With a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, Jessica Corman is leading a team in developing a first-of-its-kind national environmental database. This tool will help researchers and policymakers study, predict and manage the ever-changing balance of elements in the environment and their impact on ecosystems regionally and nationally. The database, a collection of information from streams, lakes and the organisms that reside in them, will unlock major potential in ecological stoichiometry, a framework that explores the mismatch between available environmental elements and what organisms need. Corman, associate professor of natural resources, is working with partners from the University of Wyoming, Central Arkansas University and Middlebury College.
