Student News
UGA Odum School of Ecology graduate student receives Fulbright Scholarship
Julie Rushmore, a joint Ph.D. and DVM candidate at UGA’s Odum School of Ecology and College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a 2009-10 Fulbright scholarship to pursue her study of how behavior affects pathogen transmission among great apes in Uganda. Her work has implications for wildlife conservation and public health.
UGA Odum School of Ecology to hold annual student symposium
The University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology will hold its fifteenth annual symposium showcasing student research Jan. 23-24. The free public event will feature graduate student oral presentations, an undergraduate poster session and a keynote address given by Evelyn Gaiser, UGA alumnae and associate professor at Florida International University.
UGA Odum School of Ecology graduate student receives Wildlife Disease Association Award
Nicole Gottdenker, Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, recently received the Wildlife Disease Association Graduate Student Scholarship Award. The $2,000 award was presented for leadership, scholarship and service at the 57th annual meeting of the Wildlife Disease Association held in Alberta, Canada.
UGA Honors student Christina Faust receives 2009-2010 George J. Mitchell Postgraduate Scholarship
Christina Faust, a University of Georgia Honors student from Athens, is one of 12 national recipients of the 2009-2010 George J. Mitchell Postgraduate Scholarship. She will use her fellowship to study immunology and global health at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Student Comment: Sustainable Seafood
When Ph.D. student Jake Allgeier realized the information gap between sustainable seafood research and the public, he wrote a letter to the Flagpole. Read more to find out which fish are overfished so that you can make smart eating choices to protect the global fish population.
UGA study reveals ecosystem-level consequences of frog extinctions
Streams that once sang with the croaks, chirps and ribbits of dozens of frog species have gone silent. They’re victims of a fungus that’s decimating amphibian populations worldwide.
Such catastrophic declines have been documented for more than a decade, but until recently scientists knew little about how the loss of frogs alters the larger ecosystem. A University of Georgia study that is the first to comprehensively examine an ecosystem before and after an amphibian population decline has found that tadpoles play a key role keeping the algae at the base of the food chain productive.
UGA Odum School researcher creates tool demonstrating profitability of organic farming
Research at the Agroecology Laboratory at the UGA Odum School of Ecology has led to the creation of organic farming enterprise budgets. Prior to this development, the economic decision-making tool used to estimate profitability was not widely available for organic production.
“Centuries of extensive tillage have caused much of our native topsoil to be washed into rivers,” said Krista Jacobsen, a recent Odum School Ph.D. graduate. “Many farmers in the Southeast inherit these degraded soils and it is important to develop and study farming practices that can restore soil and allow it to be farmed profitably at the same time. That’s where enterprise budgets come in.”
Shallow-water corals more resistant to bleaching than deeper water corals
Stressed corals lose the symbiotic algae that help them survive in a process known as bleaching, but University of Georgia researchers have discovered that one subtype of the symbiotic algae that live mostly in shallow-water corals of the Caribbean provide resistance to environmental stress.
The researchers, who include plant biologists Gregory Schmidt and Brigitte Bruns and ecologists William Fitt and Jennifer McCabe Reynolds, showed for the first time that clade A Symbiodinium has complementary mechanisms for surviving in its coral hosts during periods of warmer-than-normal water temperatures and intense late-summer sun.
Undergrads provide game day recycling
When seeing a need to provide recycling for UGA football games, the Odum School's Ecology Club quickly stepped up to the plate. Clearly, this group of undergraduates is passionate about recycling and respecting the UGA campus. Student volunteers pair up with the Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division, who provides supplies. Every game, the aluminum cans are separated and donated to Habitat for Humanity and the Ronald McDonald House Foundation. For more information on the Ecology Club's recycling efforts, please visit the official site of UGA Game Day Recycling.
Parasites might spur evolution of strange amphibian breeding habits
Parasites can decimate amphibian populations, but one University of Georgia researcher believes they might also play a role in spurring the evolution of new and sometimes bizarre breeding strategies.
Dead zones
A pioneering study on the effects of nitrate, a form of nitrogen, in streams was recently published in Nature, with a team of 31 researchers including major contributions by Ashley M. Helton, a graduate student in the university's Odum School of Ecology.
The study demonstrated how varying amounts of nitrate are biologically processed in streams. And with the push for development of alternative fuels, it is important to note that excessive amounts of nitrogen may be created during the process of producing corn-based ethanol.
UGA Honors student Christina Faust awarded 2008 Harry S. Truman Scholarship
Christina Faust, a University of Georgia Honors student from Athens, has been awarded a 2008 Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a prestigious national honor recognizing outstanding juniors who are preparing for public service careers.
