as threatened by Georgia and are candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Frogs released in the Williams Bluff Preserve derive from the Sandhills Wildlife Management Area, but monitoring the two populations has been limited. One goal of the project is to improve gopher frog management by documenting habitat preferences and dispersal habits of gopher frogs in the Sandhills Wildlife Management Area. The other goal is to evaluate the use of infrared camera traps for monitoring gopher frogs in both management areas. The project will improve conservation decisions by contributing information about the status of these frogs while developing a cost-effective monitoring tool.

The recipient of the 2017-2018 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Adam G. Clause. Adam conducts his doctoral research under the direction of Dr. John C. Maerz, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. He will use the funds to inventory endemic amphibian and reptiles living within a Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico. This multi-faceted project of an understudied tropical mountain cloud forest has two additional goals. The first is to document a newly discovered arboreal alligator lizard (Abronia spp.). The second is to enhance the community’s awareness of the Reserve and its importance through local outreach efforts. Working closely with in-country experts, Adam expects to learn about the biogeography and evolution of the newly discovered lizard while increasing the value of the Reserve within the local community.

The recipient of the 2016-2017 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Katherine C. Jones. Katherine conducts her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Stephen Kowalewski, Department of Anthropology. Katherine will study changes in settlement chronologies for some of the earliest human communities in Georgia (ca. 4500-3500 B.P.). Her study takes a regional perspective to examine the effects of long- and short-term settlement patterns along the Georgia coast and interior coastal plain. Funds will be used to obtain radiocarbon dates from the fibers used as temper in a ceramic type characteristic of very early sites in Georgia. This study will enable her to question the social nature of people at these early sites and large-scale interactions among mobile populations.

The recipient of the 2014-2015 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Shannon Curry. Shannon conducts her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Sonia Hernandez, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. Shannon is interested in the impact of urbanization and landscape alteration on the white ibis (Eudocimus albus). These birds increasingly forage in urban environments, which may influence the birds? health and disease susceptibility. Laerm funds will be used to cover the costs of supplies for stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis of plasma and fecal samples to detect variations in nitrogen and carbon signatures that may reflect time spent foraging in urban locations and consumption of anthropogenic food supplementation instead of continuing to forage in wild habitats.

One of the two recipients of the 2013-2014 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Amanda Holland. Amanda conducts her master's research under the direction of Dr. James C. Beasley, Savannah River Ecology Lab, and Dr. Robert Warren, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. She is interested in molecular sex-determination of black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) in order to compare seasonal movement rates, home range sizes, and resource use of male and female vultures at the Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina. These are understudied species despite black vultures being ranked the second and turkey vultures ranked the fourth most hazardous species to civil aircraft in the US. Laerm funds will be used to cover the costs of DNA laboratory supplies. 

The other recipient of the 2013-2014 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Sean Sterrett. Sean conducts his doctoral research under the direction of Dr. John Maerz, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. His research focuses on the contributions of freshwater turtles in energy and nutrient dynamics (ecosystem services). The unique skeletal structure of turtles and their long lifespan may contribute to their role in altering the availability and recycling of freshwater nutrients, but this aspect of turtles is poorly studied. Sean plans to use the Laerm funds to visit museums including the Smithsonian Institution and the Florida Museum of Natural, to measure the skeletal mass of turtle specimens curated in the osteological collections at these institutions.

The recipient of the 2012-13 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Linsey Haram. Linsey is conducting her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. James E. Byers, Odum School of Ecology. Linsey is investigating the effects of an invasive species, red seaweed (Gracilaria vermiculophylla), on the structure, function, and natural history of southeastern estuarine ecosystems, specifically on detrital pathways in the maintenance of estuaries. Her objectives are to determine which species consume Gracilaria, the physiological effects of that consumption, and how this invasive seaweed might change estuarine trophic structures of southeastern mudflats. Laerm funds will be used for supplies and travel.

The recipient of the 2011 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Rachel Katz. Rachel is conducting her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Mary Freeman, US Geological Survey. Rachel is investigating the natural history of stream fishes and how hydrologic processes affect dispersal, connectivity, and population persistence within and among tributary systems. She is examining the genetics of the yellowfin shiner (Notropis lutipinnis) to explore the population structure of this non-migratory fish and the relative importance of distance, topology, geomorphology, stream flow, migration, and gene flow on this fish within the Upper Flint River Basin, Georgia. The objective is to determine how populations persist despite hydrologic variability and fragmentation.

The recipient of the 2010 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Paige Barlow. Paige is conducting her research under the direction of Dr. Jeff Hepinstall-Cymerman, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Paige is investigating the effects of land use on birds in Macon County, North Carolina. The high rate of amenity-driven development in this county is threatening the rural culture and rich biodiversity of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, a biodiversity hotspot. The objectives of her study are to collect data on the presence and absence of birds in the county, relate these to land use and land cover, and work with stakeholders to develop guidelines that meet both human and wildlife objectives. Her work will involve stakeholders in order to increase the public's understanding of and confidence in the research to encourage local support of the land use recommendations.

The recipient of the 2009 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Jayna DeVore, who will conduct her study under the direction of Dr. John Maerz, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Jayna will test the hypothesis that grass invasion in terrestrial ecosystems alters predation rates among invertebrate predators, in this case by increasing the density of spiders that prey on amphibians, reducing amphibian survivorship. She will be studying the interaction of Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass), Bufo americanus (American toad), and lycosid spiders, an invertebrate predator. The grass may affect toad survivorship by enabling spider densities to increase. She will conduct field tests of her hypothesis at the Whitehall Experimental Forest.

The recipient of the 2008 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Carrie Straight. Carrie conducts her research under the direction of Dr. Mary C. Freeman, Odum School of Ecology, and Dr. Bud Freeman, Director of the Georgia Museum of Natural History. She will study the condition of gravel in the Oconee, Savannah, and Broad rivers to determine whether changes in bed sediments are associated with spawning success of the robust redhorse (Moxostoma robustum) in these rivers. Addressing this question is an essential step in estimating the long-term viability of the robust redhorse in these locations.

Two students share the 2007 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students. James A. Robertson, Department of Entomology, will conduct his research under the direction of Dr. Joseph McHugh. He will attempt to decipher species within the Dastarcus elophoroides species complex. This beetle is a good candidate to serve as a biological control agent of several pest species which cause considerable damage both in the United States and elsewhere; but it must first be determined whether this is a single species or several to ensure that the correct species is used to control the appropriate pest. To accomplish this study, James will examine mtDNA to delimit the species which might be hidden by current taxonomy. 

The second recipient of the 2007 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Carol E. Colaninno, Department of Anthropology, who studies with Dr. Elizabeth J. Reitz. Carol will use oxygen isotope signatures in the growth increments of otoliths from hardhead catfish (Ariopsis felis) to predict paleotemperatures of the mid-Holocene environment. These calcium carbonate structures in catfish record water temperatures experienced by these fish during their lives. The study will enable Carol to correlate how environmental change, specifically fluctuating temperatures and rising sea levels, affected coastal resources and human use of these on a Georgia sea island between 4500-3000 B.P.

The recipient of the 2006 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Scott Small, Department of Genetics, who will conduct his research under the direction of Dr. John Wares. Scott will examine study freshwater mussel communities of the Altamaha River using genetic data (mtDNA markers and microsatellites) as well as morphological characteristics to resolve taxonomic issues in these mussels which will aid in the conservation of these animals. The purpose of his project is to provide a unique resource encompassing both morphological and genetic variation for the mussel community in the river. The results will be submitted to Genbank and specimens will be curated at the Georgia Museum of Natural History. This proposal represents an outstanding example of creative natural history research and the Georgia Museum of Natural History is pleased to contribute to its support.

The recipient of the 2005 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Lee Echols, Department of Plant Biology, who will conduct his research under the direction of Dr. Wendy Zomlefer. Lee will study the flora and vegetation patterns of remnant blackland prairies in central Georgia. The study will provide a floristic inventory and quantitative analysis of prairie vegetation. This information will be used to guide land acquisition initiatives, restoration plans, and search for other blackland prairies in Georgia. This information will provide documentation to protect and restore this globally imperiled, rare community; one which has never been formally studied in Georgia. Voucher specimens will be curated in the Georgia Herbarium. This proposal represents an outstanding example of creative natural history research and the Georgia Museum of Natural History is pleased to contribute to its support.

The recipient of the 2004 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Rachel Spigler, Department of Plant Biology, who will conduct her research under the direction of Drs. Shumei Chang and Stephen Hubbell. Rachel studies the effects of population size and density on reproductive success in the herb Sabatia angularis L. (Gentianaceae) in Georgia and North Carolina. The study will add to the growing body of knowledge concerning the relationships among population size, density, inbreeding, plant performance and population growth. The study will contribute empirical data on the effect of inbreeding in wild populations which will be of interest to conservation biologists interested in inbreeding and the effects of genetic erosion on population dynamics of species of critical concern. This proposal represents an outstanding example of creative natural history research and the Georgia Museum of Natural History is pleased to contribute to its support.

The recipient of the 2003 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Scott Markwith, Department of Geography, who conducts his research under the direction of Dr. Kathleen C. Parker. Scott will use the funds to purchase restriction enzymes for use in his study of gene flow in the emergent aquatic macrophyte Hymenocallis coronoaria, the shoals spider lily. The shoals spider lily is an aquatic plant that occurs in shoal habitats in piedmont streams from Alabama to South Carolina but is absent from the middle portion of its range. The plant may be absent from a portion of its range because of habitat characteristics and land-use history. This project will not only explore gene flow in aquatic environments but will also provide information about the environmental needs of this rare plant that will be valuable to resource managers of the states in which it occurs.

The recipient of the 2002 Joshua Laerm Academic Support Award for Graduate Students is Arlena M. Wartell, Institute of Ecology, to conduct research under the direction of Dr. H. Ronald Pulliam. The funds will enable her to conduct fine-scale genetic analysis of the federally endangered Carolina northern flying squirrel Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus. Her research will provide information on the genetic structure, diversity, and gene flow of these populations needed to test hypotheses about Pleistocene biogeography, fragmented population structure, and the effects of landscape factors on genetic connectivity. She will be using museum specimens to establish a historical perspective on the genetic structure of these animals. The results of her research will enable management strategies to incorporate gene flow patterns for this species.

Karen E. Francl, Warnell School of Forest Resources, received funds to conduct research under the direction of Dr. Steven B. Castleberry. The funds will support her on-going small animal survey and habitat characterization of central Appalachian wetlands. Her field work focuses on bogs and fens in eastern and north-central West Virginia. Francl is examining vegetation structure, basic hydrology, and soil profiles in order to relate these characteristics to small animal communities. She requested funds to analyze 130 soil samples from her study sites in order to further characterize the wetland habitat. The Award will also enable Francl to present the results of her research at the 12th Annual Colloquium on Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern United States. 

Eva B. Gonzales, Department of Botany, is studying with Dr. James Hamrick. She requested funds to measure genetic diversity contained within populations of a rare plant species, Trillium reliquum. This is part of a larger study in which she will attempt to identify populations of this trillium that can be used as sources of material for restoration purposes. Combined genetic and demographic information will assist in the development of a comprehensive conservation plan for this rare plant. Gonzales will use the funds to conduct allozyme analysis of sampled populations using starch gel electrophoresis. 

Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Department of Anthropology, is studying with Dr. Stephen Kowalewski. He requested support to establish a radiometric chronology of mound construction at Kolomoki. Kolomoki is one of the largest and most impressive Native American archaeological sites in the United States and is part of the Georgia State Park system. The results of this study will enhance interpretation of this important public site at Kolomoki Mounds State Historical Park as well as improve our understanding of human life in southwest Georgia. The Award will enable Pluckhahn to have two carbon samples from Kolomoki dated.

The graduate award in 2000 was to Lisa Marie Kruse, a doctoral student in the Department of Botany, studying with Dr. David Giannasi. Her proposal was to conduct a floristic survey along the main corridor of the Upper Etowah River in Lumpkin, Dawson, and Cherokee counties. There has been no comprehensive survey of the flora of the Upper Etowah River or of the counties it transects. The results will be an important contribution to the Georgia Plant Atlas being prepared by the Botanical Herbarium. The resulting descriptions of the species diversity patterns in the riparian zone of the Etowah River will also assist with planning conservation strategies along the river. The funds requested supported travel to the field site, supplies, and the purchase of reference books.

Two graduate proposals received support during the 1999 cycle. One of these was prepared by Anthony Fiumera, a doctoral student in Genetics studying with Dr. Marjorie Asmussen. Mr. Fiumera's proposal was titled" "Characterization of a Novel Feeding Strategy and Host Species Specificity in a Freshwater Leech. He observed this leech feeding on the eggs of the redhorse sucker of the genus Moxostoma while doing other research in North Carolina. Mr. Fiumera proposed to determine the identity of the leeches, observe if they prey on the eggs of other redhorse species, and conduct a preliminary investigation of spatial and temporal patterns of habitat use. Dr. Bud Freeman says that if these leeches are predators on redhorse sucker eggs this could be significant in the management of this genus. The funds requested supported travel to the field site and supplies. 

The second graduate proposal funded during the 1999 cycle was submitted by Paula Johnson, a master's student in the Institute of Ecology studying with Dr. William Michener, advisor, and Dr. Mary Freeman, coadvisor. Ms. Johnson's title was "Multiple Scale Factors Influencing Mussel Community Composition in Tributary Streams of the Lower Flint Basin, Georgia." She examined freshwater mussels in the streams of southwest Georgia coordinated with current studies of the Appalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint River Basin. The funds helped her complete her field agenda in the summer of 2000. This project, too, has the potential to make an important contribution to the management of aquatic populations in a region where they are under serious threat.

The first recipients of the Joshua Laerm Award were announced in December, 1998. The graduate student award went to Alissa K. Salmore of the Institute of Ecology. Salmore was awarded $500. 

Ms. Salmore's title was "Are the Ant-Plant Interactions of Bloodroot Mediated by Genes or Environment? The Chemical Ecology of Sanguinaria canadensis (Papavaraceae) in the Southern Appalachian Mountains." Salmore was a student of Dr. Mark Hunter at the Institute of Ecology and her application was also supported by Dr. Joe McHugh of the Department of Entomology and the Georgia Museum of Natural History. Her objectives were to characterize the variation in S. canadensis alkaloid production and seed quality along an altitudinal gradient, to determine if the variation in alkaloid and lipid content can be attributed to genetic or environmental factors, and to determine if this variation affects ant behavior. The award augmented support for her summer research program.