Utah State University undergraduate researchers Kelly Sivy and Richie Gardner placed first and third, respectively, in the student poster competition of The Wildlife Society’s 44th annual Western Student Conclave March 6-9. Students from eight western universities participated in the gathering, which was hosted by USU’s student chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Sivy and Gardner, both conservation and restoration ecology majors in the Department of Wildland Resources, are recipients of College of Natural Resources’ Quinney Undergraduate Scholarships. The four-year awards are provided through a grant from the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation.

 

Sivy, CNR spring 2009 valedictorian and Undergraduate Teaching Fellow of the Year, presented “Tales from the Sandbox: Do Predator Cues Influence Foraging and Behavior of Two Heteromyids?”

 

“My research focuses on seed preferences and predation risk of kangaroo rats,” Sivy says. “The time these animals spend searching for foods of the highest nutritional value can put them at risk of becoming food themselves.”

 

Sivy conducted her research, which she started in 2006, with doctoral student Steven Ostoja and faculty member Eugene Schupp. In addition to her presentation at the conclave, Sivy presented her findings at the 2007 USU Student Showcase and the 2007 joint conference of the Ecology Society of America and the Society for Ecological Restoration. She was invited to submit a manuscript about the research to the journal Functional Ecology, a refereed research journal of the British Ecological Society.

 

During her undergraduate career, Sivy served as an undergraduate teaching fellow for two CNR courses, “Living with Wildlife” and “Ecology of Our World,” and was among a group of CNR students who traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Department of Environment and Society class, “Globalization: Human and Environmental Linkages in Ethiopia.”

 

Gardner, CNR Undergraduate Researcher of the Year, presented research he’s conducted on aspen population genetics.

 

“During spring and summer of 2007, I sampled aspen trees for a genetics study conducted by Dr. Karen Mock,” he says. “The study compares genetic diversity of aspen stands and the recovery of these stands post standard forestry practices.”

 

During the past year, Gardner secured his own funding to continue study of genetics and phytochemical association in aspen trees and is preparing a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. He presents his research at the 2009 USU Student Showcase March 31.

 

In addition to aspen research, Gardner studied freshwater mussels as part of a federally funded project for Oregon’s Umatilla Indian Tribe and was also involved in a study of invasive reeds called phragmites for the state of Utah. He was a member of USU’s forestry quiz bowl team, which placed first at the Society of American Foresters’ national convention in November 2008.

 

 

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