Graduate student Brandon Martinez is currently conducting research on the life history traits of a native plant species that is protected by the Endangered Species Act. Brandon’s work contributes to answering fundamental questions about the persistence of rare species over time, a challenge exacerbated when populations are small and when humans deleteriously impact natural ecosystems.

Graduate student Isiah Forward is evaluating the behavior of native bees. Isiah’s goal is to understand more about frequency with which bees perform particular types of behaviors, including those related to pollination.

Graduate student Cate Turner, co-advised by Dr. Dauer, has completed her research and is writing her thesis about conservation issues related to noxious effluent and the impact of clean-up on benthic invertebrates.

Graduate student William Muhic, co-advised by Dr. Dauer, has completed his research and is writing his thesis, addressing changes in benthic invertebrates, over time, in urban watersheds.

Graduate student Faith Witkowski, co-advised by Dr. Dauer, is conducting research on the impact of shoreline erosion mitigation structures on benthic communities.

Undergraduate student Camryn Frederick has been contributing to research on effective hydroponic growth of berries. She will soon be applying for a Spring 2022 research award to build upon her recent findings about berry size. She is collating data after a lots of work this past spring and summer on berry traits.

Undergraduate student Austin Jameson has initiated research to investigate the impact of seed banks and varied light environments on seedling emergence, in a common native Aster found in eastern Virginia. He hopes to conduct comparative work between this species and a much rarer conspecific.