Graduate Student, Public Relations Liaison Email: piotr.tuczapski25@uga.edu Lab Website: http://research.franklin.uga.edu/dwtrapnell/ Lab: 3503 Miller Plant Sciences Office: 3507 Miller Plant Sciences Research Research Areas: Ecology & Global Change Research Interests: My research interests comprise fields of Molecular Ecology, Phylogenetics, and Population Genetics. It is known that orchids rely on mycorrhizal fungi for growth, especially at the early stage of life, i.e. seed germination. However, how specific is this interaction? Do different orchids have different sets of fungal partners? Is it possible that related orchids partner with distinct fungal communities? Finally, could it allow orchids to co-occur? In my dissertation research I am interested in mycorrhizal associations of the sympatric epiphytic miniature orchids of genus Lepanthes in Costa Rica. More precisely, my work involves estimating specificity of orchid-fungal interaction and its potential role in orchid co-occurrence and niche partitioning. Grants: 2022 American Orchid Society Research Grant 2022 Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award, Botanical Society of America 2020 Tinker Foundation - Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute Graduate Field Research Award 2019 Haines Family Botany Award awarded by the Graduate Studies Committee 2018 Palfrey Student Research Grant awarded by the Graduate Studies Committee 2012 British Ecological Society travel grant for Tropical Biology Association field course in Tanzania Education Education: 2017 Admission to the PhD Program in Plant Biology Department at the University of Georgia 2014 M.S. Biotechnology, Warsaw University, Warsaw. MISMaP Department (Interdisplinary Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences). M.S. thesis research: Analysis of time impact on the quantity of preserved ancient DNA with use of real-time quantitative PCR. 2011 B.S. Biotechnology, Warsaw University, Warsaw. MISMaP Department (Inter-faculty Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences). B.S. thesis research: Analysis of Roe Deer (Capreolus sp.) ancient mitochondrial DNA from Crimea, Ukraine.
