Reynolds
Community College biology professor Dr. Richard Groover and Reynolds graduate
Donald Cooper (May 2018) have teamed up to work on two of Groover’s summer
ecology and business discipline research projects.
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| Cooper catching dragonflies |
One project
involves the Hollows Golf Course in Hanover County. Groover and Cooper will
research the effects of lake shore management to entice dragonfly abundance and
variety by cutting less of the water’s edge vegetation. Groover states this will
save the golf course the expense of hand trimming along the 12 acre lake, while
an additional benefit for the golf course will be more dragonflies to eat
mosquitoes that might bother the gofers. “The Hollows Research data will
statistically support the outcome of more dragonflies due to this management
practice,” added Groover.
The second
project involves Groover’s three-year study of dragonflies at four of the
National Park Battlefields in eastern Hanover. This study is supported by the
National Park Service. In addition to making a record of all dragonflies
residing in these park sites, Groover and Cooper are looking at the
biodiversity of dragonflies on these protected lands with additional
consideration of economic aspects.
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| Cooper recording data on dragonflies |
"Working
with Dr. Groover has been an illuminating experience with how I conduct
research,” said Cooper. “I have always had an interdisciplinary approach to
thinking and learning, so when I asked Dr. Groover if we could in some way tie
economics to his study of Dragonflies, I was excited to hear that he had some
ideas for us. It's even more exciting that our findings, through the support of
collected data, may help a lot of people in the near future.”
Cooper
completed his studies at Reynolds and has been accepted at the University of
Virginia for the 2018 fall semester. He is a recipient of the Valley Proteins
Summer Stipend program and was also a Coca-Cola Bronze Scholar and was in the
Honors program while at Reynolds.
Groover’s
research is partially funded by a Small Project Grant from the Virginia Academy
of Science.
