The Native Plant Society of Texas offers the following research grant to graduate students at Texas universities who are performing academic research related to Texas native plants and/or to the conservation and restoration of native plant habitats of Texas:
Ann Miller Gonzalez Graduate Research Grant – This research grant is named in honor of an early supporter of Texas native plants. The award amount is up to $2500 for the duration of the grantee’s research project.
The Grants & Scholarships Committee is excited to announce the below 2024 AMG Grant Recipients:
Parikama Sapkota, University of Texas, El Paso – Award $2500 (also awarded in 2023)
Parikrama Sapkota (Pari) is a PhD candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Texas at El Paso, advised by Dr. Kelly Ramirez. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of global changes on the interaction between plants and microbes in dryland systems and aims to grasp their role in the restoration process. To explore these questions, she employs various approaches, such as fieldwork, molecular lab techniques, and coding.
With drylands facing degradation due to diverse global pressures, there’s a need to understand the intricate relationships between native plant species and soil microbial communities in the Chihuahuan Desert. Pari’s research aims to improve restoration methods by incorporating knowledge of soil microbiota functions for plant success. Currently, she is working on a comprehensive greenhouse experiment using four prevalent native grass species in the Chihuahuan Desert. Specifically, testing if certain microbial inoculum can facilitate better plant growth. The project will quantify germination rates, above- and below-ground biomass, soil properties, and rhizosphere microbiome composition. This work builds off a preliminary study that indicated varying growth responses among native grasses to the addition of rhizosphere inoculum and mesquite litter. The upcoming greenhouse experiment seeks to further clarify the best conditions for successful restoration. This research aligns with broader objectives of combatting shrub encroachment, promoting biodiversity, and restoring historically significant grass species in the Chihuahuan Desert.
Eli Hartung, Texas State University – Award $2500 (Also awarded in 2023)
Eli is a Ph.D. student at Texas State University. He received his B.S. in Botany from Utah Valley University and a Masters in Biology from Kansas State University. He will investigate the role of rock-stored water on the drought tolerance of four common warm season grasses of the Edwards Plateau. The species will cover a spectrum of drought tolerance and association with rocky outcrops on the Edwards Plateau: Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem) and Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem) are warm-season perennial bunch grass with a wide distribution across North America. Muhlenbergia reverchonii (seep muhly), a native warm season grass distributed through Texas and Oklahoma, and Bothriochloa laguroides (silver bluestem), common across North America, are by contrast more often associated with calcareous, often rocky limestone soils. Eli hopes his work will help expand our understanding of native grasses and forbs with an overall goal to better conserve them.
Benju Baniya, Texas A&M University – Award $2500
Benju is a PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology at Texas A&M University, working under Dr. Asko Noormets’s supervision. Her research focuses on carbon allocation dynamics in forest ecosystems under changing environmental conditions.
Shortleaf pine forests used to be the most widespread pine in the eastern US, however only less than 10% of its original extent remains. Land use changes, harvesting, fire suppression, pests and diseases have contributed to this decline. Although shortleaf pines are drought-tolerant, increasing temperatures and prolonged droughts can threaten the persistence of these forests (Lawson, 1990). The recent severe drought in Texas has significantly reduced photosynthetic uptake, tree growth, and C allocation patterns, potentially turning forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources (Adhikari et al., 2021). Under stressful conditions, plants can store or use non-structural carbon (NSC) depending on the severity of stress, however, NSC dynamics and belowground carbon allocation have not been well represented or lacking from ecosystem models. Hence, the main objective of this research is to estimate the non-structural carbon, biomass production efficiency, and carbon translocation to above and belowground compartments using a mass balance model (TIMBCA) in a shortleaf pine forest in east Texas.
Hailey Barton, Sul Ross State University – Award $2500
Hailey is a PhD student at Sul Ross State University. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Wyoming, with a double major in zoology & equine science. At SRSU, she studies bighorn recovery in Texas which is successful but ongoing. Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area (EMWMA) is a crucial component, acting as a nursery herd from which animals are pulled to bolster herds in other parts of the state. In addition to restoring bighorn populations, EMWMA is also focused on sustaining healthy populations of other native species, namely mule deer. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is dedicated to meeting the management goals of both species, while sustaining the health of the landscape they inhabit. The project will implement remote sensing in the form of satellite imagery to observe forage quantity and quality. Using satellite imagery, they can compile and study the values of Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) that they record, such as was used in a study in the Mojave Desert (Creech et al., 2016). NDVI is based off chlorophyll and used to assess “greenness” in an image. Greenness can then be linked to nitrogen content of the vegetation and nitrogen content then links to the relative abundance and quality of resources available.
Sabina Prajapati, Texas State University – Award $2500
Sabina is Ph.D. student at Texas State University She received her M.Sc. in Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology from University of Göttingen (Germany), a B.Sc. in Forestry from Tribhuvan University (Nepal), and subsequent training from UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands (Watershed and River Basin management). Her research interest lies in understanding the effects of global change on ecosystem functions, particularly soil health and carbon sequestration. For my dissertation I will be working in the Blackland prairies in Texas.
Restoring native prairie ecosystems on former croplands is often challenging due to establishment failures of native species, which may be influenced by soil legacy effects—alterations in soil properties caused by previous plant occupants. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), widely used for biofuel, livestock feed, and soil conservation, can condition soil in ways that inhibit germination and growth of native species, potentially through alteration biotic and abiotic properties of soil. While studies on legacy effects typically focus on species imposing legacy effects on the soil, often invasive species. Limited information exists regarding the number of species capable of germinating and establishing in switch grass conditioned soil. Here, my study aims to quantify the effects of switchgrass- and native prairie species-conditioned soils on the germination and growth of 24 native prairie species, through a greenhouse experiment. The study will specifically answer if the growth of the native prairie species is inhibited by the switchgrass conditioned soil in comparison to the soil conditioned by native prairie vegetation.
Oluwaseun Shodipo, Texas Tech University – Award $2500
Oluwaseun is a PhD student at Texas Tech University. She works on Phylogenetic Systematics, using bioinformatics and genomics tools to access plant phylogeny and improve the conservation methods of plant biodiversity. Her research is focused on the Phylogenomic Analysis of the genus Xanthisma, she is also working on determining the ploidy variation and its influence on reproductive isolation.
Biodiversity assessment and conservation efforts rely heavily on accurate species identification and understanding of population dynamics. However, this can be particularly challenging in plant communities, especially for families like Asteraceae (Compositae), typically known for their rapid evolution, polyploidy prevalence, and convergent morphology. The Astereae tribe (a subgroup) within Asteraceae exemplifies this complexity, with genera like Xanthisma, Machaeranthera, and Haplopappus, often subject to taxonomic confusion due to shared morphological features. Also, Xanthisma and Machaeranthera have most of their species native to Texas. Polyploidy, the presence of multiple sets of chromosomes, plays a significant role in plant evolution and diversity. Two types of polyploidy impact how we understand biodiversity: Autopolyploid (chromosome doubling within the species) and Allopolyploid (chromosome doubling during hybridization). Because polyploidy could lead to speciation, traditional species delimitation based solely on morphology and interbreeding is less reliable in polyploid-rich groups like the Asteraceae family. Xanthisma, among these genera, currently has insufficient molecular data to understand its evolutionary relationships within the Asteraceae fully. Since the expansion of the genus to accommodate more species, there is a need to reconfirm the monophyly of this genus Xanthisma. My research aims to 1) Confirm the monophyly of Xanthisma in North America using targeted DNA sequencing. 2) Provide evidence for reproductive isolation among contentious taxa within Xanthisma.
For this phylogenetic systematics project, I will use high-throughput sequencing of targeted DNA regions to capture over 1300 gene sequences. I will use gene clustering based on the genetic similarities at 1300 genes to investigate species distinctness and identify the presence of possible cryptic species. This research will provide the essential fundamentals to explore further research such as the comparison between geographic distribution and diversity of populations in the 1900s and now.
