Great Salt Lake (GSL) is an under-explored hypersaline system, a closed environment with a high salt concentration. In 1960, a rock filled causeway was constructed separating the lake into two distinct environments. The north arm was isolated from freshwater input resulting in 30% salinity compared to the south arm’s 15%. These environments contain unique microorganisms called halophiles, meaning "salt-loving," which can be bacteria, archaea, algae, or fungi. Halophiles in the north arm endure several extreme conditions, such as high salt concentrations, desiccation through prolonged periods of extreme dryness, and high doses of ultraviolet light. The south arm, though less extreme, still presents these challenges, and the threat of increasing salinity is concerning here since this bay hosts microbialites, which are rocks built by photosynthetic microorganisms, and their input into the energy of the ecosystem is critical. Salinity influences the species of microorganisms present in these extreme environments. We hypothesize that microbial diversity will decrease as the salt concentration increases over a salinity gradient. Our research focused on the collection of water, microbialites, gypsum and halite samples to analyze and compare the biodiversity found in each arm of the lake. Each was analyzed using various microscopy and cultivation techniques, and molecular methods to assess genetic diversity. Our work may illuminate the impacts of salinity changes in the lake as GSL’s shorelines recede, may help us understand the implications of shifts in microbial communities, and is an excellent analogue for ancient salt lakes that dried up on Mars billions of years ago.

Activity budgets reflect how an organism allocates its time over a day. Time allocation can have fitness consequences and might be influenced by a variety of factors. I will quantify activity budgets of golden-mantled ground squirrels at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory to identify factors influencing time allocation, including the effect of predation risk on time spent vigilant, the effect of presence of conspecifics on time spent alert, and the effect of food availability on time spent foraging. I will collect my own data in the field, recording time spent foraging, alert, vigilant, running, grooming, and interacting, and I will also use existing data from a long-term dataset. To ensure data validity, only subjects that have been observed for 30 days with a minimum of 100 observations per subject will be used. To record my own observations, I will capture and mark squirrels with ear tags for permanent identification, and with unique dye marks on their fur for visual identification. I will conduct one-minute scan-sample observations to note what activity that squirrels in-view are participating in at time of recording. This research is the first of its kind for golden-mantled ground squirrels and will further our understanding of squirrel behavior.

Corn nutritionally contains a low accumulation of complete proteins. A large fraction of the proteins found in the endosperm is zein proteins. Zein proteins are rich in glutamic acid, leucine, proline, and alanine, but lack the important essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan. The opaque-2 (o2) mutation found in flint corn decreases the number of alpha-zein proteins which in turn increases the amount of lysine and tryptophan found in the kernel. In colored corn varieties, such as glass gem popcorn, they have an array of pigments that are red, purple, and blue because of anthocyanins and carotenoids. These anthocyanins contain antioxidative and antimicrobial effects that are beneficial to human health (Khoo et al. 2017). In this research, we are working on three goals. The first is to breed varieties of high lysine sweet corn that will contain the opaque-2 allele mutation. The second is to breed colorful varieties of sweet corn that are aesthetic and high in antioxidants. The third is to introgress quality protein maize varieties into colorful popcorn varieties to make varieties of quality protein popcorn that are both high in lysine and antioxidants. For this study, crossbreeding and visual kernel assortment is used to select for desired phenotypic traits. Protein extractions, SDS-PAGE analysis, and PCR is used to ensure the presence of genotypic traits meeting the research’s goal.