GRADUATE ASSISTANTS
Graduate students serve as the “lifeblood” of the research program at the Borderlands Research Institute. With their faculty mentor, graduate students collect and analyze data to help answer research questions posed by natural resource managers and land stewards.
Educational opportunities not only come in the more traditional settings of classrooms and lecture halls, but some of the most effective settings for teaching occur behind a windshield, under a shade tree, or on the side of a mountain. The dialogues and discussions that emerge in these outdoor learning environments will long be remembered by our students.
The Chihuahuan Desert Borderlands offer some of the most scenic outdoor classrooms available worldwide. From monitoring hummingbird nests and migration routes to assessing rangeland health, our students receive a wealth of opportunities working first hand with the natural resources.
Read about our students in our Student Spotlight posts.
M.S. thesis
Project: Carrying capacity, competition, and disease risk to desert bighorn at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos “Lalo” Gonzalez & Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Livestock Tanks for grassland birds
Advisor:
Drs. Maureen G. Frank and Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Using passive acoustic monitoring to estimate Montezuma quail density in the Trans-Pecos
Advisor:
Dr. Ryan Luna
Ph.D. dissertation
Project: Assessing transboundary movements of black bears in southwestern Texas
Advisor:
Drs. Louis A. Harveson and Amanda Veals Dutt
M.S. thesis
Project: Exploring mycorrhizal dynamics in grazed ecosystems: A comparative analysis of rotationally grazed vs. continuously grazed systems on varied soil types
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez, Maureen G. Frank, and Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Comparing precision and scale-transferability of rangeland monitoring methods for grassland restoration in the Trans-Pecos, Texas
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez and Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Seasonal behavior and habitat selection of black bears in West Texas
Advisor:
Drs. Louis A. Harveson and Amanda Veals Dutt
M.S. thesis
Project: Movement behavior and competition of aoudad and mule deer following removal of aoudad
Advisor:
Drs. Justin T. French and Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez
M.S. thesis
Project: Distribution of high-elevation owls in the Davis Mountains, Texas
Advisor:
Dr. Maureen Frank
M.S. thesis
Project: Understanding potential impacts of border infrastructure and activity on the American black bear
Advisor:
Drs. Louis A. Harveson and Amanda Veals Dutt
M.S. thesis
Project: Long-term vegetation change under rotational and continuous grazing in the Marfa grasslands
Advisor:
Carlos ‘Lalo’ Gonzales, Silverio Avila, Clifton Albrecht
M.S. thesis
Project: Evaluate responses of plant and insect communities to various mowing regimes at Fort Davis National Historic Site to draw conclusions about the effects of mowing on local pollinators
Advisor:
Dr. Maureen G. Frank
Ph.D. thesis
Project: Exploring South Texas Vegetation through Remote Sensing Methods, Reworking Forage Species Selection, and Challenging Harvest Efficiency Standards.*
Advisor:
Dr. Carlos Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Dr. Fidel Hernandez, Dr. Bonnie Warnock*
M.S. thesis
Project: Modeling
Advisor:
Dr. Louis Harveson
M.S. thesis
Project: Dietary overlap and temporal resource partitioning of desert bighorn sheep, aoudad, and mule deer in the Van Horn Mountains, Texas
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez and Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Developing monitoring methods to assess the effectiveness of hydrology improvements to retain topsoil using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez, Justin T. French, and Kevin Urbanczyk
Ph.D. dissertation
Project: Understanding recolonization efforts of black bears in the Big Bend region
Advisor:
Drs. Louis A. Harveson and Warren Conway
MS thesis
Project: Using Drones to Compare Differences of Vegetation Structure in Response to Rotational and Continuous Grazing Systems
Advisor: Drs. Carlos Gonzalez, Silverio Avila, and Antonio Cantu
MS thesis
Project: Identifying scalable algorithms for measuring brush impacts on pronghorn habitat at ecoregion scales
Advisor:
Dr. Justin French
M.S. thesis
Project: Migratory Game Bird Overwintering Habitat Assessment Project
Advisor:
Dr. Dan Collins
M.S. thesis
Project: Impacts of Drought and Competition on Mule Deer in the Trans-Pecos Region, Texas
Advisor:
Dr. Justin French
M.S. thesis
Project: Fine-scale habitat use and survival of scaled quail associated with seasons
Advisor:
Dr. Ryan S. Luna
M.S. thesis
Project: Restoration of native vegetation in areas invaded by Lehmann’s lovegrass
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez, Justin T. French, and Louis A. Harveson
M.S. thesis
Project: Space use and disease risk in desert bighorn sheep
Advisor:
Drs. Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez and Justin T. French
M.S. thesis
Project: Treatment of woody invasive plant species in native grasslands and grassland avian community response
Advisor:
Drs. Maureen G. Frank and Carlos E. “Lalo” Gonzalez
M.S. thesis
Project: Using passive acoustic techniques to monitor a sensitive gamebird species (Montezuma Quail)
Advisor:
Dr. Ryan S. Luna
M.S. thesis
Project: Evaluating spatial memory as a driver of black bear resource selection, and movement patterns
Advisor:
Drs Louis Harveson, Justin French and Amanda Veals-Dutt
Interested in joining our team? Visit the Sul Ross graduate admissions page for information on applying to our graduate program.