From creative writing to community service to laboratory research, Eberly College students of all majors are studying environmental issues in the classroom and beyond.
Two West Virginia University biology students are committed to finding solutions to climate change through their research. By connecting laboratory projects to the impact of climate change—from failing crops to acid rain—they are advancing their professional field while giving back to the world.
Going with the grain
Emmelia Braun gained her first research experience through the Office of Undergraduate Research’s Research Apprenticeship Program, which connects students with faculty members and introduces students to ongoing projects in the sciences, arts and humanities. The Hurricane native spent a year working with biology graduate student Melissa Lehrer in Associate Professor Jennifer Hawkins’ lab on the effects of drought on Sorghum bicolor, a popular grain crop used to produce biofuel.
“I wanted to find an opportunity involving plants and genomics, two of the topics I was most interested in from my classes. Dr. Hawkins’ lab researches plant genomics, so it was a perfect fit. I really love applying everything I have learned in class as well as learning new skills and techniques which aren’t taught in the classroom,” Braun said. “I enjoyed the work I did with Melissa immensely, and I have continued working in Dr. Hawkins’ lab ever since.”
In the United States, sorghum is mainly used to produce biofuel, but it is a staple grain in many areas of the world such as Africa and Asia. These regions are experiencing some of the world’s most rapid population growth, leading to an urgent need for an increase in food production. However, these areas also experience some of the highest salt concentrations in their soils due to the effects of climate change, making the cultivation of many crops difficult.
“Climate change through global temperature increases and adverse weather patterns is significantly contributing to increased salt content in soil through salt water intrusion into coastal regions, increased evaporation, which leaves salts behind, and the excess pumping of groundwater for irrigation,” Braun said. “As fields are becoming increasingly saline, it’s difficult to produce many crop species and food production decreases.”
A possible solution is to maximize use of existing salt-contaminated lands, and Braun aspires to explore these possibilities through her own research.
“As Sorghum is a staple crop in these regions and is relatively salt-tolerant, this species is worth investigating further to maximize yield to feed the growing population. It may also potentially reduce the furthering of climate change effects,” Braun said. “My work not only adds to scientific knowledge which may lead to better agricultural practices. It may also help identify genotypes that can maintain grain yield that could be used for agricultural purposes in these regions.”
Now, as a senior, Braun is completing her biology research capstone in conjunction with the Honors College’s EXCEL program. She is continuing her focus on Sorghum bicolor, studying how salt affects its ability to grow and reproduce, called salinity stress.
“The goal of my research is to differentiate between the vegetative tolerance, the size and quality of the plant, and reproductive tolerance, the plant’s ability to produce large amounts of grain, and their responses to salinity stress. Very little research to date distinguished these two responses in Sorghum. Since Sorghum is a popular biofuel crop, most of the articles used vegetation as a way to measure of tolerance without looking at the impacts on grain-related traits,” Braun said. “I wanted to develop a more holistic definition for salt tolerance by treating vegetative and reproductive growth as separate traits and evaluating the relationship between them. I hope that my research will fill in this gap of knowledge and may also carve out my own scientific niche.”
Stress research, like Braun’s work, is an ideal way to learn about a plant’s adaptability and variability.
“It shows how every mechanism is interconnected to keep the plant alive and how when the environment is disturbed, it can affect the balance of these mechanisms,” Braun said. “I can learn a great deal about the intricacies of plant functions, and I am excited to keep learning more.”
In spring 2020 and 2021, Braun presented her research at the West Virginia State Legislature’s Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol virtual event.
“I’ve enjoyed my time in research so much that I’m planning on pursuing it as my career. After getting my bachelor’s degree, I plan to transition into graduate school and further my research experience. I hope that my current research project will serve as a starting point for me to delve further into the effects of salinity stress in grain crops and to potentially look into its effects on seed viability as well.”
– Emmelia Braun
“It was a great opportunity to share what I have been working on with people across the state. I love talking about my research with others and knowing that other people are interested as well makes all the hard work pay off,” Braun said. “Because of the pandemic, it unfortunately had to move to an entirely virtual format, but I enjoyed interacting with those who watched my presentation and answering their questions. I learned a lot about how to present to a general audience and how to make my presentations more engaging.”
After graduating from WVU later this year, Braun aspires to pursue a career in research.
“I’ve enjoyed my time in research so much that I’m planning on pursuing it as my career. After getting my bachelor’s degree, I plan to transition into graduate school and further my research experience,” Braun said. “I hope that my current research project will serve as a starting point for me to delve further into the effects of salinity stress in grain crops and to potentially look into its effects on seed viability as well.”
Healing a wounded world
While studying abroad in Nicaragua as an undergraduate student 10 years ago, Brooke Eastman observed the country’s long history of land grabbing and clashes between industries, immigrants and indigenous communities.
While there have been recent efforts to restore the land, the conflicts continue. She witnessed how climate change impacts poor communities disproportionately and how both humans and the environment are simultaneously exploited. That motivated her to dedicate her career to uncovering climate change solutions.
Now as a biology Ph.D. student, Eastman studies how acid rain impacts forest health. She is committed to highlighting forests’ role in mitigating climate change.
“I have always felt connected with nature and felt pained by humans' misuse of the planet. I am also the type of person who asks a lot of questions, and I have an appetite for understanding how things work,” Eastman said. “I wanted to learn more about the science of how carbon cycles through forests and the real potential that forests offer us in terms of cleaning up after our mess. I knew that forests do take up carbon from the atmosphere, but they also release a lot of carbon back to the atmosphere, so I wanted to study what factors make forests better at storing carbon.”
Eastman is furthering this work as one of 23 students selected nationally for the Ecological Society of America’s Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award.
“This is an opportunity to gain formal training and experience in the science policy field,” Eastman said. “I have been involved in the past with community organizing around environmental policy issues, but I have less experience as a trained scientist speaking with authority to our lawmakers about environmental policy.”
Through this virtual experience, the students will use their expertise as scientists to discuss the payoffs of federal investments in ecological and biological research while training to become science communicators influencing federal policy. They will attend a virtual panel discussion on careers in science policy and workshops on the federal budget and science communication with Congress.
“These trainings and experiences will teach me how to communicate in a public policy context and provide insight into the process and culture of engaging federal lawmakers. They are meant to prepare us for Capitol Hill meetings with congresspeople or their staff,” Eastman said. “West Virginia, in particular, has gotten a lot of attention lately in terms of federal legislation and how we can shift our energy economy without leaving behind the people who played a huge role in building this nation up through natural resource extraction in the past.”
In her research, Eastman examines carbon cycles in ecosystems and how forests can be useful climate change mitigation tools through their ability to capture and store large amounts of carbon.
“We are in the throes of a climate crisis, and it is imperative that we understand how our actions and decisions will exacerbate or mitigate the negative effects of climate change,” she said. “It can be overwhelming to think about all of the global changes that threaten our well-being and the well-being of many other organisms. I want to be a part of the solution because I know that we have the capacity to turn this into an opportunity to build a better future. That eventually led me to where I am, studying how acid rain impacts forest carbon cycling and how the carbon and nitrogen cycles interact in complex ways.”
Her latest research on the forest carbon cycle was recently published in New Phytologist, a top ecology journal.
In this paper, Eastman and colleagues, including adviser William Peterjohn, summarized 30 years of data collected from two small, forested areas. The broad scale and long duration of this experiment allowed them to determine that long-term acid rain simulations increased carbon storage in the vegetation and the soil, though some of the changes they observed may have uncertain effects on forest health in the future.
“One of the largest sources of uncertainty in predictions of the global carbon cycle and, as a result, climate change, is how the soil carbon stock will respond to future environmental changes,” Eastman said. “Because soils contain more carbon than all vegetation and the atmosphere combined, a small change in the soil carbon stock can have a major impact on the atmosphere and climate.”
This study was one of few comprehensive ecosystem-wide studies that will inform predictions for how deciduous forests like those in West Virginia will respond to various global changes.
“Forests currently absorb a fair amount of the carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel emissions, but carbon dioxide is still accumulating in the atmosphere. As the atmospheric carbon dioxide continue to increase, forests will need access to more nitrogen in order to continue providing us this service of carbon sequestration,” Eastman said. “This study provides a framework for predicting future forest functioning and how forests may adapt to a changing environment.”
“I hope to address the effects of the climate crisis on the natural world and marginalized communities. My research is providing me with the foundational knowledge of how global change impacts ecosystems, especially forests. My dream job may come in many forms – higher education, government research or science policy. I am optimistic that such opportunities will continue to arise as interdisciplinary teams are essential to addressing the climate crisis.”
– Brooke Eastman
After graduating from WVU later this year, Eastman seeks a career that bridges climate change and ecology research with practical solutions.
“I hope to address the effects of the climate crisis on the natural world and marginalized communities. My research is providing me with the foundational knowledge of how global change impacts ecosystems, especially forests. I have also learned to work independently, synthesize complex information into a more accessible form and analyze and present scientific results,” she said. “My dream job may come in many forms – higher education, government research or science policy. I am optimistic that such opportunities will continue to arise as interdisciplinary teams are essential to addressing the climate crisis.”
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