Soils are vital for the health of our planet. Healthy soils include the soil biota, all the small organisms that are responsible for ecosystem processes. Soil nematodes are among the most abundant animals in the soil and include parasites, predators, bacterial feeders, fungal feeders, and omnivores. Our lab has been studying nematode communities to see how they survive in extreme environments and how they respond to environmental disturbance. The video link below shows students conducting research in the unique Alkaline Lakes of the western Nebraska Sandhills. https://vimeo.com/showcase/10275946/video/810299069
Recent studies have examined the impact of soil and stream contamination near Mead, Nebraska associated with ill-advised ethanol production from unsold seed coated with pesticides, and comparisons of soil nematode diversity within the developing Lancaster County Prairie Corridor.
Advisor Name: | Thomas Powers | |
Email: | tpowers1@unl.edu | |
Secondary Contact: | Peter Mullin | |
Secondary Contact E-mail: | Pmullin2@unl.edu | |
Website: | https://plantpathology.unl.edu/thomas-powers | |
Advisor College: | Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | |
Advisor Department: | Department of Plant Pathology | |
Potential Student Tasks: | Students will be integrated into ongoing research projects, with each student receiving a specific topic to develop according to their interests and the research team needs. All experiments will entail laboratory and field components. Once the necessary skills are acquired, students will collect samples, process them for analysis that will include general microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and DNA analysis. Maintaining good laboratory and field records are important in all science projects, as is learning the multiple ways to present your work to the public. | |
Student Qualifications: | A large portion of our work is exploration. Curiosity often translates into discovery. Our recent discoveries include the descriptions of species new to science. Once we believe we have discovered a new species, we have to conduct the necessary literature investigations to verify it novelty, and then proceed to characterize the species from many different perspectives. | |
Training, Mentoring, and Workplace Community: | All of our projects are team projects. They typically include a Principle Director, research scientists, visiting scientists, research technicians, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. Lately we have included video producers as part of the projects. Telling the story of the science is becoming an increasingly important component of a science project. Most of our previous FYRE students become UCARE students, and some have become graduate students at UNL or other institutions. | |
Available Positions | 2 |