Beth Meyer has been spending a lot of time lately hanging out in sinkholes, studying the biological diversity of these unique geologic features and the unusual plant and animal communities they support.
The southern Appalachians are considered a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for a greater diversity of woodland wildflowers and salamanders than nearly any other temperate region in the world. Meyer, a Radford University senior biology major, is working with biology professors Christine Small and Karen Francl on a research project to examine this exceptional natural diversity in limestone (karst) sinkholes at RU’s Selu Conservancy.
“We compared vegetation and habitat conditions in karst sinkholes relative to surrounding upland forests and early successional habitats,” Meyer said. “This is part of a long-term study investigating karst sinkholes as ecological refugia for unique elements of southern Appalachian diversity, including salamanders and rare plant species.”
For her part of the research, Meyer recently was awarded a $500 scholarship by the Virginia Chapter of The Wildlife Society. The Excellence in Wildlife Stewardship through Science and Education scholarship is presented annually to a Virginia college or university junior or senior student who “has the potential to make significant contributions to the field of wildlife management.”
Meyer is the first RU student to receive the scholarship since the Virginia Chapter of The Wildlife Society began offering the award eight years ago.
For the scholarship, Meyer was judged on her GPA, strong letters of recommendation, an essay about the major concerns affecting Virginia's wildlife, her wealth of field research experiences and her instrumental work in helping Francl to establish the newly-created RU Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
Meyer and her fellow researchers found “great and some unexpected results,” she said. First of all, they found a remarkable diversity of calciphilic (calcium-loving) plant species in karst sinkholes, regionally significant species that were nearly absent from surrounding upland forests. Salamanders also were found almost exclusively in forested sinkholes, yet were absent from other habitats. Of particular concern, the researchers found a “significantly higher percentage of exotic, invasive species in sinkholes than in uplands, threatening native diversity in these unique habitats” Meyer said.
Meyer presented her research, "Biotic Diversity of Karst Sinkholes at the Selu Conservancy, Southwestern Virginia," recently at the Virginia Chapter of The Wildlife Society winter meeting, the Big South Undergraduate Research Symposium at UNC Asheville and the RU Research Forum. She received a Faculty-Student Collaborative Grant with Small and Francl in support of this work.
“This has been such an amazing project to be a part of as I have learned so much more actually working in the field than in the classroom,” Meyer said. “I am very thankful to be working with some amazing faculty here at Radford.”
