Every year, we ask graduate students from across Jornada Research Network (JRN) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)-affiliated institutions to apply for our summer Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The chosen recipients receive funding through support of the US National Science Foundation LTER Program to conduct research at the Jornada. This year, we were able to offer funding to five students who are planning valuable research that will benefit JRN-LTER research themes and goals. Read below to find out more about these graduate students and their proposed research.
Sara Khorramshagol
Sara Khorramshagol is a master’s student in Biological Sciences in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology subprogram at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she works with Dr. Nicole Pietrasiak in the Dryland Microbes Lab. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Azad University, Tonekabon in Iran. Her GRFP research examines how biocrust-forming cyanobacteria respond to heat stress, with a focus on identifying traits linked to resistance and recovery.
Ryan Moore
Ryan Moore joined Dr. Theresa Laverty’s lab at New Mexico State University in spring 2026 as a PhD student in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology. His research within the JRN-LTER will focus on how ephemeral playa wetlands influence bat community structure and activity, as well as the potential role of bats on shrub encroachment dynamics as insect predators. Ryan completed both his B.S. in Fish and Wildlife Conservation (2020) and M.S. in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation (2023) at Virginia Tech. Ryan’s research interests are spatial and community ecology and hydrology.
Samuel Jurado
Sam Jurado is a Ph.D. candidate in environmental physics at the Yale School of the Environment. His research focuses on the meteorology of wind erosion, with the goal of better understanding how elusive and transient weather phenomena contribute to soil loss on rangelands. Through the JRN-LTER Graduate Research Fellowship, Sam will investigate dust emissions across Chihuahuan Desert rangelands to better understand when and where dust is emitted and to provide data supporting the USDA’s next-generation all-terrain aeolian erosion model, AERO.
Alyssa Herndon
Alyssa Herndon is a graduate student at the University of Texas at El Paso. She is currently in the Environmental Science (ESCI) master’s program, but will be transferring to the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Ph.D. program in the fall of 2027 due to her research. Her research will test the effects of grazing on the stability of microbial communities and soil carbon pools in arid grasslands. She is currently at the beginning of her greenhouse experiment and in the early stages of planning her field experiment for her dissertation.
Juliemar Cuevas-Hernandez
Juliemar is a master’s student at New Mexico State University within the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology department. She is advised by Drs. Martha Desmond, Timothy Wright, and Aaron Young. Her research investigates how desertification may impact breeding black-throated sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata) diet and body condition.