Here at Black Hills State University we are actively engaged in research throughout the year. Learn about our posted research projects and check out our faculty research. If you are interested in doing research contact one of the faculty members with the same interest to propose your plan.

Posted Research Projects:

• Conservation of the Antiguan Racer Snake in Antigua, Eastern Caribbean
  by Paul L. Colbert, Nicole Bertscher, and Brian Smith
  The Antiguan racer (Alsophis antiguae) is the world’s most endangered snake. There are less than 100 racers in existence surviving on two small offshore islands of Antigua, Lesser Antilles. One of these is the single surviving natural population... read more.
  
   
• Sensitive Herpetofauna of the Black Hills National Forest
  by Nate Stephens and Brian Smith
  The Black Hills is home to 23 species of reptiles and amphibians, several of which are rare. The United States Forest Service considers four species of particular concern and classifies them as sensitive species on the Black Hills National Forest... read more. 
  
   
• Microbial Inhibition in Response to Treatments of Hydrogen Peroxide and Formalin on Landlocked Fall Chinook Salmon Eyed Eggs as Determined by Scanning Electron Microscopy by Hans Stephenson, Mike Barnes, and Mark Gabel
  Scanning electron microscopy was used to compare microbial growth in landlocked fall Chinook salmon eggs receiving daily 15 min treatments of 1,667mg/L. formalin, 700 mg/L. hydrogen peroxide treatments, or no chemical treatments during incubation in vertical-flow incubators from egg eye-up to hatch. In eggs that were not chemically treated, bacterial numbers significantly increased... read more. 
  
   
• Simultaneous Evolution of Competitiveness and Defense Switching from Toxin Production to Growth-Based Strategies by Tessa Jones, Karl Mechtenberg, Charles Jorgenson, Shannon Kulseth, Katie Valkenburg, Michael Zehfus, Paul Brown, and David H. Siemens
  Currently, many ecologist believe that there is a tradeoff between defense (resistance and tolerance) and competitiveness (growth) (see McKey 1974, Hamilton et al. 2001). In other words, because plants have limited resources an optimal balance must be found between the two strategies. Until recent experimental programs at BHSU, this idea has gone largely untested... read more. 

Other Student Research:

• Brandi Wood traveled in Hawaii with Dr. Steve Anderson to assess the distribution of pahoehoe lava flow surface morphology at Kilauea volcano, and used the results as the basis for comparison to similar flows on the Martian surface. Brandi coauthored a paper presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science conference and two others that were published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Brandi Wood was funded by a Nelson Scholarship.
   
• Paul Colbert worked with Dr. Brian Smith in Antigua in 2001 and 2002. While there, he worked on several projects, including lizard censuses, basic lizard ecology, and lizard genetics. He and Dr. Smith currently have two papers in preparation on this research. The lizard genetics research that Paul started is ongoing in our molecular biology lab. Paul is now a graduate student at Iowa State University.