Biogeography Specialty Group Award Recipients

Student Paper Competition Award

An award for the best presentation by a student at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers has been presented by the BSG since 1987.  Beginning in 2001, separate awards were established for Ph.D. students and for Undergraduate/Masters students.  The criteria used to evaluate presentations include the scientific merit of the research, the soundness of the methods, analyses, conclusions, and the clarity and caliber of the presentation. Each student is judged by a panel of BSG faculty.

1987		William Baker	University of Wisconsin-Madison
1988		Barbara Holzman	University of California- Los Angeles	“Recovery of a desert creosote community after fifty years of disturbance”
		Robert van deHoek	Cal State- Northridge	“The California Islands: Alien plants and the theory of island biogeography”
1989		Edward Harvey	University of California- Santa Barbara	“Spatial pattern of inter-island plant and animal colonization in the Galapagos archipelago”
1990		Keith Hadley	University of Colorado-Boulder	“Stand response to repeated insect disturbance in the montane forests of Rocky Mountain National Park”
1991		Mark Cowell	University of Georgia	“Environmental gradients in secondary forests of the Georgia piedmont”
1992		Joy Nystrom Mast	University of Colorado	“A dendrochronological method of studying tree mortality patterns”
1993		Scott Mensing	University of California-Berkeley
1994		Philip Keating	University of Colorado-Boulder	“Biogeography and disturbance ecology of upper montane ecosystems in the southern Ecuadorian Andes”
		Kat Mulqueen	Montana State University	“Breeding bird populations in logged and unlogged forest stands in southwestern Montana”
1995		Katrina Moser	McMasterUniversity	“A paleolimnological investigation of forest fires in northern Alberta, Canada”
1996		Karen Arabas	Pennsylvania State University	“Results of prescribed fire on eastern serpentine barrens forests”
1997		Amy Richert	University of Nebraska	“Spatial analysis of whooping crane habitat in Nebraska”
1998		Laurie Grigg	University of Oregon	“Late-glacial climate and vegetation changes in Oregon”
1999		Susy Svatek Ziegler	University of Wisconsin-Madison	“Natural disturbance regime of hemlock-hardwood forests in Adirondack Park”
2000		Mike Pisaric	Queens University	“Holocene treeline changes in northern British Columbia from pollen and stomates”
2001	Ph.D. award	Jonathan Price	University of California-Davis	“The Hawaiian flora as a model for relating evolutionary processes to spatial patterns of biodiversity”
	Masters award	Amy Bloom	University of Utah	“Diatoms in eastern Sierra Nevada lake sediments: Indicators of past climate and environmental change”
	honorable mention	Andrea Brunelle-Daines	University of Oregon	“Holocene relationships between fire, climate and vegetation as recorded from four northern Rocky Mountain sites”
	honorable mention	James Speer	University of Tennessee	“Reconstructing southern Appalachian oak-mast history using dendrochronology”
2002	Ph.D. award	Rosemary Sherriff	University of Colorado-Boulder	“Fire history at high elevation in the Colorado Front Range”
	Masters award	Jacqueline Smith	University of Arizona	“Predicting montane community distribution using classification tree analysis for southern Arizona”
2003	Ph.D. award	Rachel Kurtz	Penn State University	“Impacts of land use change on terrestrial carbon in the Eastern United States, 1972-2000”
	Masters award	Chad Lane	University of Tennessee	“Stable carbon isotopes in sediments as indicators of prehistoric forest clearance in Costa Rica”
2004	Ph.D. award	Jennifer Marlon	University of Oregon	“A meta-analysis of charcoal-based fire history records from the northwestern United States”
	honorable mention	Martin Arford	University of Tennessee	“A multi-site investigation of Holocene paleoenvironments in northwestern Costa Rica”
	honorable mention	Shelley Rayback	University of British Columbia	“Reconstructing summer temperature for Hot Weather Creek and Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada”
	Masters award	Paul Reyerson	St. Cloud State University	“Phytolith-based reconstructions of the Last Glacial Maximum paleograssland vegetation densities in Washington State”
	honorable mention	Peter Gogol	University of Kansas	“Association of soil moisture and leaf litter moisture with nymphal deer tick ( Ixodes scapularis Say) activity”
2005	Ph.D. award	Jason Sibold	University of  Colorado- Boulder	“Influences of Pacific (ENSO and PDO) and Atlantic (AMO) Ocean climate drivers on subalpine zone fire occurrence in the Colorado Front Range”
	honorable mention	Rebecca Rowe	University of Chicago	“Changes in community composition over time: response to changes in land use or climate?”
	Masters award	Crystal Kolden	University of Nevada-Reno	“Climatic variability, fuel conditions, and prescribed fire: Impacts and obstacles”
	honorable mention	Evan Larsen	University of Tennessee	“Variations in fire regimes of whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) Forests in the Lolo National Forest, Montana, USA: Range of variability and management implications”
	honorable mention	Zachary Taylor	University of Tennessee	“Environmental history at Laguna Yaguarú , Bolivia: Evidence from pollen, stable carbon isotopes, and an embedded mineral facies”
2006	Ph.D. award	Kevin Anchukaitis	University of Arizona	“Calibrating annual isotope chronologies in Ocotea tenera (Lauraceae) from the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica”
	Masters award	Chelsea Teale	Syracuse University	“Holey Ground: The distribution and status of earthworm populations in Yukon Territory, Canada”
2007	Ph.D. Award (tie)	Ryan Danby	University of Alberta
	Ph.D. Award (tie)	Scott Markwith	University of Georgia
	Masters award	Chad Yost	St. Cloud State University
	Poster award	Neil Toth	Indiana State University

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If you have information to fill in the gaps in this history of awards, please contact John Kupfer
last update: July 27, 2007