SEEDS: Newsletter > Volume 4, Issue 3 - April 2006

SEEDS Highlights: Nancy Grimm, Undergraduate Research Fellowship Mentor

I love the SEEDS program. I think it is possibly the best thing that ESA does, so I was honored when I was asked to be a SEEDS mentor. I’ve tried to always have undergraduate students in my research group, and for six years I directed a program at Arizona State University designed to increase minority participation in ecology. It was a small but successful program. In retrospect, we didn’t really get the critical mass going, and that is one way in which SEEDS is really successful. When you see all those SEEDS students helping each other out, communicating constantly—even when they’re at their home institutions—and having a big rocking reunion every time they get together, you begin to understand the power of this student network! SEEDS attracts bright and committed students from all over the country, who grew up in different cultures embracing different worldviews. The success of SEEDS comes partly from a philosophy of respecting students for who they are, support from all angles (mentors, other students, staff, and the ESA membership at large), and a creative, diverse set of activities that engage students. But the students themselves attract more and more of their young ecologist peers to the program, by sharing their passion for ecology and by being a real community. I’ve now been privileged to participate in two SEEDS events outside the annual meeting: I joined the November field trip to the Sevilleta LTER and University of New Mexico, and I hosted a fellowship leadership workshop in Tempe in early March. I came away thoroughly impressed with the intellectual talents, enthusiasm, and commitment of these young scientists.

My SEEDS fellow, Christina Wong, is in Arizona over spring break to begin working on her project. Already it’s been great working with Christina and Ryan Sponseller, a post-doc in my group who’s another mentor for Christina, to figure out the study design. Christina has been amazing in finding information from the experts and the literature. Her project is part of a larger research effort we’ve just gotten underway, studying the effects of deposition of inorganic nitrogen and organic carbon from the urban atmosphere on desert ecosystems. She will be investigating how nitrogen fixation by biological soil crusts is affected by these inputs. She will be part of a pretty big team of scientists that include faculty members, post-docs, graduate students, and other undergraduates, all practicing a ‘tiered mentoring’ system and learning from one another. I hope it’s a fun and productive summer for Christina. So far my experience working with her has been very rewarding.

My own interests are pretty broad, but generally revolve around understanding controls on the transport, retention, and transformation of nitrogen in aquatic and terrestrial landscapes. I’ve worked in desert stream and riparian ecosystems for almost 30 years now and this project that Christina is working on is my very first terrestrial ecosystems grant. Directing the Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER got me thinking about how urban ecosystems might operate fundamentally differently than their less human-altered counterparts, so with colleagues Jon Allen, Jason Kaye, and Sharon Hall, we developed a plan to evaluate those differences. I still do keep a hand in research on stream and riparian ecosystems, though. We are asking where hot spots of nitrogen retention occur (and what explains their distribution) in riparian ecosystems of the relatively unmanipulated San Pedro River in Arizona. We also translate that same kind of question to the urban landscape, asking how human manipulation of rivers and streams alters their function as transporters or processors of nitrogen.

Living in Arizona (going on 28 years now) in the wonderful Sonoran Desert affords many opportunities to hike in some of the most beautiful country on Earth. I also like to read, I enjoy opera and music in general, I swim and bike as often as possible, and now that I have a young dog, I make lots of visits to the local park (and he has helped me balance my empty-nester life because his needs preclude too-long hours at work). I enjoy traveling, which is a good thing because I certainly do a lot of it, often just a hop over to New Mexico for the weekend. I have two sons in college, a philosopher and an artist (painter), who are my greatest joys.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity, since I’ve got the podium, to make a few observations that I shared with the SEEDS fellows who participated in the Leadership Workshop. In answer to the question, “how can YOU become involved in ESA, and become a leader in the field of ecology?” I give you these nuggets of advice to do with as you will:

First, learn all you can. Insist on quality in your work and that of others who work with you. Ask questions. Get excited. Read the literature. Do what you love.

Second, work with others. Learn how to collaborate. It’s the wave of the future. Be generous with your time. Help other students. Later, help your students and your colleagues.

Third, communicate. Do this at both ends – publish your work, but also read widely. Speak up, but also listen. Develop an ability to really listen along with an ability to give a stellar presentation.

Fourth, develop your style. Be true to yourself, be serious but have fun. As my friend Scott Collins would say, “Take what you do seriously; don’t take yourself seriously.”

Fifth, get involved. Starting with this association of SEEDS, keep in touch. The field of ecology needs your talents and your energy. You are the future.

For more information on the SEEDS Undergraduate Research Fellowship, visit http://www.esa.org/seeds/activities/FellowshipsInfo.php