Athens, Ga. – Six graduate student affiliates of the River Basin Center have been named recipients of John Spencer research grants for 2025. This year’s awards will provide a total of $10,000 to support a range of projects that contribute to water sustainability and resilience across the southeastern United States and beyond.
Projects that received funding address issues including social and environmental impacts of flooding, efforts to encourage farmers to adopt conservation practices, and the conservation of imperiled species.
“We are especially excited to see an increase in the number of submissions from a growing range of units across campus,” said Krista Capps, associate professor of ecology and associate director of the River Basin Center. “This reflects the many challenges facing freshwater resources, the variety of approaches needed to address these problems, and the strength of water-related research at UGA.”
Capps said that all the projects align with the center’s mission of connecting water-related research at the University of Georgia with societal management and policy needs.
Emily Chalfin, a master’s student in the Odum School of Ecology, received funding for “Habitat use and distribution of the Etowah bridled darter.” Chalfin will conduct stream surveys to determine the microhabitat use of the Etowah Bridled Darter, listed as endangered in the state of Georgia and identified as a species of greatest conservation need in the 2025 Georgia State Wildlife Action Plan.
Kuhelika Ghosh, a doctoral student in the department of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was awarded a grant for “Economic incentive for sustainable groundwater management: A discrete choice experiment in Punjab, India.” Ghosh will survey farmers in Punjab to assess their willingness to accept economic incentives to conserve groundwater.
Monika Giri, a doctoral student in integrative conservation and anthropology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received funding for “Beyond Buyouts: Navigating place and displacement.” She will study the social impacts of home buyout programs, which are an increasingly common disaster mitigation strategy aimed at relocating people and properties from areas considered to be at risk from natural disasters. Her study focuses on the L-536 levee setback project along the lower Missouri River.
Mackenzi Hallmark, a master’s student in ecology with a focus on integrative conservation and sustainability in the Odum School of Ecology, was awarded a grant for “Assessing how information facilitates adoption of conservation practices by farmers in Southeast Tennessee.” Hallmark will investigate how different framings of conservation information influence farmers’ willingness to adopt conservation practices.
Shea Hoffman, a doctoral student in the department of crop and soil sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received a grant for “Spatial variability of buried soil carbon across a Southern Piedmont floodplain of the Oconee River.” Hoffman will assess characteristics of the floodplain at the UGA Iron Horse Plant Sciences Research Farm to predict the spatial distribution of buried soil organic carbon. This information will assist in the management of floodplain soils, which is essential to removing pollutants such as nitrate from the watershed.
Alyssa Quan, a doctoral student in integrative conservation and ecology in the Odum School of Ecology, was awarded funding for “Incorporating Indigenous perspectives on rivercane (Arundinaria gigantea) for riparian restoration after record hurricane floods.” Quan will work with Cherokee researchers and artisans in Yancey, North Carolina, to study strategies for managing rivercane, a keystone species that provides many ecosystem services including streambank stabilization and habitat for native fauna.
The John Spencer Research grants were established in 2017 with a generous donation from Kathelen Amos in memory of her son, John K. Spencer, MS ’16, a student in the River Basin Center and Odum School of Ecology who was passionate about freshwater conservation and beloved by all who knew him. Projects that advance the River Basin Center’s goal of sustainable management of aquatic resources and ecosystems are eligible.
Ongoing support for these annual awards comes from donations. Applications are open to all graduate student affiliates of the River Basin Center in any discipline.