SREL Conducts the Annual Graduate Student Symposium for 2025
The 2025 SREL Graduate Research Symposium was hosted on September 4th at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, where graduate students shared innovative work across conservation, ecology, ecotoxicology, plant ecology, and wildlife biology. The day featured a keynote address by Dr. Nick Haddad on biodiversity and habitat fragmentation, followed by sessions on wildlife ecology, ecotoxicology, ecosystem disturbance, and remediation. Talks ranged from wildlife responses to headlights and avian strike risk at airports to mosquito ecology in wild pig wallows, epigenetic aging across species, PFAS release from soils, and much more.
The symposium concluded with awards recognizing outstanding student presentations, including Skylar Nichols for Best 5-Minute Talk on mosquito–flower interactions, Anna Bushong for Best 15-Minute Talk on developmental abnormalities in the imperiled gopher frog, and Sydney Burgy for Best Poster Presentation on PFAS exposure in largemouth bass.
With a packed schedule of presentations, posters, and discussions, the symposium highlighted the depth of graduate student research at SREL and celebrated their contributions to the future of ecological science.