MSU Research roundup-Prairie survey -Traveling mannequin-Sky appeal-Missing amphibians

Prairie survey

Ten days of camping at a stretch. Awake with the birds before dawn and alert to the throaty call
of leopard frogs at night. Sound like a dream job? In a way it is, said MSU postdoctoral
associate Robert Bramblett. He and three others are putting in some long field days this
summer and the next one. They’re surveying the fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and small
mammals in 70 warm-water prairie streams and riparian areas in Montana that have never
been surveyed before. The project, funded by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, will
help the agency manage those areas especially when issues such as coal-bed methane
development come up. Bramblett is associated with the ecology department and the Montana
Cooperative Fishery Research Unit based at MSU.

Traveling mannequin

Frankie Jackson is used to traveling the world. A paleontologist at MSU, she’s explored sites in
China. She’s digging in Montana and Wyoming this summer and plans to return to Argentina in
November. But another version of her is making the rounds, too. The Natural History Museum of
Los Angeles County fashioned a life-size mannequin of her, dressed it in her old clothes and
made it part of a traveling exhibit. "Tiniest Giants: Discovering Dinosaur Eggs" is on display
through Sept. 2 at The Field Museum in Chicago. The exhibit focuses on the discovery of
thousands of fossilized dinosaur eggs in Patagonia. Jackson was on that expedition and
attended the grand opening of the exhibit in California.

Sky appeal

The nighttime sky with its salt-shaker spray of stars is an area of science that has universal and
cross cultural appeal, said MSU physics professor William Hiscock. He’s helping to set up
astronomy education and outreach programs at four tribal colleges in Montana — Chief Dull
Knife College, Little Bighorn College, Fort Peck Community College and Salish-Kootenai
College. Each will host workshops for K-12 teachers and tribal college instructors who can then
share what they learn about astronomy with reservation communities. The program, which
sponsored its first workshop June 29 in Lame Deer, is funded by NASA’s Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore.

Missing amphibians

The number of frogs, toads and salamanders is declining around the world. Amphibians are
also missing limbs or growing extra legs. To help assess the situation in the United States, Chris
Wright is involved in a federal project through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The
doctoral student at MSU is using satellite images and various remote technologies to detect all
the wetlands in Yellowstone National Park. He will use that information to create maps for
managers and scientists. The maps will indicate the probability of finding wetlands across every
30 meters of the park. The USGS wants a tool that will eventually help identify the potential
amphibian wetlands in the northern Rockies.

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