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7/11/2007

New Rice greenhouse garners grant dollars
Six-month-old facility is home to several federally funded projects

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News Staff

Rice's new greenhouses were filling up with plants even before the paint was dry, a fact that testifies to the other kind of green they're helping to grow -- research dollars.

PHOTOS BY TOMMY LAVERGNE

Top: Tulane student Morgan Blackburn with tallow tree seedlings. Bottom: Rice Ph.D. student Juli Carrillo examines part of the collection from Rice’s undergraduate plant diversity course.

"We've only been in the greenhouses for about six months, but they're already supporting research programs from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ecological Society of America, the National Geographic Society, the Garden Club of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture," said Evan Siemann, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and chair of the university's greenhouse committee.

The new facility contains five pods, each with its own climate-control and irrigation systems. It's a far cry from Rice's old greenhouse -- the cramped, non-air-conditioned greenhouse by Hicks Kitchen on Campanile Road.

Though most users of the new greenhouses are from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Siemann said that any Rice researcher can apply for space in the facility. The greenhouse committee reviews all requests and awards space based on scientific merit.

"Our department alone has added three new faculty members in the past three years who have landed substantial research grants based, in part, on the availability of this facility," Siemann said.

The greenhouse is home to the teaching collection for Rice's undergraduate plant diversity courses, as well as an array of federally funded research projects, including:

PHOTOS BY TOMMY LAVERGNE

Top: Ph.D. student Chris Gabler  displays an invasive apple snail. Bottom: Baker College senior Rene Flores  prepares a tallow tree seedling.

•    Siemann is investigating whether invasive animal species, like the tropical apple snail, aid non-native plant species like water hyacinth and alligator weed that are invading ecosystems in some Houston-area bayous. He's also conducting a number of studies related to Chinese tallow tree invasions.

•    Nat Holland, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is investigating the mutually beneficial relationships between insects and plants in pollination networks, with a specific focus on ecosystems from the Sonoran desert.

•    Jennifer Rudgers, the James H. and Deborah T. Godwin Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is investigating the roles of plant symbionts and genetic diversity in a range of situations and ecosystems, including the success of native grasses in Texas and the success of native versus introduced grasses in recolonized sand dunes around Lake Michigan.

•    Ken Whitney, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is investigating the role of genetic diversity among Arabidopsis plants in various ecosystems. In addition, he's recently begun investigating genetic transfers between native and native-hybrid species of sunflower in the Edwards plateau region in western central Texas.