Five environmental science students receive Cosmos grants to tackle critical conservation research

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 00:05:00 +0000

Five environmental science students receive Cosmos grants to tackle critical conservation research Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 03/18/2020 - 20:05

Five PhD students in Mason's Department of Environmental Science and Policy received grants from the Cosmos Club Foundation to conduct conservation research. Chase LaDue, one of the grantees, is studying male Asian elephants. Photo provided.

Around the world, environmental crises are making headlines, from the potential extinction of species and ecosystems to climate change. Students in George Mason 麻豆国产鈥檚聽Department of Environmental Science and Policy聽(ESP) are driven to make a change.

This year five PhD students in the department received grants from the聽Cosmos Club Foundation聽to tackle a wide range of conservation efforts.

In any given year, Mason has received one or two Cosmos grants, said Kathryn Agoston, director of聽Graduate Fellowships. 鈥淭o earn five is very exciting.鈥�

The role Mason students play in helping the earth is extremely fundamental, said A.聽Alonso Aguirre, ESP department chair. Mason鈥檚 top-tier faculty, R1 research status and unparalleled opportunities in the backyard of the nation鈥檚 capital help take their impact to a new level, he said.

鈥淣ow more than ever you see the passion of students to work with species and ecosystems that are threatened, mostly by human impact,鈥� Aguirre said. 鈥淭hey are committed to solving actual problems.鈥�

The Cosmos Scholars grant program is open to graduate students in the Washington, D.C., area in all fields of study. Mason鈥檚聽Office of Graduate Fellowships聽is also available to help students secure similar funding opportunities.

鈥淭he goal is to provide applicants with the support they need to put forward the strongest possible application,鈥� Agoston said, adding that some awards qualify for聽additional university support聽including tuition assistance and health insurance. 鈥淲e have policies in place to help ensure that these costs do not create a barrier to our students accessing prestigious, nationally competitive awards.鈥�

Here is how Mason鈥檚 Cosmos Scholars are making an impact:

Cosmos Scholar Meadhbh Molloy. Photo provided.

Meadhbh Molloy:
Exploring Beyond Face Value

In one of her first graduate classes on disease ecology, Meadhbh Molloy read a paper projecting the extinction of Tasmanian devils. An aggressive and highly contagious facial cancer would likely be the cause of termination within a couple decades, the researcher estimated. The species is endangered, but they have not become extinct.

鈥淸The cancer] spreads like crazy and almost always leads to death,鈥� Molloy said. 鈥淏ut [Tasmanian devils] are persisting in the wild, and no one really knows exactly how.鈥�

Since the class, Molloy said she became fascinated by how species co-evolve with diseases.

鈥淲hen I learned that diseases were in a way caused by pathogens trying to survive, I started to understand their role in ecology and how they鈥檝e shaped the evolution of other life forms,鈥� Molloy said.

Through the Cosmos grant and an award from the American Australian Association, Molloy will spend up to a year in Australia, working in a lab at the 麻豆国产 of Sydney, where she will be analyzing devil fecal samples. She will also be potentially looking at the species鈥� microbiomes and parasite loads to see if there are differences between diseased wild devils and cancer-free wild devils.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all about making sure they are successful when they鈥檙e released into their native habitat,鈥� said Molloy, who first realized she could have a career with endangered species after a field trip and Mason courses at the聽Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation.

鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to the challenge,鈥� the Northern Virginia native said. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to a lot of personal growth and being able to work with the species that I have been thinking about since I first started my masters.鈥�

鈥擬ariam Aburdeineh

Tovah Siegel, pictured here in the Peruvian Amazon, holds a few piranhas she caught for dinner that night. Photo provided.

Tovah Siegel:
Her Own Best Advocate

Tovah Siegel had never met or spoken to聽Thomas Lovejoy, and knew him only as the world鈥檚 preeminent conservation biologist. But that did not stop Siegel from emailing the Mason 麻豆国产 Professor to ask if he would be her advisor as she pursued her PhD in environmental science and policy at Mason.

One return email and three or four phone calls later, he agreed.

鈥淵ou have to advocate for yourself,鈥� said Siegel, who is from Oregon and earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the 麻豆国产 of Puget Sound in Washington.

Siegel, who is also a Smithsonian Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History, is studying the interactions of species and how forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon impacts those interactions.

鈥淎 lot of research looks at how one species responds individually to fragmentation. But there isn鈥檛 a lot of research about how species A impacts species B that relies on species A,鈥� Siegel said. 鈥淵ou can take that information and say we shouldn鈥檛 be looking at one species. We should be looking at these ecosystems as a complex array of interactions.鈥�

Siegel, who previously used a Boren Fellowship to take field courses in the Amazon, will continue her research with the help of the Cosmos grant.

鈥擠amian Cristodero

Chase LaDue with an elephant at the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo provided.

Chase LaDue:
Where the Elephants Are

African elephants have had a time in the spotlight when it comes to research and media, due to the ivory crisis. But a different elephant species doing worse in terms of survival has received far less attention. Chase LaDue is changing that with his research of male Asian elephants in Sri Lanka.

鈥淚 study male Asian elephants in particular because they鈥檝e been less studied than African elephants, and male elephants are unique because they go through this period called聽musth,鈥� said LaDue, a Dallas native. 鈥淚t鈥檚 completely unique, only elephants do it.鈥澛�

Musth, which means 鈥渋ntoxicated鈥� in Urdu, is similar to rutting season for a deer, LaDue explained. Testosterone levels and aggression are high, but unlike for other animals, there is no predictable聽musth聽season.

Elephants in聽musth聽can also pose an economic burden, he said.

鈥淓lephants will raid farmers鈥� crops, so that can be dangerous to the people that live around elephants, and a single elephant can wipe out a farmer鈥檚 crop for the entire year,鈥� LaDue said.

Through behavioral observations and analyzing hormones in fecal samples, LaDue will examine what environmental and social factors influence聽musth. Because Asian elephants are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the findings could also contribute to understanding how to better conserve their populations.

This year marks the second time LaDue has earned a Cosmos grant. He also received a Fulbright scholarship to go to Sri Lanka in 2019, but had to return to the United States early due to terrorism in the country. Being able to continue his studies is both validating and rewarding, he said.

鈥擬ariam Aburdeineh

Betsy Collins:
Leafing for Answers

Collins standing next to a palo santo tree in the Mara帽贸n Valley, Peru. Photo provided.

From churches to yoga studios to individual homes, communities have been burning聽palo santo鈥攈oly wood鈥攆or generations. The South American plant similar to frankincense and myrrh is primarily used as incense, and it has been so widely marketed that its populations are declining due to habitat loss. Betsy Collins hopes her research can help save the species.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important when you鈥檙e planting for reforestation that what you鈥檙e planting is genetically diverse,鈥� said Collins, who is from West Palm Beach, Florida. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking at comparing the genetics of the replanted populations with the natural population to see [whether] they are in line or can be doing better in our reforestation projects.鈥�

A National Geographic grant in 2018 took Collins to Peru, Mexico and Colombia to collect leaf samples and preserve the plants鈥� DNA. With her Cosmos grant, she will work in Mason鈥檚 labs to extract and analyze the DNA from those hundreds of samples, she said.

鈥淣o country has unlimited sources for conservation,鈥� Collins said. 鈥淚 hope that this research can give some ideas as to where are some really unique genetically diverse populations that we should look at protecting.鈥�

鈥擬ariam Aburdeineh

Charles Coddington:
Flocking to the Amazon

Cosmos Scholar Charles Coddington. Photo provided.

Birds of a feather may flock together, but to avoid predators, birds of different species will do the same. Once at their destination, Charles Coddington wants to know how deforestation and habitat fragmentation affect them.

鈥淥ne of the most critical [threats] to conservation is the loss of diversity,鈥� said Coddington, who graduated from Mason in 2018 with a master鈥檚 in evolutionary biology and returned to the university for his PhD. 鈥淚 hope that my research will help contribute to better restoring biodiversity to fragmented landscapes.鈥�

Mix-species flocks are found on every continent except Antarctica, Coddington said, and they are especially prevalent in the Amazon. Hundreds of birds and dozens of species fly there, he said.

Going into Amazonian forests, Coddington will study how these birds use regenerating forest fragments, and how their nesting behaviors are affected in forests that have developed naturally (primary forests) versus forests recovering from human disturbances (secondary forests).

After finding the nests, Coddington said he will set up camera traps to record what happens when predators are near. He will also set up artificial nests in primary and secondary forests 鈥渢o see if predation is one of the limiting factors that鈥檚 preventing [birds] from successfully breeding in secondary forests.鈥�

The opportunities Coddington has had at Mason, including a fellowship with the聽Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, and the Cosmos grant, have allowed him to foster a community and conduct meaningful research, he said.

鈥淭his is the time to get involved in conservation of species and ecosystems as many factors are threating the health of all,鈥� Aguirre said.

鈥擬ariam Aburdeineh

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