Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco attended and presented her research on using compost and native seeding to restore ski slopes and sequester soil carbon at the 2023 Ski Conservation Summit held at Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Frisco, Colorado. Also in attendance were Southwestern University students Logan Antone ’24, Cooper Phillips ’24, Blaine Ten Wolde ’25, Hailey Vickich ’25, and Olivia Johnson ’26. The summit and our research were covered in several media outlets: 5280 Denver’s Mile High Magazine, CBS Colorado, Summit Daily, and SAM Magazine.
—August 2023Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco recently had a research paper published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment titled “Composted biosolids for enhanced soil organic carbon and water storage in perennial pastures in Colorado”. This work was part of Dr. DeMarco’s former graduate student’s thesis and focuses on how we can manage pasture lands to sequester carbon into the soil as a climate change mitigation strategy. The paper can be accessed here.
—February 2023Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco was an invited speaker at the September 23 Baylor University Department of Biology Seminar, where she presented her research titled “From Transect to Landscape: Evaluating the Role of Wet Meadow Restoration in Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience
—October 2022Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco was awarded a research grant in the amount of $40,000 from the Bureau of Land Management for her proposed research titled “Nature Climate Solutions: Evaluating the Role of Wet Meadow Restoration in Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience.”
—October 2022A new research project by Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco was featured in the newspaper Summit Daily, which serves the Summit County, Colorado, area. The article, titled “Copper Mountain Resort Begins 10-Year Carbon Sequestration Study,” highlighted the collaboration between Southwestern University, the Copper Mountain ski resort, and Peak Ecological Services, LLC, to investigate the impact of ski slope restoration as a nature climate solution.
—August 2022Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco and Southwestern students Gabrielle Garza ’22, Guadalupe Sanchez ’23, and Christine Vanginault ’23 attended a conservation summit held July 27 at the Copper Mountain ski resort in Colorado. DeMarco and her collaborators—Jeff Grasser, efficiency manager at Copper Mountain, and Rea Orthner, botanist/ecologist with Peak Ecological Services, LLC—presented their research project titled “Ski Slope Restoration as a Nature Climate Solution.” The goal of the summit was to enhance collaboration and provide an opportunity for resort operators, land managers, and researchers to share innovative methods for enhancing the conservation of local ecosystems impacted by recreation.
—August 2022Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarcowas awarded $14,580 from the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservation District for her grant proposal titled “From Transect to Landscape: Investigating the Role of Remote Sensing Tools to Monitor Soil Moisture with Wet Meadow Restoration in the Gunnison Valley.”
—May 2022Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco presented her research titled “Evaluating the Carbon Sequestration Potential and Drought Resilience with Wet Meadow Restoration under a Changing Climate” at the High Altitude Revegetation Committee and Society for Ecological Restoration–Rocky Mountains Chapter 2022 Conference held April 13–14, in Fort Collins, Colorado.
—May 2022Five Southwestern students had the opportunity to extend their coursework and research experience beyond the classroom with poster presentations at the Texas Conservation Symposium, which was cosponsored by Southwestern and the Williamson County Conservation Foundation. The students all had the opportunity to interact with keynote speaker Kelly Ramirez, assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and cofounder of 500 Women Scientists. Three of the presentations built on work the students did during the fall 2021 Conservation Biology course taught by Professor of Biology Romi Burks. These presentations, each of which delved into analyzing a particular Texas ecoregion, included the following:
In addition, two students mentored by Burks in the Molecular Aquatic Ecology Lab, Lillian Dolapchiev ’23 and Cynthia Bashara ’23, presented their research from the 2021 SCOPE program titled “Escar-go to San Antonio: Using Environmental DNA to Detect the Non-native Invasive Species Pomacea maculata.”
Both Montgomery and Dolapchiev received recognition for outstanding presentations. Michael Gervasi ’23 also had his poster, “Trans Pecos 2050,” on display. You can view the ecoregions posters on Burks’s website.
Professor of Biology Ben Pierce and Assistant Professor of Biology Jennie DeMarco also gave presentations on their research, “Relative Tail Width as an Indication of Body Condition in Central Texas Euryceasalamanders” and “Invasive Species Litter Quality Alters Ecosystem Function through Enhanced Litter Decomposition Independent of Drought Conditions,” respectively. Pierce works each year to organize this symposium on behalf of Southwestern.
—January 2022