The Environmental and Conservation Sciences Graduate Program seeks to foster interdisciplinary scholarship that transcends traditional academic boundaries. In support of this goal, a recent seed grant competition was held for faculty to obtain funds to foster the development of interdisciplinary research collaborations to increase extramural grant submissions. Faculty from nine departments in four colleges successfully obtained funding.

Donna Jacob, research assistant professor of biological sciences; Achintya Bezbaruah, assistant professor of civil engineering; and Marinus Otte, professor of biolgoical sciences; secured funding to pursue research concerning nano-particle uptake in wetland plants. Adnan Akyuz, assistant professor of natural resource science; G. Padmanabhan, professor of civil engineering; and Thomas DeKeyser from agricultural and biosystems engineering, will conduct research to develop a high density precipitation network in North Dakota. Chris Biga, assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and emergency management, and Erin Gillam, assistant professor of biological Sciences, will conduct ecological and sociological research concerning the impacts of wind energy on wildlife populations. Geosciences faculty Ken Lepper, Peter Oduor and Adam Lewis will conduct work to link the geologic record on floodplain evolution to Red River flooding and bank erosion. Zhulu Lin, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering; Xinhua Jia, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering; Shawn DeKeyser, assistant professor of range science; and Robert Hearne, assistant professor of agribusiness and applied economics, will evaluate the economic environmental impacts of agricultural land use changes on water quality and plant community richness at the watershed level. Steve Travers, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Marion Harris, professor of entomology, will investigate the restoration genetics and reproductive dynamics of the endangered western-fringed prairie orchid.

The research collaborations will further support the expansion of interdisciplinary research at NDSU. The principal investigators plan to use these funds to develop competitive grant proposals for submission to regional and national funding agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture and United States Geological Survey.

The environmental and conservation sciences program also recently supported a competition for graduate student research. Research grants were awarded to nine students representing four departments. Grants were provided to civil engineering students Qigang Chang, Tu Thi Anh Le, Rabiya Shabnam and Tanush Wadhawan; biological sciences students Justin Fisher, Brandon Kowalski and Sharmila Sunwar; Vijaya Jvoti from geosiences; and Brianna Schneck from veterinary and microbiological sciences and biological sciences.