Libby and Laura had a great time at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, July 9-14, 2017.
Libby presented her talk Effect of coffee management regime on guilds of belowground fungi, and Laura presented hers on Hints at the structure of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community from a
coffee agroecosytem 
Laura Aldrich-Wolfe and Libby Sternhagen will be working on several research projects in and around Monteverde and San Vito, Costa Rica from January to June.
Libby was awarded scholarships from the Organization for Tropical Studies and the Environmental and Conservation Sciences Program and the Graduate School at North Dakota State University to attend the OTS graduate course Field Ecology: Skills for Science and Beyond from December 29, 2016 to January 24, 2017 in Costa Rica.
The Aldrich-Wolfe lab is currently recruiting a Master’s or Ph.D. student in Biological Sciences or the Environmental and Conservation Sciences Program to work on community ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on native and invasive hosts in grasslands of the northern Great Plains from western Minnesota to eastern Montana. Field work would begin in June 2017. We are looking for someone with excellent quantitative and writing skills who would enjoy working as a member of a team both in the field and the lab. Interested applicants should send a cover letter, curriculum vitae with GRE scores, unofficial college transcripts, and the names and contact info for three references as a single pdf file to Dr. Laura Aldrich-Wolfe (laura.aldrichwolfe@ndsu.edu). Review of applications will begin on November 1, 2016.
Libby Sternhagen has signed up to be my first graduate student. For her master’s degree in the Environmental and Conservation Sciences Program, she will be exploring factors influencing fungal community assembly in the rhizosphere of coffee and native forest tree species in Costa Rica. Welcome to life belowground, Libby!
Laura had a great time presenting our work on fungal communities of the coffee rhizosphere at the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Fort Lauderdale, August 8th, 2016.
Fungi in the Anthropocene: Does organic coffee boost belowground biodiversity?
Laura Aldrich-Wolfe, Katie L. Black, W. Gaya Shivega, Riley D. McGlynn, Logan C. Schmaltz, Eliza D. L. Hartmann, Peter G. Johnson, Rebecca J. Asheim, Concordia College
I also attended the Soil Ecology Society Luncheon. Looking forward to recruiting more great researchers to the society.
After a successful bid for tenure and seven years at a small Christian liberal arts college, I have the opportunity to move to a land-grant, student-focused research institution. I will miss many great colleagues and students at Concordia but am looking forward to this new adventure. A big thank you to all who have helped me along the way!
Josh Mollan and Katie Black attended and presented posters at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, April 7-9, 2016.
Katie Black presented results of her bioinformatics work:
The Effects of Coffee Management Practices on Rhizosphere Fungal Communities in Costa Rican Soils Katie L. Black, Rebecca J. Asheim, Eliza D.L. Hartmann, Peter G. Johnson, Riley D. McGlynn, Sydney J. Redmond, Logan C. Schmaltz, Gaya Shivega, and Laura Aldrich-Wolfe, Biology Department, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN 56562
Josh presented results from his senior independent research project on arthropod diversity in native and restored prairies of northwestern Minnesota:
Differences in Arthropod Diversity between Minnesota Native and Restored Prairies Joshua Mollan, Laura Aldrich-Wolfe, Biology Department, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN 56562