Kansas NSF EPSCoR Announces First Awards for the Spring of 2019

     Kansas NSF EPSCoR helps Kansas build its research capacity and competitiveness in science and technology through the First Award program initiated through the current Kansas NSF
EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS).  MAPS First Awards are intended to help early career faculty become competitive for funding from the research directorates at the National Science Foundation. The awards do this by encouraging early career faculty to submit proposals to the NSF or other federal funding agency as soon as possible after their first faculty appointment, and by accelerating the pace of their research as well as the quality of their subsequent proposals. First Awards are awarded to a single-investigators to support their research program at their institution. Any tenure track faculty member who: 1) is currently nontenured at the assistant professor rank at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg State University or Washburn University; 2) is within the first three years of his/her faculty appointment; 3) has not previously received a First Award or similar funding from another EPSCoR or EPSCoR-like (Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, COBRE) program in Kansas; and 4) is not currently nor has previously been a lead Principal Investigator of a research grant funded by a federal agency. Individual investigators may submit a total project budget of up to $100,000 in direct costs to the MAPS First Award program.  Only projects with research in areas that are related to the current Kansas NSF EPSCoR focus of microbiomes as broadly construed to be in aquatic, plant and/or soil systems were considered.  The following individuals and their research projects were awarded MAPS First Awards in the Spring of 2019:

Preetham Burugupally
Mechanical Engineering
Wichita State University

Trapping and assistedpairing (TAP) microfluidic chip meant to study plant cell-microbe interactions in a microenvironment at the single-cell level

     The research goal of this project is to design and validate a scaled-down version of the Trapping and Assisted Pairing (TAP) chip, a microuidics
tool for conducting plant cell-microbe interaction studies at the single-cell level meant to advance microbiome research. This goal stems from the big picture idea of smart and sustainable agricultural practices to meet
the future global crop production demands in the era of ecosystem degradation and climate change. The TAP will be capable of screening up to 10,000 cell-microbe pairs for symbiotic/parasitic relationships, help plant biologists devise approaches to maximize the symbiotic functions/minimize the parasitic functions, and engineer stress-tolerant plants. The TAP leverages droplet microuidics to efficiently trap 10,000 pairs of droplets |one set of droplets containing individual plant cells and another set of droplets containing individual microbes |and merge the droplet pairs, initiating 10,000 cell-microbe interactions. For maximizing the cell-microbe pairs, it is critical to understand the droplet trapping and merging physics. The project objective is to describe droplet trapping and merging physics in
the traps, and demonstrate the droplet trapping and merging capabilities of TAP. This project will significantly advance knowledge on two fronts. Biology: Advance the understanding of microbiomes. The TAP chip is a cell handling tool designed to advance microbiome research by enabling plant cell-microbe interaction studies at the single-cell level. By integrating a computer controlled x-y stage, automated data acquisition system, real-time image processing, and traditional imaging infrastructure, the TAP will be a live-cell reporter system that can track the progression in cell-microbe interactions for extended periods of time, and thus allow it to answer a wealth of microbiome questions: What genes in cells/microbes turn ON/OFF during interactions? Are there any yet-to-be-discovered cell microbe relationships? Engineering: A fundamental understanding of the influence of trap geometry and fluid properties on droplet trapping and merging. The TAP leverages droplet microuidics to pair individual plant cells and microbes in a droplet. It is very critical to understand droplet trapping and merging physics for maximizing the plant cell-microbe pairs. Through first principles-based parametric studies, design charts and guidelines necessary for the design of traps will be created.

Andres Patrignani
Agronomy
Kansas State University

Upscaling transient microbial activity and soil moisture dynamics

     Soil water and heat dynamics exert a strong control on soil respiration by modulating the rate of microbial activity, substrate availability, and the diffusion rate of carbon dioxide at the soil aggregate level. Thus, a first order up-scaling of soil respiration from the aggregate level to the
watershed level inevitably requires knowledge of the spatial structure of-, and cross-scale interactions between, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration. The goal of this study is to accurately quantify watershed scale soil respiration applying a simple up-scaling strategy based on the merger of chamber-based soil CO2 efflux observations with modeling predictions. We hypothesize that combining detailed information about the soil spatial variability of the catchment area with accurate soil respiration observations and a parsimonious model will result in more accurate estimates of soil respiration than the use of chamber observations or model predictions alone. A distinct feature of the proposed method is the integration of time-invariant landscape patterns with the soil moisture information from a cosmic-ray neutron detector capable of large-scale non-invasive soil moisture observations. This project will bridge the gap point-level (i.e. small survey chambers) measurements that leave large unmonitored areas between observations ecosystem-level soil respiration products such as those generated by eddy covariance flux towers. The proposed method will provide a framework for integrating ubiquitous soil respiration measurements and existing models of soil respiration to reconcile soil and tower fluxes and to better measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide of terrestrial ecosystems. Up-scaling methods that account for watershed soil spatial heterogeneity are essential to account for potential soil respiration “hot spots” and “hot moments”, better evaluate factors controlling the spatial variability of soil respiration, and assess the representativeness of eddy covariance tower measurements. This is particularly relevant in a global scenario characterized by the widespread deployment of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods (e.g. FLUXNET), the growing market of automated chamber systems, and new hectometer-level, non-invasive soil moisture sensing technologies.

Tom Platt
Biology
Kansas State University

Prevalence and co-occurrence of pathogenic and cheater agrobacteria on healthy and crown gall disease infected sunflowers

     Cheaters threaten the evolutionary persistence of cooperative traits. When cheaters and cooperative individuals co-occur, cheaters have an advantage because they benefit from the costly action of their competitors while themselves avoiding cooperative costs. The investigators will examine the prevalence and degree of co-occurrence of a cooperative pathogen and the avirulent cheaters that exploit it. The generalist pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens infects plant hosts at great cost to itself. Infected plants produce a public good resource that the pathogen and any present cheaters can catabolize. Our work has experimentally demonstrated that the cooperative pathogen is vulnerable to invasion by avirulent, cheating genotypes of agrobacteria that out compete the pathogen in disease environments. However, the degree to which there is opportunity for this to occur in nature is poorly understood. Accordingly, we propose to assess how common cheating genotypes are and the degree to which cooperative and cheater agrobacteria co-occur in natural environments. We will sample agrobacteria from Konza Prairie from the rhizosphere of Helianthus annuus plants. Characterization of the pathogenesis functions, opine catabolism functions, and phylogenetic relationships of this sample of natural agrobacteria strains as well as those from an experimental mesocosm will allow us to determine the degree and distribution of agrobacterial genetic diversity and evaluate the prevalence and diversity of cheater strains. The investigators will also measure the rate and spatial scale of cooperator and cheater dispersal in experimental mesocosms to access how dispersal influences cooperative benefits and the spread of cooperative pathogens and cheaters. The proposed research will provide insight into the ecological dynamics mediating the evolution of cooperation. This proposal bridges concepts and approaches from ecology, evolutionary biology, and genomics to examine how competition and dispersal influence the dynamics of microbial populations. The findings are also relevant to understanding how microbial dynamics influence the spread of a facultative pathogen in both environmental reservoir and infected host environments. These issues are of key importance to understanding the epidemiology of pathogens that can live independent of their hosts. The plant pathogen A. tumefaciens has been a productive study system for determining the mechanisms of microbial interactions but the ecological consequences of these mechanisms are poorly characterized. The investigators have previously leveraged this mechanistic information to identify factors shaping key ecological and evolutionary processes like the fitness costs and benefits of cooperative pathogenesis.

Maggie Wagner
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Kansas

A simplified community to enable manipulative study of maize microbiome function

     Plants live in close association with hundreds to thousands of bacterial and fungal species, both on and inside their roots. This diverse and complex microbial community—the plant microbiome—can profoundly affect the health of the host plant. For this reason, plant microbiomes have great promise as a sustainable tool for protecting both crops and wild plants against environmental challenges. However, the enormous complexity of natural microbiomes has been an obstacle to understanding the principles and mechanisms that determine their composition and function. One powerful approach to overcoming this challenge is experimentation with “synthetic communities” (SynComs), which typically consist of dozens to a few hundred known microbial strains, contained within an otherwise sterile environment. SynComs enable precise manipulation of microbiome composition and analysis of the effects on community function. The goal of this project is to create a SynCom specifically for maize and use it to explore the role of microbe-microbe interactions in root microbiome function under drought conditions. Maize is critically important both as a crop plant and a model system in genetics research. However, the existing maize SynCom contains only seven bacterial species, which limits its value and versatility. The proposed experiments will investigate maize root microbiome assembly from farm and prairie soils across a natural precipitation gradient in Kansas (Objective 1), generate a curated collection of microbes isolated from maize roots growing in these soils (Objective 2), and use the resulting SynCom to test how key organisms influence the rest of the microbiome and function of the whole community, in a water-limited environment (Objective 3). The proposed work would be the most thorough study to date of the maize root microbiome response to drought conditions, as well as the first to investigate the role of legacy effects (land-use and historical precipitation levels) on soil microbiome function. It would also increase the number of microbial strains available for maize SynCom experiments by approximately 30-fold, thus massively improving the microbial functional diversity that can be studied. The effects of SynCom strains on maize phenotype and microbiome structure under water-stressed conditions will be directly tested under reproducible germ-free growth conditions. The expanded SynCom may form the basis of a wide variety of follow-up projects, investigating plant-microbiome interactions at levels ranging from genes to ecosystems.

Funding for the Spring 2019 MAPS First Awards is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

MAPS researchers discuss accomplishments at the 2019 MAPS Symposium

Dr. Kristin Bowman-James,
KU Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
 and Kansas EPSCoR Director
giving the MAPS project research overview

    On March 18, 2019 high school students and teachers; undergraduate and graduate students; faculty, and institutional and state leaders participated in the Kansas NSF
EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) statewide 2019 MAPS Symposium. There were over eighty participants in attendance. Opening remarks were given by Dr. Peter Dorhout, Vice President for Research and Professor of Chemistry at Kansas State University (KSU), followed by a keynote address by Dr. M. Ed Galindo, faculty member at the University of Idaho, Associate Director for Education and Diversity for the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium, and member of the MAPS Science and Education Advisory Council (SEAC).  Dr. Kristin Bowman-James, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kansas (KU) and Director Kansas NSF EPSCoR provided an overview of the project and Dr. Eric Welch, Professor of Public Affairs and Directors of the C-STEPS at Arizona State University provided a brief summary evaluating the program so far. To complete the morning session, each of the four research areas: Aquatic, Plant and Soils Systems as well as the Research Synthesis group, co-principal investigators or research team leaders discussed the accomplishments, challenges and future plans of the project.

2019 MAPS Symposium Participants

     Over lunch, Dr. Teresa MacDonald, Associate Director of Public Programs for the Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum at KU, introduced her and Dr. Ben Sikes', Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Assistant Scientist, Kansas Biological Survey (KBS) at KU, "Microbes on the Move" traveling museum project that began its tour on March 15, 2019 in Chanute, Kansas. The afternoon session consisted of updates from the Maps Education, Outreach and Diversity initiatives. Dr. Peggy Schultz provided information related to the Ecology for Elementary Students program and the Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute .  Dr Cody Marshall, faculty at Haskell Indian Nations University and Dr. Jay Johnson, Professor and Associate Chair of Geography & Atmospheric Science and Director of C-FIRST, gave a brief history of Haskell Indian Nations University and an overview of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Program (HERS). Jill Haukos, Director of Education presented the Konza Environmental Education Program (KEEP) and Dr. Brenee King provided an overview of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Program (LSAMP). For the remainder of the afternoon, twenty-three MAPS individual research projects were presented at the MAPS Poster Session. 

MAPS Poster Session

The following is a list of the MAPS poster project titles and authors who presented:

• "Linking the presence and function of denitrification genes to whole river estimates of denitrification in response to a large-scale nitrogen enrichment of the Kansas River (USA)" Amy Burgin
• "Fire severity effects on ectomycorrhizal colonization of Pinus palustris and Pinus taeda"  Hannah I Dea, Jacob R. Hopkins, Ben A Sikes 
• "Analysis of the Plant-Soil Microbiome Surrounding Native and Non-Native Grasses Across a Precipitation Gradient in Kansas"Mitch Greer and Scout Harrison
• "Head Above Water: Sea Level Rise and Gentrification in Brooklyn and Queens, NY." Trevor Guinn
• "HABs Rehab: Toward Predicting & Preventing Harmful Algal Blooms in Cheney Reservoir" Carlos Cross, Amy Hammett, Daniel Hammett, Jacob Hanna, Issac Stanton
• "Do novel inputs into the Kansas River affect the water or sediment microbiome and water chemistry?" Janaye Hanschu, Lydia Zeglin, Amy Burgin, Michelle Kelly, Emma Overstreet, Cay Thompson
• "Ecotypic Adaptation of Ascomycetes to Drought" Kyle J. Ismert, Dr. Andrea Porras-Alfaro , Dr. Jennifer Rudgers, Dr. Ari Jumpponen 
• "Smart Adaptation of Enriched Microbiomes in Recovered Nutrient Products (biofertilizers) from anaerobic wastewater treatment to the native soil" Arvind Damodara Kannan, Dr. Prathap Parameswaran
• "Migration Medicine: How Shifting Woodlands Affect Navajo Health" Sasha Keams
• "Phosphate and pH data from Fort Hays, Konza, and Eastern Kansas EPSCoR research sites." Stephan Koenigsberger, Mathew Kirk, Dylan Beaudette
• "Probabilistic Modeling of E. Coli SOS Response System Using High-throughput Biological Data" Stephen Kotiang, Ali Eslami
• "3D Freeze Printing of Aerogels" Halil Tetik, Dr. Dong Lin
• "Minirhizotrons: Existing Technologies & Motivation for Developing an Automated Minirhizotron Camera System" Colby J. Moorberg, Yuqi Song, José Guilherme Cesário Pereira Pinto
• 'Impact of Land Use on Soil and Groundwater Microbial Communities in Great Bend Prairie Aquifer" Christina Richardson, Allie Richard, Janaye Hanschu, Lydia Zeglin, Matthew Kirk
• "Terrestrial-aquatic connections, and what they tell us about drivers of microbial, isotopic, and metabolic activity across a Kansas aridity gradient." Anne Schechner, Bre Waterman, Matt Kirk,  Walter Dodds
• "The Effects of Climate and Land Use on Methanotrophic Communities" Carrie Spanton, Terry Loeke
• "FGC: Fragmentary gene caller for gene prediction in metagenomic sequencing data" Sirisha Thippabhotla, Ben Liu, Cuncong Zhong
• "Fire Sovereignty: Using Prescribed Burns to Conserve Tallgrass Prairies on Tribal Lands" Kynzer Wanithunga
• "Methane oxidation in native prairie soil" Irosha Wanithunga, Charles W. Rice 
• "3D printing of Biocompatible Materials (Hydroxyapatite& NanoCellulose Hydrogel)" Guang Yang, Dong Lin
• "Soil Microbial Community Composition Across a Precipitation Gradient with Different Land Uses" Carlos A. B. Pires, Marcos V. M. Sarto (KSU), and Charles W. Rice (KSU)
• "GRARNA: Guided Reference Assembly of ncRNA for Metagenomic Sequencing Data" Ben Liu, Sirisha Thippabhotla, Cuncong Zhong

Funding for the 2019 MAPS Symposium is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

Former Secondary Science Teacher studies Geomicrobiology and Microbial Ecology with MAPS Researchers

    When Christina Richardson graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, she also graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education and obtained an Illinois teaching certification. Following graduation, she began her career as a substitute teacher in Illinois, and then later, she became a teacher aid in Indiana. Although, Christina is originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, she grew up in New Delhi, India, so it was not unusual that in June of 2012, she accepted a position in New Delhi serving as an Education Consultant for the Metro Delhi International School.

Christina presenting her research at the
2018 Geological Society of America (GSA)
meeting in Indianapolis, IN

     As an Education Consultant, Christina created “the middle school science curriculum and the high school biology curriculum,” as well as developed the science safety guidelines and the school's annual Science Fair. In addition, she taught 6th through 8th grade science and high school biology. After working four years as an Education Consultant, Christina decided she wanted to go back to school to earn a master's degree because, as she explains, “ ... I realized that I missed studying science for myself.” She added that her interest in studying “Geomicrobiology and Microbial Ecology grew through my students’ curiosity in high school biology and my desire to learn about and promote more sustainable agricultural and water management practices around the world.” So, she moved back to the U.S. to pursue a Master of Science in Geology at Kansas State University (KSU).
    Now in her second year, Christina is working on her master's project with Dr. Matthew Kirk, Associate Professor in the Geology Department at KSU and a team leader of the Soil Systems research team, and Dr. Lydia Zeglin, Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at KSU and a team leader for the Aquatic Systems research team, both involved with the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS).  On November 16, 2018, Christina presented a poster featuring her research at the MAPS All Science Meeting held at the Konza Prairie Biological Station. Christina collaborated on the poster project with a fellow graduate student, Alexandria Richard. The title of their poster was “Impact of Land Use on Groundwater Chemistry and Microbial Communities in the Great Bend Prairie Aquifer.” Within their research project, Christina focused on looking closely at “the soil and aquifer microbial communities in the Great Bend Prairie Aquifer to understand how they are impacted by land use” while Alexandria focused on the “impact of land use on groundwater chemistry in the Great Bend Prairie Aquifer.”
   

Left: Surveying for soil sampling sites near monitoring wells in south-central

Kansas, and 

Right: Sampling soils at different depths, using ethanol and gloves

to ensure the soil microbial communities remained intact with minimal

contamination of microbes from other sources.

     Christina explained what their research addressed as follows: “Microbial species engage in redox reactions that significantly affect aquifer geochemistry and water quality. Previous studies have focused on the impact of land use on groundwater quality as well as on soil microbial communities. However, very little research has been conducted to understand the influence of land use on aquifer microbial communities. In this study, we are examining the relationship between land use and aquifer microbiology in the Great Bend Prairie Aquifer, a portion of the High Plains Aquifer in south-central Kansas. We hypothesized that land use significantly impacts the composition of the shallow aquifer microbial community and that the composition of the groundwater microbiome will be related to the composition of the soil microbiome. To test these hypotheses, we are comparing the shallow aquifer microbial communities to groundwater geochemistry and to soil geochemistry and microbiology in areas of different land use. We have analyzed multiple samples of the soil and aquifer microbiomes to compare the composition and diversity of their microbial communities. In addition, we have measured environmental parameters (e.g. pH, particle size, EC, OM, NO3-, NO2-, NH3, Mg, Ca) in the soil and shallow aquifer at each sampling site. We are currently analyzing our collected data with alpha and beta diversity tests through QIIME and RStudio. Because land use changes many environmental factors (e.g. added nutrients through fertilizers, pesticides, and manure; change in soil structure via cattle or machinery compaction), we expect to see significant correlations between the shallow aquifer and soil microbial communities of cropland compared to those of pastoral sites.”
     As for her future plans after graduation, Christina said, “I plan to get some experience in the environmental consulting world while my husband is still in the Army, and I am interested in pursuing more research and higher education in the future. Eventually, I plan to work internationally as an environmental consultant.”

The Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas workforce development, and educational objectives are designed to enhance research capacity and STEM education in Kansas, expand the STEM workforce and prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

Registration is open for the 2019 MAPS Research Symposium on March 18, 2019 at Kansas State University

The 2019 Kansas NSF EPSCoR Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) Research Symposium will be held Monday, March 18, 2019 from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM at the K-State Alumni Center. The symposium will feature the activities of the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 project, Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems Across Kansas (MAPS) with presentations by the researchers and educators. Also featured will be a keynote speaker (tba), lunch and a poster session detailing some of the most recent research findings. Student attendance and posters are encouraged.

In addition, preceding the symposium will be an opening event Sunday at 4:30 PM, March 17, at JP’s in the K-State Union.

There is no cost to attend, however, registration is required.

Meeting Agenda

Registration is now closed.

Links to all the talks are accessible at 
2019 MAPS Symposium Presentations

Contact Doug Byers at dbyers@ku.edu or 785-864-3227 with questions.

Funding for the symposium is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

MAPS graduate student studies HABs and Kansas water quality

Janaye Hanschu working on
her first independent research project
as an undergraduate

     During the summers of her childhood, Janaye Hanschu would visit the Marion Reservoir located on the Cottonwood River, 3 miles northwest of Marion, Kansas. Because she loved the water, it was a weekly event. Unfortunately, as she got older the lake “would often get shut down due to harmful blue-green algae blooms" (HABs). Harmful blue-green algae is a bacteria know as Cyanobacteria that reproduces rapidly if conditions such as high nutrient and high light levels are present. The dense growth of the algae, or bloom, can produce toxins if it becomes stressed or dies. These toxins impact water quality and are harmful to people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. According to the 2018 Kansas Water Authority Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature, HABS continue to impact the Marion Reservoir's water quality, and Janaye added, it is “one of the worse lakes in Kansas as far as algae blooms” are concerned. After witnessing, firsthand, the impacts HABs and excess nutrients had on Kansas waterways, Janaye decided she wanted do something about the water quality problems in Kansas.

Janaye collecting samples for the Kansas River RAPIDS project

      So, while she was earning a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Kansas State University (KSU), Janaye pursued her research interest in water quality by working for Dr. Lydia Zeglin's in her Microbial Ecology Lab. Dr. Zeglin is an Assistant Professor of Biology at KSU and is a member of the Aquatics research team for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS).
 
     After graduating in the fall of 2017, Janaye continued to work for Dr. Zeglin as a research assistant on another NSF research project titled: RAPIDS: Are biogeochemical responses linked to the microbial composition of a defined nutrient and microbial input to a large river? (DEB #1822960). This project involved a collaboration between the Zeglin Microbial Ecology Lab (KSU) and the Burgin Lab at the University of Kansas (KU). The Burgin Lab is led by Dr. Amy Burgin, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at KU; Environmental Studies Associate Scientist for the Kansas Biological Survey; and a MAPS Aquatics research team member. The RAPIDS project was designed to study nutrients in the Kansas River.
     On November 16, 2018, Janaye presented a poster featuring her RAPIDS research at the MAPS All Science Meeting held at the Konza Prairie Biological Station. The title of her poster was “Do novel inputs to the Kansas River affect the water of sediment microbiome and water chemistry?” She explained her RAPIDS project as follows: “The city of Lawrence bought an old fertilizer plant. The plant contained several gallons of fertilizer dissolved in water. The city needed to dispose of the fertilizer. Initially, the city was selling the fertilizer to farmers to use for their crops. However, the execution was time consuming and a financial burden. As a result, the city got permission from the state and EPA to release the fertilized water into the Kansas River over a time frame of about two months. The release inoculates the water with both nitrogen (nutrients) and microorganisms. This novel input into the Kansas River lead to the question: Does microbial nitrogen processing in the river respond solely to changes in the nitrogen substrate supply, or does changing the microbial community also affect ecosystem-scale biochemistry. We sampled the river every two weeks (in addition to other sampling). At one time point, it was found that there is a microbial community composition (MCC) spike--an increase in microbial diversity--where the fertilizer was being released into the river. The overall MCC was returned to normal by 5 km downstream of the input site, but the microbial types unique to the input can be detected to at least 29 km. There were 23 unique bacterial OTUs in the water downstream of the input, but only 5 of these increased in relative abundance. As for the biochemistry and microbial relationship, for this specific time point, the microbial biochemical processes seem to be turning over the nutrient load at a sufficient rate because the chemical signals are weaker than the microbial signals.” And she said that although "this poster was done on a different grant ... the research was relevant to the MAPS project." While working on RAPIDS project, Janaye became “highly interested in linkages between MCC and biogeochemistry rates.”

Janaye standing a Milford Tank,
part of an experiment led by Dr. Ted Harris
in the summer of 2018 which will she will
continue this summer (2019). 

     In the fall of 2018 Janaye decided to continue pursuing her research interests in water quality and entered graduate school at KU. Janaye was hired by Dr. Amy Burgin to work as a MAPS graduate research assistant in the Burgin Lab. Janaye explained why she wanted to participate in the MAPS research this way: "I am interested in working on the MAPS research because we live in this delicately interconnected environment that needs to be understood in order to preserve it. Humans are changing our Earth's ecosystem at a rapid rate and understanding out interactions between aquatic, plant, and soil microbes could be a key in establishing policies and practices for a better future." And she added, “During the MAPS project, I hope to better understand connections between the MCC in harmful algae blooms (HABs) and nutrient availability/limitations to be able to better understand the production of cyanotoxins by cyanobacteria.” Her MAPS research will involve conducting a mesocom tank experiment in the summer of 2019. She explained the experiment as follows, “Large tanks will be inoculated with Kansas lake water and different nutrient limitations will be imposed on the tanks. Also, different forms of nutrients, such as nitrogen, will be observed. We will look at which kind of nutrients influence cyanobacteria growth and cyanotoxin production.”
   
Janaye is from McPherson, KS and is a first year EEB Master's student at the KU. As for her future plans, she hopes to continue a career in research and/or outreach.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for graduate assistantships is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

The 2019 Kansas NSF EPSCoR MAPS Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute is now accepting applications

Do you teach high school biology or environmental studies?

Would you like to interact with ecological researchers, develop curriculum that links current research to Next Generation Science Standards, learn more about Kansas ecosystems, and work with other teachers across the state?

Then, apply to attend the

2019 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute.

This year the institute will be held June 17-21, 2019 (arrive evening of June 16 if traveling from out of town) at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, 100 Konza Prairie Lane, Manhattan KS 66502.

While attending the institute, teachers will participate in a variety of activities from carrying out investigations and learning about current university-level research, to exploring diverse outdoor environments. Early in the week participants will be divided into groups based upon their areas of interest to work with Kansas State University researchers. Groups will spend time developing inquiry-based curriculum for their high school classrooms.

Teachers attending the summer institute will earn a stipend of $750 for actively participating in the week’s activities and writing curriculum.

A travel allowance will be provided for all participants and housing will be provided for participants who live more than an hour drive from the Konza Prairie Biological Station.
 

APPLY HERE

Ten Teachers will be selected to participate 

Applications are due April 1, 2019 

To see how one teacher has used her 2018 institute experience in the classroom click here

To learn more about what you can expect, go to  2018 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute

To learn more about the researchers who will be facilitating the small groups for the 2019 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute as well as more about the MAPS researchers go to the People tab on the Kansas NSF EPSCoR MAPS outreach website.

Involvement in this program could lead to further collaboration through National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers (NSF RET) grants. Future programs will take place at the University of Kansas Field Station in 2020 and 2022 and at the Kansas State Konza Prairie Biological Station in the summer of 2021.

The summer institute is one of the educational outreach initiatives supported by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) and is under the direction of  Dr. Peggy Schultz, Associate Specialist, Environmental Studies Program at the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS).

Lessons from the MAPS 2018 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute for high school biology teachers are making positive impacts in the classroom

 
 

Ms. Amy Hammett
Honors Biology and
Earth-Space Science Teacher
Maize High School
Maize KS

     Last summer, eleven high school Biology and Environmental Science teachers from across Kansas attended the MAPS 2018 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute held at the University of Kansas Field Station. The summer institute is one of the educational outreach initiatives supported by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) and is under the direction of  Dr. Peggy Schultz, Associate Specialist, Environmental Studies Program at the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS). The institute's objectives were to provide opportunities for teachers to create models and conduct research during the morning sessions and to work with other teachers in smaller focus groups to develop lessons and classroom activities during the afternoon sessions. Prior to attending the institute, teachers selected to participate in one of the three focus groups offered, Aquatics, Terrestrial or GIS. The focus groups provided the teachers with the opportunity to: 1) work with University of Kansas (KU) scientists in a small group setting, 2) develop lesson plans that connected their curriculum to the current MAPS research, and 3) create student activities reflecting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs).
     Ms. Amy Hammett, who teaches Honors Biology and Earth-Space Science at Maize High School in Maize, KS, attended last summer's institute and chose to participate in the Aquatics focus group led by Dr. Jerry DeNoyelles, Deputy Director and Senior Scientist at KBS and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at KU and Dr. Ted Harris , Assistant Research Professor at KBS. Using what she learned from her focus group experience, Ms. Hammett created two Problem Based Learning (PBL) lessons related to current water issues facing the state of Kansas. One lesson was titled Water Quality Monitoring of Kansas Surface Water and Computational Modeling of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). The objectives for this lesson involved students learning how to figure out “the human impacts of nutrient runoff, sedimentation, and global temperature changes on surface water supplies.” In order to meet these objectives, students participated in activities that included: "1) Algal Growth Experiments, 2) Water Quality Monitoring of Cheney Reservoir in collaboration with the University of Missouri's Reservoir Observer Student Scientists (ROSS) Project, and 3) R-Programming Analysis of Real-Time Limnology data using the EDDIE Modules. The second lesson was titled Water Quantity in the Ogallala Aquifer. The objectives for this lesson involved students learning how to figure out the long-term effects of water usage and conservation efforts, as well as design solutions and mitigate consequences of the over-usage of water. Activities for this lesson included: 1) Using math modeling to make a prediction on the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer and creating public education info-graphics, like this one, 2) attending the Governor's Water Conference in Manhattan in 2018, and 3) eight Maize High School students becoming Kansas Water Advocates.

Students learning more about becoming Kansas Water Advocates

     In addition, Ms Hammett arranged a class field trip to the Aquifer Storage Recovery facility in Burrton, KS, where her students were shown how the city of Wichita "purifies and treats excess water from the Arkansas River for long-term storage in a man-made aquifer.” She also invited, Mr. Matt Unruh, the Director of the Equus Walnut Region of the Kansas Water Office and Dr. Harris to visit her classes. Mr. Unruh discussed the “Kansas water supply and all the technologies under development or being deployed to conserve water,” and Dr. Harris taught her students how to access the Carey Lab at Virginia Tech and use post doc Kait Farrell's "R code creations." As a follow up to this lesson, her students entered and "won the $10,000 2018-19 Lexus EcoChallenge for our Kansas water quality work." Ms. Hammett added,"Winning this challenge also opens the opportunity for us to compete in the $30,000 Lexus Grand EcoChallenge." She plans to use the funds "to give scholarships to the participants and fund the expansion of their limnology studies."

Left Matt Unruh, the Director of the Equus Walnut Region of the Kansas Water Office visits Amy's classes
Right, Dr. Ted Harris, Assistant Research Professor with KBS explains R code creations

     When asked how her classes responded to the lessons, Ms. Hammett said her students were "excited about doing work that is locally relevant and meaningful.” One student told her she felt, "for the first time, like a 'colleague' - doing science to 'figure out' rather than just 'learn about.'" Ms. Hammett also shared that her students performed at 100% mastery on assessments related to the lessons, which she attributes to "the increased motivation the lessons' relevance brought” to the classroom. In addition, she said the lessons have become “anchoring phenomenon in both Biology and Earth-Space Science classes, and students have connected and extended the NGSS Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs) adopted in these projects to all new learning.” Ms. Hammett has continued her collaboration with her summer institute Aquatics focus group leader, Dr. Harris, and together, they have been working on “an R-programming model of harmful algal blooms (HABs) using the EDDIE Project's modules. (We are also considering extending this work to a CS for All RFP, but that collaborative project is still in the works.)”
    As for the impact the summer institute has had on her instruction, Ms. Hammett said “The Ecosystems across Kansas Summer Institute shaped my teaching this year” and added, “I will be working as a fellow with Concord Consortium this upcoming summer to continue to develop lessons based on the topics discussed at the institute.” Ms. Hammett highly recommends that teachers apply to the 2019 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute because “it is PD like no other; you do science alongside scientists and there is no substitute for this type of experience for teachers. It enables us to replicate it in the K12 environment, i.e. to get kids to do science in science class.”

The 2019 Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute is now accepting applications:  Apply here 

Ms. Amy Hammett has been teaching for 13 years, starting her career in Louisiana (2006-2010) before moving to Kansas. Prior to teaching at Maize High School, Ms. Hammett taught at Campus High School, Northeast Magnet, and online for the Insight School of Kansas (ISKS) / Kansas Virtual School. Approximately 150 high school students will participate in her MAPS related lessons during the 2018-2019 school year. For more information about Ms. Hammett's lessons and how to contact her, go to the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers (KABT) Bio Blog Archives, PBL: Water Quantity and Water Quality


Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: "Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas."  The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

The Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Institute is now accepting applications for paid summer internships

       The HERS Institute is an 8-week paid summer internship program for undergraduate or recent graduate students held in June and July. The institute's underlying mission is to provide the opportunity for students to work with faculty from Native American colleges who are conducting long-term and short-term research relating to key hazardous substance problems on American Indian lands with the intent to disseminate the information through programs and various forms of media to American Indian peoples. The program is also dedicated to preparing tribal college students for science and technical careers and/or graduate school experiences. The program also provides various stages of support for continued research and participation in programs of interest to American Indian/Alaska native communities. The HERS interns' research topics primarily focus on the affects of climate change on indigenous communities.
     Interns spend the first six weeks of the program on the Haskell Indian Nations University campus in classrooms and laboratories learning about climate change and developing individual research projects. Then, the interns spend the following two weeks conducting independent research at Haskell Indian Nations University, The University of Kansas, and/or in the field. HERS interns will also have opportunities to present their work at professional meetings, workshops, and symposia around the country, such as the Society for Advancing Chicanos & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) or American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES).  Selected interns receive a stipend as well as room and board.

    To be considered for the HERS Internship Program, applicants must be undergraduate students or recent graduates in good standing, and eligible for enrollment in a tribal college or university.

Applicants will be expected to provide the following for consideration:

• A 400 to 500 word Statement of Purpose including an explanation as to how a HERS internship benefits their professional goals. If relevant, also include a description of previous research experience.
• A 400 to 500 word Essay describing an important environmental issue affecting Indigenous communities that is of interest to them. 
• Two Letters of Recommendations: One from an academic reference and one from someone who can speak to the applicant's character.  There is a letters of recommendation request form at the online application site. 
• A copy of the applicant's most recent college or university his or her transcripts. Official transcripts will be requested at a later time.

Interested students apply here

All application materials must be submitted by March 15, 2019

Check the HERS Institute website for updates or deadline extensions.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the HERS program is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The award's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

The MAPS KEES program teaches seed dispersal to third graders at Scott Dual Language Magnet School

    The Kansas Ecosystems for Elementary Students (KEES) program finished the Fall 2018 semester teaching an interactive seed dispersal lesson to Ms. Charlotte Muñoz’s third grade class at Scott Dual Language Magnet School in Topeka, KS. The KEES program is one of the education and workforce development initiatives funded by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) and is under the direction of Dr. Peggy Schultz, Associate Specialist for the Kansas Biological Survey Environmental Studies Program. As part of Scott's curricular focus, science is taught in Spanish, so Dr. Schultz hired Ms. Tita Hernandez-Soberon to write and teach the KEES curriculum in Spanish. Dr. Shultz also enlisted the help of University of Kansas (KU) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) PhD students, Laura Jimenez, Claudia Nunez-Penichet, Fernando Machado-Stredel, and Javier Torres-Lopez as well as program volunteer, Dr. Gaby Valverde-Muñoz to lead the small group activities within each KEES lesson.

Students discovering how seeds might disperse

    The seed dispersal lesson began with a brief discussion on how seeds can be dispersed by wind, water, explosions, and animals. Then, the third graders viewed a video showing how chipmunks store and transport acorns. Students were also shown a video, in slow motion, that explained how a "Jewelweed" or "Touch-Me-Not" seed capsule explodes in order to disperse its seeds. Following the introduction, students were split into small groups that rotated through activity stations led by the KEES instructors. At the first station, students were introduced to different types of seeds, and they conducted experiments to discover how each seed might be dispersed in an ecosystem. At the second station, students wore tape on their hands and crawled through oatmeal spread on the ground to simulate how seeds can be spread by sticking to animal fur. In the third activity, students pretended to be squirrels storing acorns for the winter. In this exercise, students wore socks on their hands and then crawled, hopped and ran from their trees, or home base to 1.) collect wooden acorns that were spread out on the ground; 2) dodge predators (KEES instructors); and 3.) bring the acorns back to their home tree. Through this activity, students learned how squirrels eat, gather, store, and drop acorns in order to help oak trees disperse their seeds. The final activity provided the students with the opportunity to create their own seed dispersal mechanisms and then test their mechanisms' effectiveness using water, wind, and gravity.

Students constructing their own seed transports and testing their efficiency

     When asked about the impact the MAPS KEES program has had on her students, so far, Ms. Muñoz said, the KEES program "has covered many of our Life Science standards. I love that the program is engaging for students. It brings in resources that we do not have access to as a public school and opens the eyes of our students to things they normally would not be able to experience.” Her students also echo her enthusiasm for the program as Ms. Muñoz describes, “My students LOVE when the 'science people' come visit us. They are always asking when they will come again.” Ms. Muñoz shared some of the comments her students have made about the KEES program below:

• "It is really fun. We learned about plants and seeds." (Isaac)
• "It's fun because they show us new things that we might not learn here." (Bryan)
• "I think it's fun when they come because we do exciting experiments. I learn exciting things that I didn't know about before." (Zaylee)

In addition, Ms Muñoz said that although most of her students already love science, “the ones that do not change their perspective when the science teachers from KU are here. They become lovers of learning.” Furthermore, Ms. Muñoz has seen evidence that her students are retaining the information they are learning. She explained, “My students talk to each other about what they learn. When we talk about similar things in class, students are able to tell me and compare what they learned then to what they are learning now.” When Ms. Muñoz was asked what activity has been her students' favorite, so far, she said they really liked the squirrel game that taught them about seed dispersal (see video below). 

     Parents are also expressing their enthusiasm for the KEES program. Ms. Muñoz shared, “I post pictures of my students in their activities on Class Dojo for parents to see. Many of the parents have expressed excitement that their child is learning in a hands-on style. One parent in particular has a gifted student in my classroom and has had concerns that her child needs to be working in a challenging and engaging environment. She feels that this program fulfills those needs for him."

    The KEES program is also engaging third grade students at Jardine Elementary in Topeka, KS as well as Hillcrest Elementary and New York Elementary in Lawrence, KS. These additional classes are taught in English by undergraduate student instructors. In the Spring of 2019, three more MAPS related lessons will be taught, and the KEES program is expected to reach over 250 third grade students during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the KEES program is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The award's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

MAPS graduate student researcher receives a Self Graduating Seniors Fellowship at the University of Kansas

Paige Hansen

   
      Paige Hansen, a master’s student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Kansas (KU) and a graduate student researcher for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS), has been selected to be a 2018-2019 Madison and Lila Self Graduating Senior Fellow. The Madison and Lila Self Graduating Senior Fellowship is a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding undergraduates who are entering a graduate degree program at KU immediately after completing their bachelor’s degree and who exhibit "the potential to make significant contributions to society that are beyond the bounds of normal expectations.” Selected Fellows also have demonstrated “individual achievement in leadership and scholarship” and possess “the ability to envision and attain goals that require exceptional energy and tenacity.” As part of the award, Paige will receive $10,000 of support for one academic year and will participate in monthly professional development programs covering topics such as “leadership, effective mentoring relationships, conducting and communicating research, grant preparation, public speaking, policy advocacy, networking, and preparation for today’s labor markets and evolving industries."
     Paige is from Brookings, SD and graduated from KU in the spring of 2018 with a bachelor's degree (BS) in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and a minor in English literature. Her research focus is soil microbial ecology. Paige was first introduced to this field of study in high school when she worked for a family friend who was a research scientist at the USDA North Central Agricultural Research Laboratories. She commented, “I didn’t like it at the time.” However, when she participated in a KU study abroad opportunity as an undergraduate researching “plant-fungal genetics in Bangkok…,” she said, “I ended up really loving the research, especially its potential to help the environment and people.” She added, “This experience also made me realize that there are fun, cool people who are excited about research, and that spending long days in the lab can be fun. I came back to KU wanting to continue to do research 1) that matters to people and the environment and 2) with people who are super excited about their research.” While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Paige developed a novel technique for "quantifying microbial abundance and quantifying fungal response to disturbances such as controlled burns.” She also became interested in "how climate change and land use conversion alters soil fungal and bacterial community composition, both at the soil's surface and deep underground... and how these compositional shifts can impact plant communities and biogeochemical cycling."
     This fall, Paige is working in the Sikes Lab with Dr. Benjamin Sikes, Assistant Professor of EEB, Assistant Scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS), and part of the MAPS plant systems research team. Her MAPS research focuses on “how the structure (abundance and composition) and function of bacterial and fungal communities at different soil depths in native prairies, restored prairies, and agricultural fields change in response to alterations in historical precipitation regime.” She explained, “I'm trying to figure out how bacteria and fungi might respond to precipitation changes associated with climate change, and contribute to the ongoing debate on whether microbial community structure or function matters more to healthy ecosystem functioning.”
    As an undergraduate, Paige received the following research recognitions: Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) Fellowship, KU Undergraduate Research Award, KU Undergraduate Biology Research Award, the KU Honors Opportunity Award, the Freeman Foundation Scholarship for East Asia Internships, and the Plains Area Director’s Research Scholarship. She also was involved in the KU Global Scholars Program, the KU University Honors Program, and the KU Undergraduate Biology BioScholars Program. In addition, Paige has presented her undergraduate research at the 6th Annual K-INBRE Symposium, the Argonne Soil Metagenomics Meeting, and the Central Region IDeA Conference.  And, Paige has co-authored a paper for publication titled Recurrent fires do not affect the abundance of soil fungi in a frequently burned pine savanna with T. A. Semenova-Nelsen, W. J. Platt, and B. A. Sikes. As for her future plans, Paige said, “I would love to be a professor at a research institution, or do anything that involves soil and microbes and that lets me travel!”

The Self fellows are nominated by their academic departments and are selected based on their “individual achievement in leadership and scholarship, potential to make significant contributions to society, and ability to envision and attain goals that require exceptional energy and tenacity.” This award is the third fellowship endowed by the Selfs at the University of Kansas, joining the Self Graduate Fellowship program for doctoral students and the Self Engineering Leadership Fellowship program for undergraduate students. Eleven students were selected as the 2018-2019 Self Graduating Senior Fellows.

MAPS science team meets to discuss year one accomplishments and plans for year two

Year 1 Science Meeting Group at Konza Prairie Biological Station

     On November 16, 2018, faculty and students working on the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) gathered at the Konza Prairie Biological Station near Manhattan, KS to discuss accomplishments and challenges that occurred during year one as well as review and modify research plans for year two. The morning began with a welcome from Walter Dodds, a co-principal investigator (co-PI) for the MAPS project and member of aquatic systems research team. Then, the junior faculty team leaders for the aquatic, plant and soil systems research groups each gave a ten minute research update that was followed by a five minute discussion addressing challenges and the proposed research plans for year two. Discussions on project modeling and data management issues followed the team presentations. Over the lunch hour, MAPS students participated in a poster session. Twelve undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Fort Hays State University presented their research on the following MAPS topics:

• Methane Oxidation in Native Prairie Soil 
• Do novel inputs to the Kansas River affect the water or sediment microbiome and water chemistry? 
• The Effects of Climate and Land Use on Methanotropic Communities
• Plant-soil Microbiome Feedback Impacts on Native and Non-native Grasses Throughout Kansas
• Soil health across a precipitation gradient with different land uses
• Impact of Drying and Rewetting Cycles on Microbial Communities in Tallgrass Prairie
• Effects of Land Management on the Microbial Community, Soil Structure, and Nutrient Dynamics of Cultivated Grain Sorghum
• Recurrent fires do not affect the abundance of soil fungi in a frequently-burned pine savanna
• A Mechanistic Model of Plant-Symbiont Interactions
• How roots and microbes transform decaying organic matter into bioavailable phosphorus: pH as a master variable
• Time Series Transcriptomic Responses to Drought in Maize Seedings
• Impact of Land Use on Groundwater Chemistry and Microbial Communities in Great Bend Prairie Aquifers

     Breakout sessions were held in the afternoon to discuss research methods and sites locations specific to each research team, followed by a whole group discussion synthesizing year one's findings. Publications and data sharing policies made up the final session for the day. Research team members who were unable to physically attend the meeting, were able to participate in the sessions through video conferencing.

Funding for the Science Meeting was provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The award's research, workforce development, and educational objectives are designed to enhance research capacity and STEM education in Kansas, expand the STEM workforce and prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

Girl Scouts of the Kansas Heartland learn about fungi

     On Saturday, November 3, 2018, Theo Michaels and Jacob Hopkins presented a lesson module on fungi to the Girls Scouts of the Kansas Heartland during the 2018 Girl Scout STEM Expo at Camp Tongawood in Tonganoxie, KS.  Both Michaels and Hopkins are Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) PhD candidates at the University of Kansas (KU) working in the Sikes Microbial Laboratory with Dr. Benjamin Sikes, Assistant Professor of EEB at KU, Assistant Scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS), and Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) plant systems research team member. Michaels is also a member of the MAPS research team.
     About two years ago, Andrew Mongue and Kaila Colyott, two KU EEB Graduate Student Organization (GSO) members, and some local girl scout troops collaborated to create this event. Hopkins added, “Due to their fantastic efforts and the success of the first event, the event was held again this year." Both Michaels and Hopkins were invited to participate by Anna Klompen, the current KU EEB GSO outreach committee chair, who was instrumental in planning this year's event.

Jacob Hopkins and Theo Michaels
teaching Girl Scouts about fungi

    The 2018 STEM Expo presenters were asked to develop “a module that educated scouts in particular STEM fields.” Hopkins explained, “The modules were designed to be an informative and interactive way to get scouts interested in science.” In addition, some of the modules were designed to meet badge requirements. Hopkins described the module he and Michaels taught as follows: “In our module, we taught the girls about the basics of fungi, what mushrooms are, mushroom anatomy, basic microscopy, how to recognize Kansas mushrooms, mushroom safety, and how to grow their own fungi. The fungi basics and safety sections were composed of light lecture. The mushroom anatomy was a hands-on activity where scouts identified parts of a provided mushroom (purchased at the grocery store). The Recognizing mushrooms portion relied on KU herbarium specimens to teach the scouts about edible mushrooms in Kansas and their poisonous look-a-likes. The Grow your own fungi activity allowed the girls to plate fungi from different sources (i.e. fingers, leaves, sticks, rocks, shoes) on a petri dish that they got to take home and record what grew.”
     When Hopkins and Michaels were asked why they wanted to participate in the Girl Scout STEM Expo, Hopkins said “We participated because scientific outreach opportunities are key for: a) educating the general public about what scientists do, b) showing off how wonderful the world around us is, and c) providing a strong platform for getting scouts interested in STEM fields at a young age. Also, developing and presenting outreach modules is a lot of fun.” Michaels went on to add that the activity provided “a good chance for the girl scouts to talk to real live scientists about science, what it takes to be a scientist, and how to foster their interests moving forward. It also gives them a chance to see how science is a lens by which to explore our world and ask questions that can both directly and indirectly pertain to our daily lives.”
     In addition to Hopkins’ and Michaels’ module, “there were several other STEM modules presented by KU EEB GSO students at the event.”  Multiple troops from across Kansas, made up of about 80 Girl Scouts, attended the 2018 STEM Expo.