Shannon Kay

S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources

Wildland Resources

Shannon Kay will be graduating this semester with a degree in Conservation and Restoration Ecology with an emphasis in Applied Natural Resources and a minor in Statistics. She has been conducting undergraduate research with Dr. James Powell from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics since she was a sophomore. She spent the first year learning how to develop models for biological systems and write code using the statistical computer package MATLAB. She then began working on a data set collected by Dr. Fred Knowlton of coyote and black-tailed jackrabbit indices, testing both continuous and discrete models which accounted for a variety of mechanisms to describe the details of the time series. These included density dependence, satiable predation, hierarchical social structure, seasonal coupling, and decadal changes in critical parameters reflecting changing abiotic stresses. She presented her findings at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis undergraduate research conference in Knoxville, TN last October. Shannon also represented the CNR in January at the undergraduate Research on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City.