Last week SAU student researchers gave final presentations for the conclusion of the 2021 Undergraduate Summer Research Institute. Rylie Danner ’23, Jacob Le ’22 and Andrew Powell ’22 spent six weeks collecting tallgrass prairie (the ancestral biome of present-day Iowa) data from roadsides in Scott County. Assistant biology professor Dennis Tarasi, PhD, serves as an advisor for the research project. “Since European Americans began using the Midwest’s rich soil for agriculture 200 years ago, the prairie biome has been reduced to just a fraction of what it once was,” Powell said, a senior biology major and second-year researcher with the project. The team surveyed 60 plots in north-central Scott County, traveling over 600 total miles to determine where the last remnants of the prairie exist. The Iowa Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management program uses the team’s data to assess how it can allocate funding to remove invasive species and help preserve native species to create aesthetic...