GRADUATE STUDENTS
Morgan Bucher (MSc)
Morgan joined the lab in 2021, where she is working on a project that utilizes isotopically labeled leaf litter to assess trophic linkages in streams across the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). She is interested in how food web models and DNA metabarcoding can be applied to make better informed resource management decisions, particularly in riparian areas and aquatic systems. Morgan’s background includes plant and animal monitoring surveys with the USFWS, GIS mapping of sage-grouse habitat, and sustainability programming through student government.
Haley Daniels (MSC)
Haley joined the lab in 2021 as an undergraduate field technician, and she will be starting her MSc in fall 2022. She graduated with an AS in Liberal Sciences from North Lake College and is now pursuing her BS in Ecology for Environmental Science. Her previous experience focuses on Blackland prairie restoration and stream ecology. Haley is broadly interested in prairie and wetland restoration and ecology, and she will be exploring using DNA metabarcoding to examine diets of shore birds for her graduate research.
Kaley Cave (PhD)
Kaley joined the lab in 2021 as an undergraduate field technician, and will continute to work in the lab as a PhD student starting in the fall of 2022. Kaley graduated with her BS in Ecology at UNT in the summer of 2022, and she has experience working in both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Her dissertation research uses eDNA metabarcoding to assess and model the presence of threatened shiner species in the Brazos River in western Texas.
UNDERGRADS
Oriana Silva-Belisario
Oriana is a French and Chemistry double-major student at UNT, and she has worked as a technician in our lab since 2021. Oriana is passionate about sustainability, and is an editor for The Sustainable Age - Student Journal, the first student-led journal based on sustainability in the North Texas area. Oriana is also doing research in our lab that examines the structure and energy pathways of food webs in the surface, spring, and cave rivers of Mammoth Cave National Park. This work will culiminate in her undergraduate Honor’s Thesis, which she will defend in May, 2023.
