Conservation & Ecological RestorationMichelle Henson
2023 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
Investigating the Temporal Dynamics of Postfire Soil Community Reassembly in a Longleaf Pine Savanna
Henson will collect soils from prescribed fire sites at The Jones Center at Ichauway to analyze soil fungal and bacterial composition, richness, and diversity. Further analysis will assess the impacts of prescribed fire regimes by investigating the temporal responses of soil community structure and function in an endangered pyrogenic ecosystem. Results will build on foundational concepts of post disturbance community assembly and advance the field by applying a plant-soil microbe perspective to conventional fire ecology.
The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
The Garden Club of America (the GCA) offers an annual Fellowship in Ecological Restoration. Established in 2000 with funds from the John B. Young Charitable Trust as well as GCA members and clubs, the fellowship’s goal is to support research that will advance knowledge and increase the number of scientists in the important field of ecological restoration, the active healing of the land. The $8,000 grant is awarded annually to exceptional graduate students to support specialized study in ecological restoration at an accredited U.S. university. Preference will be given to projects that include field research conducted in the United States. A panel of experts associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the GCA Scholarship Committee.
For the purposes of this scholarship, The Garden Club of America agrees to the definition of ecological restoration as stated by the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER).