Projects

Dr. Johnson’s research program is focused on population/community ecology of selected species of lizards and snakes using mark-recapture techniques associated with pit-fall trap arrays and radiotelemetry technology, as well as using photographic surveys and plant community analysis for an ecogeographic study of bird communities comparing permanent and ephemeral water sources.

 

The Chihuahuan Desert is probably the least studied desert in North America, especially in regards to population ecology and ecogeography of its herpetofauna and bird communities. We have been researching lizard and snake ecology for several years and continue to discover unique ecological attributes, especially in respect to lizard demography, behavior, and interrelationships between species, and by the use of radiotelemetry to focus on home ranges and dispersion of snakes within habitats and microhabitats. Very little is known about how birds use habitat patches in the Chihuahuan Desert, especially reasons for their utilization of different water sources based on vegetational differences between sources. 

 

Summer students will use a wide range of techniques to conduct their studies depending on the particular project they get involved with. Students interested in lizard ecology will learn techniques associated with building, maintaining, and running pitfall trap arrays. They will also learn how lizards are marked for later identification, processed after capture, and how and when to release them back into the grid. Students involved in snake radiotelemetry will learn how snakes are captured, permanently marked with Pit Tags, observe the method of radio implanting, and how and when to release them back into the wild. In addition, students will learn how to use telemetry units to locate and take data on snakes in the wild. Lastly, for those students interested in the ecogeographic study of birds, they will learn proper techniques to locate and photograph birds in the wild and how to analyze vegetation plots associated with permanent and ephemeral water sources. All students will learn how data is taken, analyzed, conclusions reached and presented in a poster seminar.

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Philip Lavretsky

Assistant Professor, Biology

Very little is known about the Mexican duck, which is endemic to North America. The Mexican duck ranges from Pueblo, Mexico through the highlands of Mexico and into southern New Mexico. Although estimated around 55,000 individuals, they remain a conservation concern due to habitat loss along with interspecific competition with a sister species, the mallard. The focus of the project will be to fill in important gaps in nesting ecology and habitat use of Mexican ducks. Specifically, potential REU students will work in several wetland areas around the greater El Paso region to find and track breeding females and nest success. Students will also be exposed to collection methods and collecting of wild Mexican ducks and mallards in order to the band, take morphological and phenotypic measurements and obtain blood for genetic analyses. Students will obtain experience working with wild birds, an understanding of and contribution to the ecology of a poorly understood species, and the importance of collected banding and genetic data in regards to conservation, in general.

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Camilo Khatchikian

Assistant Professor, Biology

Proposed projects:

Females of desertic species of Aedes mosquitoes lay their eggs in crevices and depressions that are filled with water after a rainfall and where the larvae develop. Larval development time varies from weeks to months, depending on temperature, habitat quality, resources, and larval density. The larva, in contrast with the relatively durable egg, is not able to survive if the habitat dries out due to drought conditions. However, in some species, not all eggs hatch at the same time but hatch progressively after subsequent hatch stimuli inundations. This effectively scatters the egg cohort though time and has been suggested as an evolutionary response to biological factors (such as competition) and physical factors (such as desiccation), or more generally, as an adaptation to unpredictable environmental conditions. In such a context, it has been proposed that the group has a “bet-hedging” (do not put all your eggs in one basket) strategy that reduces the risk that a rapid drying up of the larval habitat terminates all of the reproductive efforts of the season. Interesting work has been done analyzing various ecological responses of mosquitoes adapted to template climates, but much ecological work is lacking to understand the life history strategies that allow desert mosquitoes to survive in such a hostile environment.

The project intends to assess the taxonomic identity, phenology, and responses to environmental conditions of local mosquitoes existing in the IMRS. The work will involve an initial survey of breeding habitats and the subsequent deployment of traps to collect adults and eggs at selected locations. Samples will be taken to Dr. Khatchikian’s laboratory at UTEP, where they will be examined, including species’ identification and hatching response over time among other variables. The student will learn how to manipulate properly the samples, and how to collect and analyze the data using a variety of statistical approaches. The student will have the opportunity to present the data at students and/or professional scientific events. The data collected in this project will certainly be included in the future scientific report(s).

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Dr. Kelly S Ramirez

Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Proposed Projects:

This research project will be a major step towards understanding more precisely the soil taxa and soil community types involved in carbon storage. Soils contain an immense amount of biodiversity that supports terrestrial ecosystems and benefits humans worldwide. Yet, soil biodiversity is threatened by major changes in land-use, and by an increased incidence of extreme weather events as a result of current climate change. This is worrying because soils support the terrestrial carbon cycle by carbon sequestration, which is pivotal for climate regulation. The overall balance of carbon in soils is controlled by the interactive effects of climate, vegetation composition, and soil biodiversity, but this sensitive balance is threatened by soil biodiversity degradation as a result of intensified drought. A more complete assessment of soil biodiversity responses to climate change is needed to predict responses and identify potential management options to conserve soil biodiversity and soil services. Using a combination of long-term field experimentation and global scale soil biodiversity assessment this project will quantify and map local and regional patterns of soil biodiversity and carbon storage in connection with soil health under extreme drought events brought on by climate change. Specifically, the student will use DNA based analyses to examine soil biodiversity and its functional potential combined with measurements of microbial activity and carbon turnover. The outcomes of this project will facilitate the transfer of ecological research for informing on ways to enhance the stability of soil systems (for both biodiversity and carbon storage) under climate change and land degradation. The research project will culminate in the presentation of a poster at the end of the program and potential co-authorship on a research paper that will come from the findings.

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Vanessa L. Lougheed 

Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

Dr. Lougheed is head of UTEP’s Aquatic Ecology Lab and PI of the Biology Green Roof. Research in my lab focuses on nutrient cycling (N, P, C); bioindicator development using plants, invertebrates, and algae; and the use of remote sensing in monitoring ecosystem change. 

Project Description:

My research utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to improve understanding of the causes and consequences of ecosystem change, degradation, and restoration. Two main projects are available for REU students:

1)         Examining ecological restoration at the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, which is a wetland restoration project owned and managed by UTEP. This is a rare desert wetland that creates a unique environment for aquatic organisms in the Chihuahuan Desert within the city of El Paso, TX. Starting in 2016, water availability has become more permanent in the park, with water present during the summer months for the first time in over a decade, creating a unique research opportunity. REU students will examine water quality, aquatic macroinvertebrates and/or wetland plant communities in different sites and how they have changed over time in response to the restoration. Students could use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), if interested.

2)         Tracking plant structure and function on the UTEP Green Roof. The UTEP Green Roof was created as a platform for both research and education in 2009 and reopened in 2016 (after repairs). Students can look at the growth and success of native plant species, how these can be tracked using automated technologies, and how Green Roofs can mitigate the effects of climate change through carbon uptake.

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Vicente Mata-Silva 

Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Dr. Mata-Silva is acting co-director of IMRS. His research focuses on ecology, conservation, natural history, and geographic distribution of amphibians and reptiles from the Northern CD, Mexico and Central America. He will mentor students working on ecological aspects of either snake or lizard communities performing field research techniques and analyses at IMRS.

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