Imperiled frogs are dying off at alarming rates. Here’s what researchers know.

As the longleaf pine ecosystem becomes smaller and wildlife populations become more isolated, amphibians face many challenges. Among these are disease and habitat fragmentation, which are more relevant now than ever. Since April of this year, frogs that rely on these wetlands have been dying at alarming rates in some regions. The amphibian infection and mortality event appears to be widespread, according to University of Georgia researchers and their collaborators.
RBC affiliates team up to explore federal freshwater policy

All scientific research is collaborative, but this group of River Basin Center affiliates exemplified why interdisciplinary work is so important- with compelling results for freshwater policy. The Odum School of Ecology’s Rosemond Lab teamed up with policy experts to evaluate the efficacy of policies to reduce nutrient pollution.
2023 John Spencer Research Grant recipients announced

The River Basin Center is proud to announce that Fabiola Lopez Avila, Carolyn Cummins and Shishir Rao have been awarded John Spencer Research Grants for 2023. Lopez Avila, who is pursuing her master’s through the Integrative Conservation and Sustainability program, was awarded full funding for her proposal on how plastics impact freshwater ecosystems. “Most research […]
Q&A with RBC intern Gabriel Stephenson

Gabriel Stephenson is a first-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Ecology and a minor in Film Studies. He’s working as a communications intern for the River Basin Center this semester and is excited to be a part of this community!
UGA graduate student pursues environmental justice in freshwater science

For Jasmine Longmire, ecological justice feels personal. During her junior year at Georgia Gwinnett College, she experienced a kidney failure that changed how she views her health—and her purpose. She had to take an entire year off, but the scare set into motion her current trajectory. “That thought process of, ‘I’m gonna die,’ shook me […]
Burning questions: The mysteries of pyrogenic carbon and the effects of prescribed fire on soil

When you think of a forest on fire, you aren’t usually thinking about what’s happening in the soil- but graduate student Ali Moss is. The Spencer Research Grant winner and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources student’s research investigates the relationship between prescribed fire and carbon cycling, specifically studying an organic material known as […]
Part 1: On the Road—and the River—with the Ecological Problem Solving Class

Odum’s Ecological Problem Solving course travelled through the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin to receive a whirlwind introduction to problem solving at the intersection of science, society and policy.
A Day in the Life of a Pond: Measuring Small-Reservoir Emissions to Inform Infrastructure Decisions

By 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, Laura Naslund had already spent over an hour in a canoe on a little pond on the east side of Athens, Georgia. Naslund, a graduate student in the Odum School of Ecology and a 2022 Spencer Grant recipient, was finishing up the first field sampling event of her […]
Precision Conservation of Imperiled Species
A tiny, rainbow-finned fish lives in the swiftly flowing waters of Georgia’s Etowah River. Known as the Etowah darter (Etheostoma etowahae), it exists only in the Etowah River Basin, mainly inhabiting the mountain streams of North Georgia. The Etowah darter is only one example of the diverse array of freshwater fish, amphibians, crawfish and mussels […]
Climate and Water Research Slam
Save the date: Climate and Water Research Slam – Thursday, May 12 1:00-5:00 The River Basin Center, the Georgia Initiative for Climate and Society, and the Office of Sustainability have joined forces for a climate and water “research slam” — a series of five-minute lightning talks by faculty and students on climate OR water (or both) […]