Current Graduate Students
Abaye Abebe
Advisor: Rob Payn
abayeabebe@gmail.com
Research Area: Hydrological analysis and modeling in an Earth System Modeling framework.
Byron Amerson
Advisor: Geoffrey Poole
byron.amerson@gmail.com
Research Area: A multi-scale evaluation of the rate and magnitude of water exchange between surface flow and the alluvial aquifer in restored and unrestored river channels
Zane Ashford
Advisor: Cathy Zabinski
Research Area: Impacts of Cropping Systems on Soil Health in the Northern Great Plains
Kaleb Baber
Advisor: Clain Jones
kaleb.baber@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Pulse crop management to enhance biological nitrogen fixation in the northern Great Plains
Thomas "Tommy" Bass
Advisor: Bruce Maxwell
tmbass@montana.edu
Research Area: Considerations of ecological and social interactions in food system development, scale, diversity, management, and vulnerability
Andrew Bobst
Advisor: Rob Payn
albobst@hotmail.com
Research Area: Using Beaver Mimicry Stream Restoration as manipulative experiments to better understand groundwater/surface-water interactions, and transient water storage in floodplains.
Keenan Brame
Advisors: Tim McDermott & Anne Camper
kbrame3@gmail.com
Research Area: Freshwater quality on the Little Bighorn River involving microbial pathogens, their mode of transport through a freshwater system and their anticipated impacts on water quality due to climate change projections.
Peter Bugoni
Advisor: Jane Mangold
peterbugoni@gmail.com
Research Area: Renovating Monocultures of Exotic Cool-Season Grass Seedings to Diverse Multifunctional Ecosystems
Dan Chichinsky
Advisors: Fabian Menalled& Tim Seipel
Research Area: Integration of thistle rust into organic management of Canada thistle
Shea Crowther
Advisors: Kevin O'Neill & Anthony Slominski
swbcrowther@gmail.com
Research Area: Investigating The Impact of the Interaction of the Neonicotinoid Pesticide Imidacloprid and Temperature on Post-Winter Alfalfa Leafcutting Bees, Megachile rotundata
Bryce Currey
Advisor: Jack Brookshire
brycecurrey93@gmail.com
Research Area: Investigating the effects of fire on soil properties and vegetation dynamics in the Missouri River Breaks and Musselshell areas of central Montana.
Het Desai
Advisors: Fabian Menalled & Lovreet Shergill
Research Area: Monitoring and management of problematic weeds in Montana cropping systems
Matt Deyoe
Advisors: Tony Hartshorn & Bill Kleindl
Matt.deyoe@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Determining benthic invertebrate tropic structure on a superfund restoration site using stable isotopes.
Clare Dittemore
Research Area: Natal Origin, Migratory Patterns, and Abundance of the Army
Cutworm Moth, Euxoa Auxiliaris
Hannah Duff
Advisor: Bruce Maxwell
hannahduff8@gmail.com
Research Area: The effects of habitat heterogeneity on crop yield and biodiversity in small grain production systems in the Northern Great Plains. Her work uses profit mapping to identify low-producing areas that can be taken out of production to save producers time and money and create wildlife habitat in agricultural landscapes. Quantifying the economic and ecological effects of midfield islets (refugia) will determine if they provide benefits such as enhanced biodiversity, ecosystem services and farm productivity in our agroecosystems.
Lochlin Ermatinger
Advisor: David Weaver
Research Area: Using the spectral signature of wheat to detect wheat stem sawfly infestation in growing wheat plants.
Mary Farina
Advisor: Scott Powell
mfarina@whrc.org
Research Area: Assessing spatial and temporal variability in Arctic-boreal carbon fluxes using satellite and drone remote sensing.
Zachariah Fighter
Advisors: Jane Mangold & Scott Powell
zachfighter@gmail.com
Research Area:
S. Katie Fogg
Advisor: Geoffrey Poole
s.katie.fogg@gmail.com
Research Area: Simulating hyporheic influences on stream channel temperature
Madison Foster
Advisor: Rob Payn
madisonjfoster@gmail.com
Research Area: Linking diel patterns in the processing of stream nitrate concentrations to stream corridor hydrologic and biogeochemical function in agricultural headwaters
Justin Gay
Advisor: Jack Brookshire
justin.gay802@gmail.com
Research Area: Impacts of Climate Change on Biogeochemical Pathways in Terrestrial Ecosystems
Paul Hegedus
Advisors: Bruce Maxwell & Stephanie Ewing
paulhegedus@montana.edu
Research Area: Data-intensive approaches for optimizing variable rate nitrogen fertilizer, based on maximized net-returns and nitrogen use efficiency, in conventionally managed small-grain dryland agroecosystems.
Kara Hettinger
Advisors: Perry Miller & Tim Seipel
karahettinger11@gmail.com
Research Area: Integrated weed management of perennial weeds (Cirsium arvense, convolvulus arvensis) in organic cropping systems
Skye Keeshin
Advisor: Stephanie Ewing
skye.keeshin@student.montana.edu
Research Area:
I am interested in connections between hydrologic processes and water quality in Montana. One of my projects is in the Powder River Basin in eastern Montana looking at water quality and surface-groundwater connection around a reclaimed coal mine. Additionally, I work in the Gallatin Valley around Bozeman looking at processes of rangefront recharge to the valley aquifer and discharge to spring creeks in the lower portion of the valley. I’m interested in how this surface and subsurface movement of water dictates the introduction and transport of contaminants like nitrate.
Samuel Koeshall
Advisor: Perry Miller
samuel.koeshall@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Investigating intra-field variability of field pea protein and greain yeild across Montana cropping systems, quantifying N credits and soil fertility following long-term legume and non-legume crop rotations in semi-arid cropping systems, and other Montana cropping systems research related to pulse crop problems.
Emma Kubinski
Advisor: Fabian Menalled
emma.kubinski@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Carrots as a Model for Holistically Increasing Sustainability of Vegetable Production
R. Sasha Loewen
Advisor: Bruce Maxwell
sashaloewen@gmail.com
Research Area: The use of on farm precision experimentation (OFPE) to improve management practices in organic grain farming.
Katerina Lozano
Advisor: Robert Peterson & Dan Tyers
lozanokaterina6204@gmail.com
Research Area: Determining food resources available for grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) at moth aggregation sites.
Ian McRyhew
Advisor: Jane Mangold
Research Area: Grassland restoration and pollinator conservation on Tribal lands degraded by annual invasive grasses.
Caitlin Mitchell
Advisor: Stephanie Ewing
caitlin.mitchell@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Investigating the biogeochemical cycle of nutrients through cultivated soils and groundwater-stream systems.
Elizabeth Mohr
Advisor: Geoffrey Poole
elizabethjmohr@gmail.com
Research Area: Simulation and experimental investigation of biogeochemical cycling in flowing water ecosystems.
Colter Mumford
Advisor: Lisa Rew
colter.mumford@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Quantifying the efficacy of management methods to control Bromus tectorum in the Centennial Valley of Southwest Montana
Winifred Nichols
Advisor: Bill Inskeep
winifred.nichols@student.montana.edu
Research Area:
Hayley Oakland
Advisor: Geoff Poole
hayley.oakland@gmail.com
Research Area: Ecosystem engineering by net-spinning caddisflies and associated effects on microbial communities, stream metabolism and nutrient cycling
Elizabeth Reiva
Advisors: Fabian Menalled & Roland Ebel HHD
Research Area: Household Biodigesters: A Source of Biofertilizer
Evelyn (Sale) Rhodes
Advisors: Stephanie Ewing & Ann MArie Reinhold
Research Area: Research Area: How soil influences the fate and transport of aqueous contaminants. Focus on nitrogen, specifically impacts that soil development and fertilization have on groundwater nitrate concentrations, to address the intersection of land management, ecosystem integrity, and human health in the Northern Great Plains and beyond.
Rich Schonenberg
Advisor: Tony Hartshorn
rich.schonenberg@montana.edu
Research Area: Utilizing the 2020 Bridger Foothills Fire as a case study for post fire erosion monitoring.
Lilly Sencenbaugh
Advisor: Lisa Rew
lilly.sencenbaugh@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Effectiveness of traditional and novel management control strategies of Ventenata dubia and Bromus tectorum
Akamjot Singh Brar
Advisor: Fabian Menalled
Research Area: Weed Management in Specialty crops
Meryl Storb
Advisor: Rob Payn
meryl.storb@gmail.com
Research Area: Watershed hydrology stream ecosystem interaction.
Jackson Strand
M.S. Entomology
Advisors: David Weaver & Tracy Sterling
jackson.strand@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Understanding the importance of smooth brome in promoting a Braconid parasitoid that targets the Wheat Stem Sawfly
Henry Stowell
M.S. Land Resources & Environmental Sciences
Advisors: Cathy Zabinski & Eberly
henry.stowell@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Identifying plant growth promoting rhizobacteria candidates to increase oil yields of Camelina sativa, and predicting effects of climate change on oil yields of Camelina sativa.
Morgan Suddreth
M.S. Land Resources & Environmental Sciences
Advisors: Bill Kleindl & Tony Hartshorn
Research Area: Development of rapid wetland assessment strategies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Erin Teichroew
Advisor: Lisa Rew
Erin.teichroew@student.montana.edu
Research Area: Evaluating different management treatments for reducing Bromus tectorum cover and reestablishing native grass species
Madelyne Willis
Advisors: Tracy Sterling & Christine Foreman
madie.willis@gmail.com
Research Area: Microbial analysis of the Taylor Glacier ice core: investigating the presence and possible impacts of englacial microbial activity through time