ESS Environmental Science Research Award
Environmental Science Research Award
This award is given to the senior Environmental Science major who, in the judgment of the ESS Department faculty, has done the most outstanding work in environmental science research.
The ESS faculty conferred the Environmental Science Award on Donald “Trey” Grimsley ‘24, in recognition of Trey’s research with Virginia Matzek on physiological water-use efficiency in riparian trees. The research seeks to understand if native species that are planted along California rivers and streams for floodplain restoration differ in their inherent water-use efficiency, a measure akin to drought tolerance. If so, restoration practices might change to favor a higher proportion of efficient species in planting mixes in order to save on irrigation at planting, as well as prepare riparian forests for longer and more intense periods of drought.
Trey did field, greenhouse, and laboratory studies to answer these questions. In August 2023, he and co-researcher Leonie Casper sampled canopy leaves from 10 woody riparian species at restoration sites along the Sacramento River. He learned to use a line-launcher (a sort of giant slingshot) to bring down the living leaves, and a sophisticated gas analyzer to measure leaf photosynthesis. Later, he helped grow the same 10 species in the greenhouse and examined their stomata under a microscope in order to understand how stomatal ratio and stomatal density interact with leaf conductance and overall water-use efficiency.
Trey’s ability to work independently, including pioneering the use of the stomatal leaf-peel technique in the Matzek Lab, shows his exceptional promise as a researcher. After presenting his results this summer at the Ecological Society of America meetings in Long Beach he will be headed for a master’s program in ecology at the University of Georgia.
Trey and co-researcher Leonie Casper ‘25 take photosynthesis and water-use efficiency measurements on an arroyo willow at a restoration site along the Sacramento River.
Trey is making some of the very first measurements of stomatal density in California native riparian trees, with the help of the sophisticated Keyence microscopes in SCDI.
Trey assembles the LI-6400 in preparation for making photosynthesis measurements on riparian trees at the Willow Bend restoration area.