March 17, 2010

DWU’s spider man awarded grants

Brian Patrick

MITCHELL — It’s a lesser known secret that Dakota Wesleyan has its own spider man.

Brian Patrick, assistant professor of biology, is the new guy on the block – having begun with DWU only this year, his research is commonly linked to include human influences on the environment and biodiversity inventorying – particularly spiders and beetles.

He was recently awarded two research grants which will involve two student workers as he tracks spider species in two separate locations.

He applied for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks Wildlife Diversity Small Grants Program for his research project, “The Spiders of the Fort Pierre National Grassland: Making a Guide to the Common and Unusual Spiders for the General Public,” and was awarded almost $4,000.

“The objective of the grant is to sample a portion of the Fort Pierre National Grassland to find as many species of spiders as possible. Once identified, the spiders will then be photographed and an information sheet will be produced, including the photos, interesting information, and any information on the geographic range of the species,” Patrick said.

The information sheets for the most common (and the most unusual) spiders will be used to produce a small guide to be given to the GFP and the U.S. Forest Service. These guides can then be printed and distributed at the Fort Pierre National Grassland for people to use while they visit.

“This is important because most people don’t know how important spiders are for the grassland ecosystem,” Patrick said. “And an appreciation of the diversity of these misunderstood predators is essential to the conservation of the grasslands.”

Patrick was also awarded $748 this month from Prairie Biotic Research, Inc. for his grant, “Spider and Beetle Diversity in a High Quality Remnant Prairie and a Reseeded CRP Field.”
That grant is to sample spiders and beetles in some remnant prairie and some reseeded CRP land just outside of Mitchell.

“This project hopes to discover whether there are differences in the numbers and types of spider and beetle species found in remnant prairie versus CRP land,” he said. “The goal is to determine whether there are species that could be used as indicators of ecosystem health. If we find them in the prairie but not anywhere else, then they must specialize in the prairie. Thus, finding that species would let conservation managers know to look for this species as an indicator of quality of a prairie remnant.”