Scholarship Talks: Yuerong Xiao, Kekoa Nelson and B’Elanna Pho-Marrujo

Since 1999, our Chapter has awarded scholarships to support California native plant research by graduate and undergraduate students. Recipients of our 2025 - 2026 Research Scholarships will present an overview of their projects during this talk. They include:

Yuerong Xiao, Stanford University, Sally Casey Shooting Stars Research Scholarship “Hydrological and Ecological Effects of Cultural Burning on Native Plant Regrowth in Sierra Nevada Meadows”
Yuerong will collaborate with the North Fork Mono Tribe to explore how small-scale cultural burning, as practiced by Tribal fire practitioners, influences native meadow plant diversity and soil properties. Yuerong will use Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) to trace changes in key bioelements (specifically carbon and nitrogen) in leaf and soil. The goal is to understand how cultural burning affects plant nutrient and soil chemistry, potentially by shifting nutrient cycling, organic matter transformation, and microbial activity.

Kekoa Nelson, University of California, Davis, Don Mayall Conservation Research Scholarship “Prescribed Fire in Serpentine Grasslands of Varying Restoration Management Histories”
Kekoa’s research examines the effects of prescribed fire in serpentine meadows with distinct restoration histories. In areas with high management, active restoration measures – such as hand removal and chemical treatment of invasive species and prescribed fires – have produced high native species composition. In contrast, areas with no intervention or low management tend to have high levels of invasive species. These areas have often experienced cattle grazing and only limited restoration, with some hand removal and/or chemical spot treatments. Given these differing species compositions, the project focuses on removing invasive species and restoring natives in both low- and high-managed plots after a fall prescribed burn.

B’Elanna Pho-Marrujo, University of California, Davis, Undergraduate Research Scholarship “Reopening a cold case: Microbes and rare vernal pool grass germination”
B’Elanna has been investigating a rare tribe of grasses, the Orcuttieae. Researchers discovered that when they included chaff in agar trials, the number of Orcuttiese seeds breaking dormancy increased by about 25%, but they do not know why. In lab settings, B’Elanna is evaluating potential explanations for the improved seed performance in the hope of uncovering ways to increase germination success.

This talk will be live streamed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@CNPSSantaClaraValley - registration NOT required) and on Zoom (http://cnps-scv.org/talk-20260304 - registration required).