National Geographic Society Early Career Grant awarded to Dr. Katherine Glover
Dr. Katherine Glover, a postdoctoral research associate at the Climate Change Institute, is the recipient of an Early Career Grant from the National Geographic Society. The grant will support coring fieldwork and educational materials for a new project in the Upper Midwest entitled “Biogeography of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, Northern Indiana, U.S. over the past 5,000 years.”
Dr. Glover plans to take 8-12 cores throughout the relict Marsh system, which once spanned over 1000 mi2 and was known as the “Everglades of the North” for its rich biodiversity. Euro-American Settlement and resource exploitation irreversibly changed this wetland system. She hopes this will lead to an improved understanding of sedimentation and vegetation change over the past 5,000 years, and inform local restoration and outreach efforts.
Funds will support fieldwork in the Upper Midwest this June, including two students that Dr. Glover will recruit this semester. Part of the project involves developing geography teaching modules from coring results and working with local stakeholders and other geography experts, including Kathy Lamb Kozenski, National Geographic’s geography steward in Indiana.