Virginia Tech gets $3.4 million for Gulf oil spill research

Researchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment have received a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on piping plovers, shorebirds that have been listed as threatened since 1986.

Breeding populations of piping plovers exist in three distinct locations — the Atlantic Coast, the American and Canadian Great Plains, and the Great Lakes — but birds from ...

Wood duck project featured in Science Nation video

Featured in Science Nation:

Sarah DuRant and Dr. Bill Hopkins were recently featured in Science Nation, an online magazine and NSF initiative focused on bringing science to the general population using dynamic and entertaining short films. The program featured the wood ducks project.

Virginia Tech Research Magazine: Maternal effects in birds and amphibians

MOTHERS’ INFLUENCE ON YOUNG WILDLIFE MORE THAN GENETIC

By Cody Trotter and Lynn Davis, College of Natural Resources

Few relationships in life are closer or more important than those between a mother and her offspring. In many wildlife species, mothers raise and nurture their young until they are independent, teaching valuable life lessons along the way. In addition, mothers influence their young based on the habitats they select for nesting, the types of food ...

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