Sarah Lindholm, Outstanding Thesis Award
On Thursday, February 7, Sarah Lindholm accepted the Outstanding Master's Thesis Project Award for her thesis entitled A Longitudinal Study on the Floristic Quality of the Emiquon Preserve's Tallgrass Prairie Reconstruction in Illinois. Sarah earned her BS and MA in Biology and a BA in environmental studies at UIS. Dr. Amy McEuen was her master's thesis chair.
Sarah collected plant species data from the five management sites of restored native prairie at Emiquon Preserve in the summer of 2016. The preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy and features a restored functional wetland complex and 148 ha of mesic tallgrass prairie restoration. After adding her work to previous data collected in 2008 and 2012, she applied standard quality metrics to judge the restoration through time and compare sites. Two showed positive progress over the nine-year period, while the other three, likely due to heavy flooding, did not fare as well and even decreased in quality. Her research will help the Nature Conservancy decide the next best steps for management and provide UIS with the data needed to continue a variety of long-term research on the tallgrass prairie.
Sarah now works as an environmental scientist and geographical information systems analyst at Northwater Consulting in Springfield. She is interested in pursuing a PhD in ecology. Great work, Sarah, and wonderful proof of that...
Academic excellence at UIS that empowers students' futures!
