In Oregon the fire season typically lasts from mid-May to late September. As the climate changes so do the frequency and severity of the blazes. New generations of scientists are needed to help study the impact these natural disasters can have on the populations of fish and large fauna in the area. However, a less obvious ecosystem that can be affected by the fires is the microenvironment. We’ll hear more about that from this week’s guest Meagan White.
Meagan is a 3rd year M.S. student in the lab of Dr. Ivan Arismendi, a part of the Fisheries and Wildlife Department here at OSU. Meagan originally came to OSU from UC Santa Cruz. Interested in science from a young age, Meagan’s high school biotech teacher connected her with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The rest is history that we have the pleasure of hearing about on Inspiration Dissemination.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on October 19th to hear Meagan talk about how a fire changed her research plans and how being a parent in graduate school has led her on an inspiring path.
Eastern Oregon consists of a multitude of landscapes such as high desert plains, rugged mountain ranges, and sweeping sagebrush steppe. Volcanic plateaus, deep river canyons, and wide valleys carved by ancient floods create a sense of space and solitude. However, despite the arid climate, much of Oregon’s agriculture thrives here. Supported by rivers and aquifers, farmers produce wheat, alfalfa, and hay and ranchers raise cattle and other livestock. Small farming and ranching communities anchor the area, where traditional agricultural practices blend with newer practices of sustainable land management and dryland farming.
But what happens when the rich agricultural landscape meets the rugged and wild natural ecosystems of eastern Oregon? Fourth year PhD student Lara Mengak aims to answer some of these questions. Her dissertation work is trying to understand what social and ecological threats impact ranchers in Oregon. What kinds of conflicts exist between natural predators, such as wolves, and livestock? What are the best ways to mitigate these conflicts? How do we manage landscapes to support wildlife conservation and agriculture? How do these things vary as a function of climate change or drought?
Lara at her field site in eastern Oregon, Starkey Experimental Forest and Range.
Lara’s work is unique in that she aims to blend social science and field-based ecological research to develop a deep understanding of human-wildlife conflict in eastern Oregon. Her surveys have brought in over 700 responses from ranchers across the entire state. In addition to these types of data, she spent two field seasons collecting data in the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range. She uses vegetation data to understand what types of plants are available to grazing animals like elk and livestock, and she also collected scat to use DNA metabarcoding to identify exactly which plant species are being grazed. She describes DNA metabarcoding, a technique that uses short, standardized sections of DNA, called barcodes, to identify species, similar to how a supermarket scanner uses barcodes to identify items in the store.
Lara assisting another graduate student in the capture of a Greater Sage-Grouse.
Lara had a variety of experience before starting her doctoral degree at Oregon State University. Originally from Georgia, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia. She received her master’s degree at Virginia Tech in 2018, and has also worked as a research technician at various field sites across the country. She spent two years in Anchorage, Alaska, working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as a Wildlife Biologist. We are so excited to talk to Lara about her past work experiences and her current social and ecological research on October 12th at 7pm on KBVR 88.7, and afterwards, find her episode anywhere you listen to podcasts!
Got to keep those data sheets dry! Lara working on data collection in Starkey Experimental Forest and Range
To many of us inhabiting the Western half of the US, wildland firefighters are the heroes that put their lives on the line to save our lives, homes, and treasured natural landscapes. Behind the scenes however, researchers put in countless hours trying to understand the factors that contribute to forest fires, and the ecological impact that follows. Laken Alles, a masters student in the department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences at OSU, has been on the front lines fighting fires and is now researching fire and habitat ecology in the lab of Lisa Ellsworth.
Laken’s work focuses on the Great Basin in Utah, which is also where he spent the majority of his career wildland firefighting. Nowadays Laken is observing how the implementation of different fuel treatments (fuel in this case being any flammable material in the ecosystem) affect future wild fires, as well as how invasive species like cheat grass can take hold in regions after a fire has burned through. Cheat grass is a highly invasive annual grass, and it is causing unprecedented ecological impacts in sagebrush ecosystems. Fire tends to favor cheatgrass over native plant species like sagebrush, so preventing fire-related invasions has been a major focus of cheatgrass mitigation efforts.
Tune in to 88.7FM at 7PM PST on October 5th, 2025 to hear all about the intricacies of wild fires, invasive cheat grass, and how one goes from the fire front lines to modeling fire outcomes. You can also listen live on KBVR’s website or wherever you get podcasts!
For more info about sagebrush restoration visit sagestep.org
We often hear stories of kelp forests and urchins where urchins are painted as invasive and destructive entities, decimating a beautiful ecosystem. When, in fact, urchins are not invasive and are a natural part of the marine community. The dynamics between urchins and kelp are still being investigated, and we were able to host M.Sc. student Delaney Chabot to chat about urchins in the intertidal and the roles they may play in offshore kelp forest ecosystems.
Delaney is a third year Master’s student and works as a part of the Lubchenco-Menge Lab, which aims to “understand the structure and dynamics of ecological communities and ecosystems in the context of global climate change.” Her research focuses on the intersection between the rocky and intertidal shores across various sites in Oregon. These sites demonstrate a range of kelp forest degradation, with some sites having an excess of kelp, and others experiencing a significant loss of kelp biomass. Often, when there isn’t enough kelp for purple urchins to feed on, they may move inshore, where Delaney is interested in looking at variation in sizes, age class, reproduction, recruitment, community structure, and more.
Delaney and furry friend Ellie, checking out some seastars.
The relationship between kelp forests and urchins is still not fully understood. In fact, there is still some debate on whether urchins will cross certain types of sediments, like sand, to access kelp forests, or alternatively, to move from the ocean up towards the intertidal. These are the kinds of questions that Delaney has been answering in her research. By understanding the types of urchin communities that exist in sites with and without bull kelp, it will help inform conservation of both species and help natural resource managers make decisions.
Delaney, in her natural habitat, holding her study species – the purple sea urchin!
In our episode with Delaney, we also talk about how urchins are often painted as a “villian” in the kelp forest story. However, they are not an invasive species, and are actually pretty awesome little purple creatures that are navigating their environment in the best way they know how.
In her tide pool adventures, and in her time as an OSU Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts (PRAx) Fellow, Delaney worked with Alex Ellsworth, a musician, to create the kelp horn. The kelp horn is an instrument created using dried bull kelp and is a beautiful collaboration between music and ecology. Check out their website (https://thekelphorn.com/) to hear some amazing kelp music!
Where the kelp horn was born!
Delaney also speaks about her experience working as a Teaching Assistant (TA) at Oregon State University and how that reignited a passion for teaching. As she nears the end of her graduate program, she is moving to the east coast to begin a teaching job. Congratulations Delaney! Listen to this episode to learn all about kelp, urchins, and musical seaweed.
Mammals encompass some of the most interesting animals on the planet. We can see how bats have mastered the sky with wings like birds or how dolphins have adapted streamlined bodies for life in the ocean just like fish. The ability to evolve similar characteristics to overcome common problems found in the environment is called convergent evolution and opens our eyes to the fundamentals of how life has changed to face the challenges of our planet. One such trait that is the product of convergent evolution is echolocation, which is the subject of research for our guest on the show this week Serena Frazee.
Serena is a 2nd year PhD student in the lab of Dr. Katie Everson, a part of the Department of Integrated Biology. Serena is an Oregon native from Portland and was initially driven to science by an interest at the intersections of neuroscience and art. However, it was her love of understanding genetics that inspired her to come to OSU and pursue her PhD. Since coming to OSU she has been a part of a few projects, but on the show we’ll get to hear what she’s learned while studying tenrecs, a relative of shrews that are only found in Madagascar.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on May 25th to hear Serena explain how echolocation evolves in unusual places and her fight to change how people view the narrative of gene research. Hopefully she’ll also answer my burning question of “why does everything become crab?”
Nanoplastics are an emerging contaminant and the result of plastics breaking down in the environment. In most cases these particles can be more than 70 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. Their small size means that nanoplastics can easily entire the bloodstream where they can travel to every part of the body. The prevalence of plastic waste mixed with incomplete risk assessment data highlights the importance of further research like what’s being conducted by our guest this week Kelso Arther.
Kelso is a third-year PhD student in the Stacey Harper lab, part of the department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology here at OSU. Their research focuses on understanding how nanoplastics interact with pesticides in agricultural systems. They ask questions like how the presence of these nanoplastics effects pesticide efficacy, spread, and degradation. They’re also looking at how the mixing of nanoplastics with pesticides changes the toxicological profile of both components. Raised in Kentucky, Kelso is the grandchild of hard working coal miners so fighting to keep workers safe from occupational exposure to toxins is in Kelso’s lifeblood. We’ll get a glimpse at how growing up around a proud but dangerous pillar of America’s workforce inspired Kelso to strive and keep workers safe.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on May 18th to hear Kelso break down the complexities of the “nano world”, help us understand nanoscopic soil environments, and highlight how animal models help us answer important questions about molecule’s toxicity. We’ll also get to hear about their journey from undergrad to industry and what drove them to come to graduate school.
If you walk into any grocery store today and find yourself in the beverage aisle, you’ll be able to find all sorts of “prebiotic” sodas touting ingredients like inulin that claim to improve gut health. Many of us are familiar with probiotics and the gut benefits of fermented or cultured foods that contain beneficial bacteria, but prebiotics are a little different. Prebiotics are typically nondigestible fiber compounds that pass undigested through the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract and function as a food source for your gut’s microorganisms.
However, it is unclear what the effects of prebiotics are on the human gut microbiome, and more specifically, how diet influences these effects. This is exactly what Emilee Lance, second year PhD student in the department of microbiology, is aiming to understand. Under the guidance of PIs Ryan Mueller and Tom Sharpton, Emilee is working on understanding how the gut microbiome is affected by prebiotics like inulin, and the impact that diet can have on prebiotic efficacy. Using a gut simulator called a SHIME (The Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem) she is able to totally control the initial microbial environment, diet, and mimic specific regions of the gastrointestinal tract such as the stomach, small intestine and different colon regions.
Emilee Lance with the SHIME (The Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem)
To hear more about the inner workings of those tiny guys in your gut, what they like to eat, and how they impact you, tune in to 88.7 KBVR Corvallis at 7PM PST on May 11, 2025 or tune in wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts!
Announcement: TONIGHT WE HAVE A SHARK SCIENTIST ON THE SHOW!
Meet Jessica Schulte, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Jess is part of ‘The Big Fish’ lab, and guess what—she still has all her limbs! As you’ll hear on the show tonight, this isn’t a Jaws sequel. Sharks are often portrayed negatively in the media, but Jess is here to flip the script. She’ll highlight why sharks are fascinating, misunderstood, and worthy of far more research attention.
Broadly speaking, Jess is studying the movement and foraging ecology of an apex predator: the broadnose sevengill shark. Her work takes place primarily in Willapa Bay, Washington, where—mysteriously—these sharks gather in large numbers. Why they congregate there is unknown, but Jess is sinking her teeth into finding the answer. In fact, little is known about the movement and foraging ecology of broadnose sevengills. Last year Jess co-authored a paper on the first scientifically confirmed sighting of sevengills in the Puget Sound. To uncover more about what they are doing, Jess heads out on a boat 3–4 times each month from March to October and catches (yes, catches) these sharks. Utilizing strong ethical methods, she collects stomach contents and secures tracking tags before safely releasing them back to the ocean.
If you think Jess’s research sounds exhilarating, wait until you hear about her journey to grad school. She served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, became a dive master in Honduras, assists with OSU’s scientific diving program, and has traveled to countless countries. She’s also just an awesome person—so tune in to our chat tonight on KBVR 88.7 FM, May 4th. You can listen to the episode anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including on KBVR, Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else!
For most of the time that biochemists have been studying proteins they have preached the widely adopted dogma that structure equals function. Proteins are macromolecules made of chains of amino acids, and as they are produced they fold into intricate and specific shapes. These shapes or ‘structures’ are critical to the tasks that they perform, like producing energy for the cell, carrying molecular cargo from one end of the cell to the other, or letting ions across the cell membrane. However, over 30% of the protein humans produce has no specific structure. These are called intrinsically disordered proteins, and only in the last 15 years have they been brought into the spotlight of biochemistry and biophysics research (Structural Disorder in Eukaryotes). Hannah Stuwe is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Biophysics, and her research revolves around disordered proteins, particularly a protein from SARS-CoV-2 called the nucleocapsid protein. In her work she uses state-of-the-art techniques specifically suited for studying disordered proteins to understand how the flexibility of this protein changes throughout the viral replication cycle.
Hannah filling an NMR spectrometer with liquid nitrogen.
To hear from Hannah, ID host and this week’s interviewee, about all things NMR, protein, and virus, tune in to KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on April 13th, or listen wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!
From penicillin to aspirin, some of the best known and life changing medications are natural products. To progress science and humanity we need diligent scientists on the front lines helping bring reason and understanding to the natural world. Natural product synthesis is not only a cornerstone of drug development, but it has also changed humanity for the better by allowing science to isolate and/or enhance the potency of certain drugs. On the show this week we have someone who does just that, Evie Starchman.
Evie is a 5th year Chemistry PhD student in Dr. Chris Beaudry’s lab. Her current research focuses on Asterelin A which is known to have some anti-fungal properties. By creating and better understanding the fine details of this molecule Evie hopes to further deepen the understanding of molecules like it. Evie is from Snohomish, Washington where growing up she loved figure skating and (to this day) reading any book she could get her hands on. When she isn’t in the lab you can find her doing anything from white-water rafting, browsing packs at her local card shop, or training for her next marathon.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on April 27th to hear Evie talk about what drives her to keep going in this chaotic world and if we’re lucky, hear about her latest Pokémon card finds.
