Spotlight: Postdoctoral Research Development Grant (PRDG) Past Recipients: Drs. Trace Martyn and Julia Chacon
Receiving a Postdoctoral Research Development Grant (PRDG) can be the beginning for great research. But as Drs. Trace Martyn and Julia Chacon know first-hand, the journey of PRDG-sponsored research doesn’t always go according to plan. Martyn and Chacon were the first postdocs to submit a joint PRDG application for their collaborative work on the “Impacts of seeding spatial arrangement and diversity on dryland ecosystem restoration.” Last year, they intended to plant Arizona rangeland restoration species in different spatial patterns and track seedling emergence and survival in the field. Then a major monsoon season came.
“We actually had a lot of difficulty in the field,” Martyn commented. “Everything was implemented, but because of all the rain, seeds were either washed away or buried by eroded soil which prevented germination.” The team (including Martyn, Chacon, and Drs. Lauren Svejcar and Katherine Hovanes) adapted quickly. They transitioned to a greenhouse study using a concept similar to the one outlined in their original plan. Leveraging their initial aims, the team planted restoration species in pots with different densities, species combinations, and distances from each other (near versus far) to observe how species commonly planted together respond to different neighborhoods and determine how to maximize the success of seed planted for restoration.
“We have completed the greenhouse project and are still processing some leaf and biomass samples,” Chacon added. “We had one of our remote collaborators, Svejcar, fly down and together with local collaborator, Hovanes, and five to seven volunteers collect the data from over 1200 individual plants over an intensive 2.5-week period in December.”
The team continues to meet regularly as they catch up on sample processing and analyses for two potential publications. They are also preparing another grant application using the preliminary data collected from the PRDG-funded project. Despite early setbacks, Martyn, Chacon and their colleagues are confident that their results (and those they uncover in the future) will help inform management practices to improve overall restoration success.
PRDGs provide opportunities for University of Arizona postdocs to acquire the independence necessary to launch new research or gain new skills. “This grant helped us set the foundation for future more complex and larger scale studies,” Chacon said.
“Beyond the novelty of our research, the PRDG has also helped us build collaboration between four female early-career scientists from three different labs, with different backgrounds and skillsets conducting novel research. Doing this project has solidified our collaborative relationship and set the foundation of our future research lines.”
Applications for the 2022 PRDGs are due on March 30, 2022. For more information on eligibility and submission procedures, view application details online.