Open Pit Iron Mining on Michigan's Upper Peninsula

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is an iron rich region in the Marquette Iron Range (aka Negaunee Iron Formation) that has been mined since the mid-1800's. By the 1950's most of the easily accessible high grade ore had been mined, forcing the mining companies to dig deeper for less valuable ore. The entire complex depicted in this map is commonly referred to as the National Mine, but it is broken up into two separate facilities: the Empire Mine to the east (which closed in 2016), and the Tilden Mine to the west (the last active Iron mine in Michigan). While these mines have been great for the local economy, this has come at the cost of major environmental impacts.

Orchid Micropropagation and the Potential for Conservation

Rebecca Bendzick, Biological Sciences Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Orchidaceae is one of the most diverse flowering plant families. Despite the worldwide popularity of Phalaenopsis for floral aesthetics, many other ecologically important species are either endangered or threatened and require elaborate cultivation strategies. Currently one of the top conservation approaches utilizes clonal propagation techniques via tissue culture, resulting in vegetative propagation in mass numbers. We present successful sterile introduction, cultivation and maintenance of Phalaenopsis seedlings with the hope that this tissue culture method can be applied to native orchid species here in Humboldt County.

Pacific Banana Slug Habitat Selection using occupied and paired-random microhabitat analysis in the Arcata Community Forest

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The Pacific banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus) is a key detrivore and herbivore in Pacific Northwest forests. Understanding how this species utilizes different habitats in a heterogenous forest is important from a management perspective due to their wide distribution, abundance in the Pacific Northwest, and significant ecological roles in nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and endemic predators. I hypothesized that banana slugs will show habitat selection within a heterogenous forest and tested this using an occupied and paired-random sampling method in four sites within the Arcata Community Forest. My results showed evidence of selection for several habitat variables.

Pacific Purple Sea Urchin Movement Trends

Holly Elbert, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Pacific purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) have seemingly slow movement. I asked if it was possible for them to travel to uninhabited pools that neighbor their inhabited sites within a 6-week period occurring February through March of 2024. I used manual counting methods to determine sea urchin abundance in each pool. I utilized a divided quadrat to assess the percent of red algae cover of targeted sites to analyze whether adult urchin movement was correlated with food abundance. Overall, there was no evidence that sea urchin movement correlates with the algae cover percentage. Although, there was evidence that occasional colonization of pools occurred.

Perching Height Preference in Raptors

Jacob Scholar, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This research investigated the relationship between various raptor species and their preferred perching heights, employing a laser rangefinder and binoculars to determine these heights. My objective was to explore if different raptor species exhibit distinct perching height preferences, potentially impacting the diversity of raptors in an area, deal with various pest species using predators, and possible solutions to bring back extirpated raptor species.

Picea Sitchensis Trees Have a High Capacity for Foliar Water Uptake

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Some plants absorb water through foliage as well as roots. This is an important water acquisition strategy for many plants in the redwood forest ecosystem during dry California summers when fog is often the only water input for months. The goal of our study was to determine if Picea sitchensis trees have the capacity for foliar water uptake, and if they do, how they compare to other species in redwood forests. We also wanted to learn if capacity for foliar uptake increases with height in tree crowns and how it changes under increasingly negative water potentials. Our findings have important implications for P. sitchensis water use, physiology, and growth potential.

Plant Traits Vary Across Microhabitats Under Solar Microgrids on Coastal Grasslands

Logan Holey, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The development of photovoltaic systems is increasing with growing demand for clean energy. Plant functional traits can be used to understand what plants are establishing in different microhabitats because traits respond to environmental constraints and fluctuations. We sampled three solar microgrids in coastal grasslands in Humboldt County for plant community composition and leaf traits. We found that plant traits varied by microhabitat indicating that microgrids apply an environmental filter in plant community assembly. Results from this study can be used to inform plant selection for habitat enhancement or restoration.

Plant-Dwelling Spiders Care Where They Live: Higher Diversity and Greater Abundance On Native Plant Species, Specific Plant Types, and in Areas With Vegetation Richness

Brooke Culler, Biological Sciences Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Spiders are very effective biocontrol agents, particularly when their communities are more diverse. In the progression of more sustainable and natural agriculture, supporting spider communities in California vineyards has potential to keep vines safer from pests. I decided to observe spider taxonomic and guild richness, as well as abundance, on crop and non-crop vegetation in vineyards, while recording a site’s plant species richness and assigning each of those species to be native or not. I set out to determine what factors support more spider diversity, and ultimately, how those factors may encourage spider communities on the vines themselves.

Plastic Ectotherm Plasticity

Jacob Mackenzie, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Comparison of different anthropogenic materials as coverboards for ectotherm surveying, including two different kinds of plastics, Lexan and Acrylic, using temperature, humidity and occupancy status differences. The increased soil temperatures found from plastics compared to other materials may have further impacts on global warming and ectotherm ecosystems.

Plastic Ectotherm Plasticity

Jacob Mackenzie, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Comparison of different anthropogenic materials as coverboards for ectotherm surveying, including two different kinds of plastics, Lexan and Acrylic, using temperature, humidity and occupancy status differences. The increased soil temperatures found from plastics compared to other materials may have further impacts on global warming and ectotherm ecosystems.