News and Information
Aquatic Biology Graduate Student Wins Presentation Competition
August 01, 2014
Congratulations to AWRI graduate student Lindsey Schulte, who won first place in the student paper presentation competition at the national Aquatic Plant Management Society meeting in Savannah, Georgia. The title of her presentation was "Potential for herbicide resistance evolution in hybrid watermilfoil", co-authored by her advisor Dr. Ryan Thum.
Lindsey is studying the science and industry of managing invasive aquatic plants. She won the presentation competition at the Midwestern chapter conference and then went on to secure first place at the national meeting. She is studying the potential for aquatic plants to build resistance to herbicides. Eurasian Watermilfoil is an invasive aquatic plant in the Great Lakes region, frequently targeted with expensive herbicide treatments. Not all aquatic plants are weeds, but invasive species like Eurasian Watermilfoil can overtake an entire water ecosystem.
“Lindsey’s doing excellent work…people have not considered the potential for evolution in these plants. It is changing the way we think about aquatic plant management” said Dr. Thum.