2023 October: Season 4: Wrapping up field work! Herbarium project in collaboration with Nebraska Game & Parks starting up! Time for some holiday flavored coffee!! September: Current lab member Austie Kreikemeier receives a 2nd year of UNK URF funding to continue investigating changes in corn production in soils invaded by redroot pigweed. Congrats! August: Katherine presents her recent meta-analysis results on floral resources and native bee diversity in croplands at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Great job!August: Greg also presents the group's contributed talk on changes in soil health following mechanical removal of eastern redcedar at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. This was a collaborative effort with previous lab members Shaylee and Josh along with Sarah Bailey, Naturalist Educator, at Prairie Plains Resource Institute. July 2023: Greg presents the group's contributed talk on the response of corn seedlings and their root-associated fungal communities to water deficit stress and water recovery at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. This was a collaborative effort with current lab member Austie Kreikemeier and previous lab members Marjorie and Shaylee. Great job everyone! June: Season 4: field work, field work, and more field work! Lab and greenhouse projects, oh my! May: Welcome Philip Green (MSc. student)! Philip will be investigating root oxygen production in Northern Wild Rice and the potential effects on sulfate reduction in Northern Minnesota lakes. April: Austie and Travis presented their latest work (see below) at UNK's Annual Research Week!. Job well done!! (1) Kreikemeier, A., and G.J. Pec. Corn productivity does not decline in soils invaded by redroot pigweed. (2) Woodcock, T., M. Garcia-Kerboul, and G.J. Pec. Urbanization pressures alter soil microbiomes. January: Greg receives a UNK Open Educational Resources Recognition Award. Great way to start the year!
2022 December: Congrats on graduation to our group members: Kat (MSc.) and Travis (BSc.)!!! October/November: Season 3: Wrapping up field work, field work, and more field work! Lab and greenhouse projects starting up! Time for some holiday flavored coffee!! September: Welcome Kathryn Black (MSc. student) and Henry Richard (MSc. student)! Kathryn will be investigating the effect of chelating agents on plant root nutrient uptake while Hank will examine the response of subalpine meadow plant communities to variation in soil warming. August: Latest paper out at Applications in Plants Sciences. This article is part of the special issue, "Advances, applications, and prospects in aquatic botany" headed by Julia Cherry @UofAlabama and Greg. Check it out here! August: Collaborative contribution - Yang, Pec and Russo contributed poster at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America titled: Covariation of plant and soil microbial communities along a water availability gradient in a North American prairie ecosystem. August: Greg along with Wuellner, Iranah, Reichart, Jonas-Bratten (UNK), and Uden, Little, Qi, Roy and Banerjee (UNL) receive an NRI grant to estimate landscape-level contributions in ecosystem goods and services from the Conservation Reserve Program in Nebraska. Time for some coffee! August: Congrats on graduation to our group members: Amy (MSc.), Kyle, and Ty (BSc.)!!! July: Greg is awarded a Primary Undergraduate Institute (PUI) and Future Faculty PUI Conference award from the Botanical Society of America! July: Greg presents the group's contributed talk on the response of Big bluestem and its root-associated fungal communitiesto intensive grazing at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. This was a collaborative effort with lab members Marjorie, Jalynn, and Shaylee. Great job everyone! June: Greg along with Guoqing Lu (UNO) and Etsuko Moriyama (UNL) receive an NRI grant to improve bioinformatics education for biology majors across NU campuses by developing STEM-focused online curricula. Time for some coffee! May: Current lab member Austie Kreikemeier and our newest lab member Travis Woodcock both receive a UNK URF to (a) investigate changes in corn production in soils invaded by redroot pigweed and (b) to investigate how urbanization alters soil microbiomes. Congrats to both! May: Greg receives a UNK POE to investigate how soil and root-associated fungi respond to variation in above-ground plant diversity in recovering mixed-grass prairie of the Central Platte River Valley (CPRV) . Time for some coffee! April: Ty Masco had a strong showing at UNK's Annual Research Week! He presented his latest work (see below) and received 1st place in the writing competition (Wagner Family Writing Award). Congrats, Ty! Job well done!! (1) Masco, T., S. Johnson, and G.J. Pec. Soil properties, forage quality and ground cover differ between native and restored prairies. March: Latest collaborative paper accepted at Restoration Ecology entitled "Soil inoculation of lodgepole pine seedlings alters root-associated fungal communities but does not improve seedling performance in beetle-killed pine stands". Check it out here! February: Welcome Austie Kreikemeier (research assistant)! Austie will be helping us with our latest project on the role of microbes in wet meadow habitat and their potential effects on invasive species. January: Welcome back, Shaylee Johnson, BSc. (research technician)! She will be working closely to wrap up various CRRI (Center for Root and Rhizobiome Innovation) projects as well as helping to maintain several long-term experiments at our field sites with TNC and PPRI.
2021 December: Congrats on graduation to our group members: Josh and Shaylee (BSc.)!!! December: Greg receives a UNK Phi Eta Sigma Faculty Award. Great way to finish the year! December: Our work has been featured in EurekAlert on our latest collaborative looking at using DNA to study fungal communities. Check it out here! November: Amy and Greg receives an RSC grant looking at the response of soil bacterial communities to varying levels of herbicide application. Time for some more coffee! November: Ever wonder how climate change & soil warming affect soil biodiversity? Our collaborative work with Serita Frey @UNH featured here! October: Latest collaborative paper published at Applications in Plant Sciences entitled "Choices on sampling, sequencing, and analyzing DNA influence the estimation of community composition of plant fungal symbionts" Check it out here! September: Welcome Marjorie Garcia-Kerboul, MSc. (research technician). She will be managing our lab, working closely with undergraduate students on their various projects and maintaining several long-term experiments at our field sites with TNC and PPRI. September: Welcome Kyle Anderson (BIOL 431; undergraduate research assistant). He will be investigating the relative importance of seed mix diversity and prescribed fire on the recovery of soil microbial communities. August: Greg presents his late-breaking poster on changes in soil properties and microbial communities in wet prairies following 20 years of restoration at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. July: Greg presents his contributed talk on the response of soil bacterial communities to redroot pigweed invasion in corn at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. In addition, Ty presents his poster on the effects of prescribed fire and grazing on grass forage value. This was a collaborative effort with lab members Shaylee and Jalynn. Great job everyone! July: Collaborative contribution - Yang, Pec and Russo contributed poster at the Plant Biology Worldwide Summit titled: Trade-offs in rooting strategies along a grassland water availability gradient. July: Collaborative contribution - Wasyliw, Fellrath, Pec et al. contributed talk at the Ninth World Conference on Ecological Restoration titled: Manipulating soil fungal communities as a tool to restore forests in beetle-killed stands of western Canada. June: Greg along with co-PIs Kellar (UNO) and Schachtman, Tang, Wang, Wardlow, and Russo (UNL) receive a Nebraska Research Initiative grant to investigate the impact of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) on ecosystem health. You guessed it, time for coffee! June: Collaborative contribution - Kallenbach, Pec et al. invited talk at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Soil Science titled: Clay type selects for distinct bacterial and fungal communities with consequences for soil organic matter chemistry and quantity. June: Our photo was chosen as the cover for the June issue of Ecosphere! June: Season 2: Field work, field work, and more field work! Lab and greenhouse projects, oh my! May: Current lab members Jalynn Ellenwood and Ty Masco both receive a UNK URF to (a) catalogue macrofungi of Nebraska and (b) to continue investigating the effects of prescribed fire and grazing on grass forage quality across a restoration chronosequence. Congrats to both! April: Our lab had a strong showing at UNK's Annual Research Week! For a list of abstracts click here. Job well done! (1) Dunbar, P., N. Mittman, G.J. Pec, M. Harner, and K. Geluso. Microbial composition in heteromyid cheek pouches: implications for plant establishment by mycorrhizal fungi. (2) Hergenreder, J.and G.J. Pec. Changes in soil chemical properties following vegetative clearing of eastern redcedar. (3) Ellenwood, J., S. Johnson, and G.J. Pec. Response of Andropogon gerardii to varying intensities of simulated defoliation. (4) Masco, T., S. Johnson, J. Ellenwood, and G.J. Pec. The effects of prescribed fire and grazing on grass forage value. March: Greg along with co-PIs Omera Matoo (UNL) and Guoqing Lu (UNO) receive a Nebraska Research Initiative grant to promote eDNA research on invasive species through cross-campus collaborations. You guessed it, time for coffee! February: Several of our current projects in collaboration with Prairie Plains Resource Institute are featured in the February edition of the newsletter, Prairie Plains Link. Check it out! January: Paper accepted at Ecosphere entitled "Fungal community response to long-term soil warming with potential implications for soil carbon dynamics". January: Welcome Amy Schepers, MSc. student! Amy will be investigating the influence of different herbicide applications on soil bacterial composition and diversity. January: Welcome Katherine Dickerson, MSc. student! Kat will be examining the utility of current techniques for native bee conservation.
2020 December: Greg receives an RSC Research & Creative Endeavors Grant looking at the effects of prairie restoration on microbial diversity, productivity, and soil carbon dynamics. Time for some holiday flavored coffee! November: Collaborative contribution - Paper accepted at Global Change Biology entitled "Fungal community structure and function shifts with atmospheric nitrogen deposition". October: Greg receives an open educational resources (OER) award through the UNK Affordable Content Grant Program for his upcoming graduate course, BIOL 824: Principles of Ecology. Time for some coffee! August/September: Season 1: Field work, field work, and more field work! Time to start processing, oh my! August: Congrats on graduation to our group member: Karen (MSc.)! August: Welcome visiting researcher from TNC, Dat Ha! He will be investigating changes to soil productivity in seasonally flooded grasslands following 20 years of restoration. July: Greg presents at the Botanical Society of America virtual conference on how rhizosphere bacterial diversity and composition varies with Zea mays growth stages (http://www.botanyconference.org/engine/search/index.php?func=detail&aid=135). May/June: Welcome Ty Masco (UNK URF). He will be investigating the effects of prescribed fire on grass diversity and forage quality. May: Welcome visiting researcher from UNL, Yuguo Yang! Yuguo will be investigating covariation in plant microbial communities along an edaphic gradient in the Nebraska sandhills. May: Current lab member, Jalynn Ellenwood, receives a UNK URF to look at the response of Big bluestemto intensive grazing. April: Josh presents at UNK's Annual Research Week on the recovery of soil microbial communities following removal of Eastern redcedar. Job well done! April: Greg along with co-PIs Mary Harner (UNK) and Keith Geluso (UNK) receive a UNK POE to investigate the microbial composition and diversity in heteromyid cheek pouches with implications for plants. Time for even more coffee! March: Greg receives a UNK POE to start cataloging the identity of macrofungi present in the Niobrara Valley Preserve. Time for some coffee! February: Paper accepted at Mycorrhiza entitled "The effects of ectomycorrhizal networks on seedling establishment are contingent on species and severity of overstorey mortality". For the article, click here. January: Welcome Karen Allnutt, MSc candidate! For her capstone, Karen will be investigating high school students' knowledge of sustainability. January: The lab is growing. Welcome undergraduate research assistant, Jalynn Ellenwood!
2019 December: Greg presents at the UNK Chapter of Sigma Xi Science Cafe on the effects of insect outbreak in forests. For more info, click here. December: Welcome Josh Hergenreder (UNK URF)! He will be exploring the response of soil fungal communities to mechanical removal of eastern red cedar. November: Fully funded M.S. position available, investigating the response of the root microbiome to corn root exudates. For more info, click here. CLOSED. September/October: Welcome undergraduate research assistant, Shaylee Johnson! August/September: Greg sets up and gets the lab running at UNK. August: Greg presents at the Ecological Society of America on the drivers of fungal community assembly (https://eco.confex.com/eco/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/77801) June: Greg presents at the North American Forest Ecology Workshop on the response of soil fungal communities to hemlock woolly adelgid (http://nafew.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NAFEW_Program_Final_web.pdf) May: Our paper on restoring belowground ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in reclaimed landscapes has been accepted at Restoration Ecology (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rec.12990) April: Greg has accepted a faculty position in the Department of Biology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.