Biodiversity Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grants

Objective:

The overall objective of this project is to gain a better understanding of the post-fire recovery of soil mi-crobial and plant communities, and how cheatgrass and herbicide application affect this process. Specific objectives are as follows:1) Understand changes in and the recovery of soil microbial communities post fire and how this is related to the recovery of aboveground vegetation in both short and long-term and timescales. 2) Compare microbial community composition post-fire in natural ecosystems and their relationships with the invasive species Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass). 3) Compare recovery of soil microbial communities post-fire in natural ecosystems treated with the herbi-cide Rejuvra (indaziflam) to untreated areas. 4) Determine the ecological and management drivers of soil microbial diversity and function post-fire.

Professor and Author, Tracylee Clarke, writes of how Indigenous people serve the land, which makes them suited for the role of being protectors of that land in a unique way. This critical role helps drive Indigenous communities to seek to have a voice in opportunities when it comes to specific substances and actions regarding nuclear energy and mining (Clarke, 2010). A challenge that could occur when working with nuclear energy in mining (which can lead to economic development) only becomes a challenge when aiming to preserve culture and traditions (Clarke, 2010). Though nuclear energy and mining pale in comparison to traditions and culture preservation and are on opposite ends of the spectrum, both are crucial to Indigenous communities. Nuclear energy and mining can contribute to economic development; however these activities can still pose a challenge to those Indigenous communities, due to their potential destruction of the land and sites these communities hold sacred. In addition to impacts to people and land broadly, nuclear and all energy choices have implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Indigenous communities need to have a voice in their environments and energy options.

Idaho National Labs (INL) specializes in nuclear energy research. They approached several universities to help them conduct an emerging market analysis for micro-nuclear reactors in remote communities. Those communities have large Indigenous populations, who are dependent on diesel fuel and lack access to other energy sources. Their research seeks to understand how to engage those communities in energy decisions. This project aims to provide information about empowered decision-making in rural communities about natural resource energy and different factors of emerging energy technologies (Righetti et al. 2020). Due to the history of lack of trust of outsiders, our work in the INL project wants to understand how to engage and interact with the communities and to show the importance of better engagement with Native American communities in their energy decisions. The overall purpose of this research is to get a full understanding of how decisions are made on the Wind River Reservation and how we can better engage the community, specifically with regard to energy-based decisions.

To address this research purpose, my research questions include:

• How are decisions made in the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation? Is there a difference now and pre-colonization?
• How do decisions occur regarding energy on the Wind River Reservation and specifically within the Northern Arapaho tribe?

The abstract will outline context and background, research questions, potential to explore, and methods for my proposed thesis research.

Objective:

Streams and rivers of the Rocky Mountain region are characterized by conditions that limit the growthand productionof fishes such cutthroat trout(e.g., flooding, drought, and ice formation).However, groundwater input buffers spring-fed streams against seasonalvariability in water temperature and dischargesuch that suitable habitat may persist year-round. We aim to evaluate the role of spring-fed streams to Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the upper Snake River watershed of northwest Wyoming. Specific objects are as follows:1.Quantify how groundwater input determines the capacity of dto support juvenile cutthroat trout growth and production.2.Determine how groundwater input to tributaries regulates the demography of the mainstem Snake River metapopulation. This research will highlight how habitat and population diversity act to sustain Yellowstone cutthroat trout, an ecologically and economically valuable species. Thisresearch has direct implications for prioritizing costly habitat management strategies as it willhighlight streams where habitat work will have the most impact.

Objective:

Elk are a high-value species to the state of Wyoming, providing value to Wyoming residents and out-of-state visitors through hunting, wildlife viewing, and supporting ecosystem functions.  For these reasons,wildlife managers gather and publish rich historical management data cataloging the impacts of management decisions on elk population levels.  These data are used to inform future management approaches, but theseapproaches  are  rarely  evaluated  in  their  capacity  to  increase  the  state’s  profile  of  natural  wealth.   In  thecase  of  elk,  the  species  represents  a  store  of  wealth  that  benefits Wyoming  residents  from  direct  use  ofthe species through hunting activity as well as through economic activity that hunters generate.  Nature-based tourism through wildlife viewing also provides significant economic benefit to the state by increasing tourism.   Management  decisions  that  seek  to  balance  these  current  and  future  wildlife  consumptive  and non-consumptive uses remain unassessed.  Creating a mechanism that rigorously and consistently quantifies changes in these services — due to the elk population increasing or decreasing over time — supports wildlife management decisions by providing managers and policymakers with a framework that compares traditional forms of built capital (e.g.  hospitals,  school,  roadways) with natural capital (e.g.  alleviating a migration corridor bottleneck, defining energy development setbacks, etc.).  Such comparisons are essential to informinga responsible growth strategy that balances targeted investments in built and natural infrastructure.

The objective of this study is twofold.  First, I will develop a Wyoming natural wealth account (WNWA)for elk in Wyoming.  This WNWA will consist of a calibrated mathematical model that links the ecological growth functions of different elk herds in Wyoming to an economic objective function that maximizes use andnon-use benefits generated by elk.  In short, the model will provide a stable index of natural wealth generated by Wyoming’s elk population that can then be compared to other state capital accounts (e.g., natural gas,oil, coal, and uranium accounts) to better understand wildlife management trade-offs, such as increasing theoverall level of hunting intensity or changing the spatial distribution of hunting quotas.  Further, consistentaccounts of natural wealth will enable assessment of the natural value lost or created from climate-relatedrisks,  such as wildfires and droughts that affect elk population levels,  management responses,  and hunterbehaviors.  From here, this baseline WNWA model can be modified for use in future studies assessing theimpact of specific management scenarios or conservation initiatives (e.g., natural wealth gained from wildlifecorridors or natural wealth lost from oil and gas development).

Second, I will use this WNWA to explore a longstanding and controversial policy:  the impact of differen-tial prices between resident and non-resident elk hunting licenses.  Non-resident elk hunting licenses currently cost 11.4 times more than resident licenses, and only 22% of the total licenses sold are made available tonon-residents  [1]  [2].   Just  this  Spring,  a  bill  was  introduced  to  the  Wyoming  State  Senate  proposing  toincrease the distribution of licenses to 90% residents, 10% non-residents [3].  If passed, it would also nearlydouble non-resident elk license prices.  This discrepancy in license quantity and prices acts as a subsidy forresident  hunters,  and  affects  the  amount  of  revenue  the  Wyoming  Game  and  Fish  Department  (WGFD)receives.  Hunting licenses generate 61% of the total budget for WGFD, making foregone revenue throughdifferentiated  license  prices  a  significant  and  costly  management  decision  born  by  hunter  and  non-hunterresident taxpayers [4].  The existence of different license quantity and prices for residents and non-residents implies that the state of Wyoming (and its residents) are willing to forego potential revenue to provide resi-dents with preferential hunting access to state wildlife resources.  In this study, I will use recently-developednatural capital accounting methods to derive what I call the ‘entitlement value’ (i.e., the implied value ofresident versus non-resident hunting rights).  From here, I will explore the impact of alternative managementscenarios on elk populations and the distribution of benefits (hunters versus non-hunters, residents versusnon-residents) that elk generate.  This project will help to better understand how the current preference forresident hunting rights over non-resident rights impacts elk populations, the broader benefits that Wyoming’selk populations generate, and the margins of inequality created within and beyond the state of Wyomingfrom the state’s differential pricing of hunting licenses policy.

Objective:

Dispersed camping has increased exponentially in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), prompting managers to consider proposing a Special Management Area encompassing the most impacted forests surrounding Jackson Hole, known colloquially as the Jackson Hole Highlands (L. Merigliano, personal communication, April 26, 2021). This project will provide value to the BTNF by 1) establishing baseline data on characteristics and resource conditions of high-priority dispersed campsites, 2) combining elk GPS data with camera trap photos to assess general biodiversity and wildlife’s spatial and temporal activity near dispersed campsites, 3) surveying dispersed campers to understand their knowledge, values, and preferences regarding dispersed camping in the BTNF, and 4) testing efficacy of several different message delivery modalities aimed at dispersed recreationists. Results will enable management to preserve recreation as an ecosystem service while maintaining biodiversity in the largest concentration of wildlife in the Lower 48 states (U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d.). Project progress and research findings will be communicated with managers via presentations and a technical report, the local community via a Harlow Summer Seminar talk, and the general public via an Instagram account.

Objective:

Main Objective: Understand whether biophysical first principles that govern photosynthesis explain and predict the distribution of rare plants in the GYE.
Objective 1: Determine if GYE rare plantsare able to better utilize resources than their common competitors.
Objective 2: Determine if rare plants in the GYE have limited distributions due toexploitationof small, stressful environments.
Objective 3: Determine if plant species that are declining due to new pressures (white bark pine) are similar in their utilization of recourses to their competitors.Background and Rational:

Objective:

I will quantify chain reactions triggered by invasion of the big-headed ant (Pheidole megacephala)to central Kenya.By killing the native mutualists (ants in the genus Crematogaster) that defend trees from elephants, big-headed ants reduce tree cover across vast (100s-1000s of km2) expanses, thereby transforming savanna bushland into open grassland. Because tree cover is a major driver of predation risk to wild ungulates, I hypothesize that mutualism disruptionstemming from big-headed invasion has re-shaped dynamics between lions and their prey.

Objective:

The purpose of this research is to elucidate the mechanisms of urban habitat use in mesocarnivores and the potential influence of urbanization on morphological variation and future speciation.

Objective:

Assess how multiple stressors have interacted to remake biodiversity patterns across large spatial scales during the Anthropocene by studying how introduced species, nutrient pollution,and climate change have transformed the historic biogeography of alpine lakes across the Mountain West.