Former Graduate Students
Kathleen Schaeffer (Ph.D.)
Kathleen Schaeffer graduated with a Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Biology in Summer 2023. Her dissertation research focused on the effects of large scale land restoration practices on desert soils in the Chihuahuan Desert. Kathleen is now the program coordinator for the Research Opportunities and Access for Diverse Scientists (ROADS) program at UTEP, an NSF-funded Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates (RaMP) progam.
Jennifer Holguin (Ph.D.)
Jennifer completed her Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Biology in Summer 2023. Her dissertation investigated the impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on plant communities, invasive plant management, and biogeochemical cycling at Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE). CAVE has been modeled to be experiencing increased levels of nitrogen deposition due to nearby oil and gas activities. Nitrogen deposition can negatively impact ecosystems by reducing plant diversity, enhancing invasive plant growth, and can alter critical carbon and nitrogen cycling processes. Jennifer is not a postdoctoral researcher with the USDA Southwest Climate Hub.
Austin Roy (Ph.D.)
Austin graduated with a Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Biology in Spring of 2022. His research involved understanding how small mammals manipulate their environments to affect landscape level changes. Austin's thesis focused on understanding the role of small mammals (voles and lemmings) in nutrient cycling in the arctic. This project involved examining the effects of different densities of small mammals on environmental variables such as soil nutrients, soil microbes, and vegetation cover in three arctic tundra locations (Toolik Lake, Nome, and Utqiaġvik). Austin is currently working as a postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis.
Sydne Spinella (MS)
Sydne finished her Masters research in Spring 2022. Her thesis research was based at one of the 10+ WARM (Warming and Removal in Mountains) international experimental sites that aim to examine the effects of warming and dominant plant species removal in montane ecosystems. In Colorado, she studied how soil microbial responses to atmospheric warming may be dependent on plant community, elevation, and season. Sydne was granted a fellowship at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and received the following grants and awards: UTEP Les and Harriet Dodson Research Grant, UTEP Geology Department Scholarship, UTEP Summer Graduate Education Enhancement Award, Betty Dowse Memorial Scholarship from the Sun City chapter of the Association of Women Geoscientists. Sydne now works as a Senior Laboratory Scientist at the SiREM Laboratory providing knowledge in ecology and environmental chemistry and conducting bench-scale research projects to advise environmental remediation. Her work is published here
Daniela Aguirre (MS)
Daniela graduated with a MS in 2019. Her project focused on changes in tundra vegetation resulting from climate change. She looked at the effects increasing shrubs are having on alpine and arctic tundra. Although shrubs are part of the native tundra vegetation, they have recently been increasing in both size and cover due to increasing nutrient availability in the soil resulting from climate warming. We chose to find out more about the effects of climate change in the tundra because the climate is changing more rapidly there than in any other parts of the globe. You can read about her work here and here
Alejandro Benhumea (MS)
Alejandro graduated with his MS in Biology in 2018. His research focused on a phenomena, termed the “greening of the Arctic”, an increase in vegetation productivity in northern ecosystems partially created by an increase in deciduous shrub growth in arctic and alpine tundra, which has the potential to alter habitat for animals, permafrost thaw, carbon storage, and soil ecosystem properties and processes. His project focuses on the mechanism in which shrubs alter ecosystem functioning, from either through their biophysical structure or increased litter deposits, using an experiment on a alpine plateau in the southwest Yukon, Canada.
Former Undergraduate Students
2022 Elisa Blanco, Priscilla Castaneda (REU), Alonso Delgado, Caleb Molinar, Eric Orozco, Kristopher Torres
2021 Jose Gaxiola, Dariana Gutierrez, Valerie Maldonado, Diana Marquez, Kate Merrill (REU)
2020 Michael Bush, Dania Chairez, Mariana Lafon
2019 Allison Druckman, Calliope Esparza, Anna Maxwell, Erick Rodriguez, Carina Sanchez, Chance Seliskar, Tristan
Chavez-Poeschel
2018 Isabelle Asaff, Ricardo Alvarez, Nikki Donegan, Esmerelda Duenez, Rebecca Dunkleburger (REU), Adam Castillo,
Sonia Leonardo (REU), Violeta Mendoza Martinez, Cynthia-Rae Moreno, Crystal Noriega, Linda Raulston
Gonzales, Jennifer Holguin, William Maravilla, Bailey Reader, Isabel Torres, Max Zaret (REU)
Mackenize, Samantha Pena, Scott Reza, Kathleen Schaeffer, Isaac Silvestre, Xavier Soto (REU), Isaac Tilley
2015 Daniela Aguirre, Jacqueline Alfaro, Anna Crofts, Luis Del Val, Eleanor Keats (REU), Mayra Melendez, Daniel Morrow,
Allison Nawman, Kathleen Roman (REU)
2021 Jose Gaxiola, Dariana Gutierrez, Valerie Maldonado, Diana Marquez, Kate Merrill (REU)
2020 Michael Bush, Dania Chairez, Mariana Lafon
2019 Allison Druckman, Calliope Esparza, Anna Maxwell, Erick Rodriguez, Carina Sanchez, Chance Seliskar, Tristan
Chavez-Poeschel
2018 Isabelle Asaff, Ricardo Alvarez, Nikki Donegan, Esmerelda Duenez, Rebecca Dunkleburger (REU), Adam Castillo,
Sonia Leonardo (REU), Violeta Mendoza Martinez, Cynthia-Rae Moreno, Crystal Noriega, Linda Raulston
- See Violeta's publication from her undergraduate project here: Mendoza Martinez V*, SL Collins, JR McLaren. (2024) Long-term fertilization increases soil but not plant or microbial N in a Chihuahuan Desert Grassland. Biogeosciences 21, 2655–2667, link
Gonzales, Jennifer Holguin, William Maravilla, Bailey Reader, Isabel Torres, Max Zaret (REU)
- See Jennifer's publication from her undergrad project here: Holguin J‡, SL Collins, JR McLaren (2022) Belowground responses to altered precipitation regimes in two semi-arid grassland. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 171:108725 link
Mackenize, Samantha Pena, Scott Reza, Kathleen Schaeffer, Isaac Silvestre, Xavier Soto (REU), Isaac Tilley
2015 Daniela Aguirre, Jacqueline Alfaro, Anna Crofts, Luis Del Val, Eleanor Keats (REU), Mayra Melendez, Daniel Morrow,
Allison Nawman, Kathleen Roman (REU)
- See Mayra and Anna's publication from their undergrad project here: M Melendez Gonzalez*, AL Crofts* and JR McLaren. (2019) Plant biomass, rather than species composition, determines ecosystem properties: Results from a long-term graminoid removal experiment in a northern Canadian grassland. Journal of Ecology In Press DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.13169 Link
- See Kathleen's publication from her publication here: A Darrouzet-Nardi, I Siles Asaff*, M Mauritz, K Roman*, E Keats*, CE Tweedie and JR McLaren. (2023) Consistent microbial and nutrient resource island patterns during monsoon rain in a Chihuahuan Desert bajada shrubland. Ecosphere 14: e4475 link
- See Anna and Dennise's publication from their undergrad project here: AL Crofts*, DO Drury* and JR McLaren. (2018) Changes in the understory plant community and ecosystem properties along a shrub density gradient. Arctic Science doi:10.1139/AS-2017-0026 Link
