Research Highlights
NEW MEXICO: INBRE researcher featured in The Scientist magazine
The New Mexico State University soil microbiologist uses molecular tools to understand how fungi are adapting to a warming world and what that might mean for global nutrient cycles.
“Her use of many different approaches, from culturing microbes to mining big data, makes [Mexico State University’s Adriana L.] Romero-Olivares’s work particularly strong,” says Camille Defrenne, an ecosystem ecologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “She’s a very complete scientist with a holistic view of how microbes respond to global change. She really represents the next generation of women in science.”
Romero-Olivares launched her lab at New Mexico State University last August. In addition to continuing her climate work, she’s also expanding into new territory in her own backyard. “While we know that deserts work in very different ways than other ecosystems, we don’t know what role fungi play,” she says. Beyond serving as the desert’s decomposers, “it’s an exciting challenge to figure out what else they might be up to.”
NEVADA: Algal blooms an emerging threat to clear lakes worldwide
Many of the world’s most iconic clear lakes are degrading at an alarming rate — shallow, nearshore lake bottoms are being carpeted by bright green fronds of slimy algae, especially during the summer. These filamentous algal blooms, known as FABs, need lots of light, so they occur at the same lake edges where people want to swim and play.
Researchers are unsure why FABs are suddenly showing up in remote mountain lakes — as well as in some large lakes such as Lake Tahoe in the U.S., Lake Baikal in Russia and Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand — but an international team of lake scientists is tackling the problem. In a recent paper, they explore how nutrient pollution, climate change, loss of aquatic animals that eat algae, and invasive species are contributing to the increased occurrence of green bottoms.
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded team member Sudeep Chandra of the University of Nevada, Reno said the researchers are working to develop a framework to guide the future understanding of FABs. The scientists are investigating the multiple local and global pressures that might contribute to the profusion of algae on lake bottoms.
IOWA: Iowa State STEM outreach programs join forces to expand reach across state
Seven years and 80,000 people later, Iowa State University’s FLEx program is expanding its reach even more.
Pete Evans, assistant professor of industrial design, coordinates FLEx (Forward Learning Experience), a design and STEM outreach program that launched in 2014 as a result of a graduate design studio that was tasked with creating a mobile classroom for technology outreach to Iowa’s K-12 students.
The program, which travels across the state in an ISU commercial cargo van, began with virtual and augmented reality, Oculus Rift immersive visualization, 3D printing and circuit building with Little Bits.
Thanks to a grant from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium and a new partnership with ISU Program for Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), the FLEx program is re-focusing its offerings and bringing up-and-coming students along for the road trip.
FLEx2GO Space Artemis provides activities that explore core space concepts, celebrate the NASA Artemis program and provide insight into upcoming plans for the Moon, Mars and even Earth.
ALASKA: Biomedical researchers receive funding to track COVID-19 variants
A team of University of Alaska biomedical researchers will join a federally funded effort to improve tracking of COVID-19 variants throughout the state.
The National Institutes of Health is providing a $770,000 grant to support efforts to sequence and analyze genomes of variants circulating in Alaska. The program will expand efforts in the state to include cases detected in Indigenous health networks and provide a way to share information about “variants of concern” throughout the health system.
NIH funds the Institutional Development Award program (IDeA), and a team of researchers with the Alaska IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, or INBRE, will receive the grant. The INBRE program is part of a federal effort to boost research capacity in certain targeted states, including Alaska.
OKLAHOMA: EPSCoR's Xiao Leads International Team Studying Brazilian Amazon Carbon Loss
The Amazon rainforest covers approximately 50% of the world’s rainforests and nearly two-thirds of the Amazon is in Brazil. The Brazilian Amazon is important for global biodiversity, hydrology, climate, and carbon cycle. Accurate and timely data on spatial-temporal dynamics of the vegetation aboveground biomass (AGB) and forest area in the region are needed to understand the carbon balance, which is affected by land-use, logging and degradation, secondary forest regrowth, and climate.
Dr. Xiangming Xiao, from the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, has led an international team of graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and research scientists (Yuanwei Qin, Jean-Pierre Wigneron, Philippe Ciais, Martin Brandt, Lei Fan, Xiaojun Li, Sean Crowell, Xiaocui Wu, Russell Doughty, Yao Zhang, Fang Liu, Stephen Sitch, and Berrien Moore III) to investigate the interannual changes in AGB and forest area by analyzing satellite-based annual AGB and forest area datasets. Specifically, the research team investigated the role of climate anomalies in the changes in forest area and AGB; whether recent changes in policies and human activities in 2019 have a detectable effect on forest area and AGB; and the relative contributions of deforestation and forest degradation (forest fragmentation, edge effects, logging, forest fire and drought) to interannual variation in AGB loss in the study period.
NEBRASKA: 2021 INBRE Scholars' summer research experience
On June 1, the Nebraska Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program welcomed 27 undergraduate students from across Nebraska as they embark on their summer research experience at Creighton University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The INBRE Scholars program is a major success of the NE-INBRE, which provides meaningful research experiences for scholars and a pipeline of talented undergraduate students to participate in laboratory research projects on participating campuses.
Meet the students who make up this year’s class of INBRE Scholars
MISSISSIPPI: Researchers Use Dye to Spark Revolution in Medical Imaging
The most common size of a brain aneurysm is believed to be about 2 millimeters in diameter.
But, current medical imaging techniques are limited to finding larger aneurysms between 5-10 millimeters, leaving most cases undiagnosed. Advances in imaging technology have the potential to save hundreds of people every year. Mississippi EPSCoR research is ready to make this possible with a dye that will allow medical professionals to find aneurysms down to 1 millimeter in size.
As a result of Mississippi EPSCoR research, a new medical imaging solution may soon be available, which will be more affordable with significantly improved image quality and reduced imaging time. It is almost comparable to having a camera inside a living human, without the invasiveness of endoscopy or surgery.
MAINE: STEM course for high school students
The University of Maine will acquaint high school students with potential careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) throughout the five-week course, Introduction to Integrated Science and Career Exploration. The course will include fieldwork, classroom study and lab work as the students tackle a research project along with career planning.
On July 30, the course will culminate in a research symposium.
ALASKA: EPSCoR researchers and affiliates give Artic Research Flash Talks
Alaska EPSCoR researchers and affiliates including Chris Waigl, Mark Johnson, Lindsey Stadler, Jonathan Chriest, Katrin Iken, Shelby Bacus, Brenda Konar, Megan Perra, and Jessie Young-Robertson all gave 3-minute flash talks on their research as part of the UAF Arctic Research Open House on May 20, 2021.
The open house kicked off with Arctic Research Flash Talks, a live Zoom and Facebook event featuring short, informal presentations from UAF researchers. Flash talks covered topics such as environmental, coastal and climate science, natural resource studies, remotely piloted aircraft, sustainable engineering and fisheries.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Researcher studies impact of heat stress
Periods of extremely high heat are projected to double across the lower 48 states by 2100 if the world continues to emit high levels of greenhouse gases, according to a new study in Earth's Future, an American Geophysical Union journal.
The heat stress will be felt most strongly in areas with growing populations. The Pacific Northwest, central California and the Great Lakes region could experience as much as a threefold increase compared to the past 40 years. Heat stress occurs when both the temperature and relative humidity get high enough that the human body can't rid itself of the excess heat, leading to strokes, heat cramps and other health problems.
"Without doing any mitigation strategies, the impact of heat stress is likely to increase," said Ashok Mishra, a civil engineer at Clemson University and an author of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded study.
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