New Project GREEEN Funding Supports Incoming Graduate Student Chante Hardaway
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EmailJoining the Lisa Tiemann Lab this year, Hardaway will begin research focused on advancing agricultural sustainability
Chante first joined Lisa Tiemann's lab in 2024 as an undergraduate lab assistant. Now that she’s graduated (B.S. in Environmental Studies 2026) she has stayed on to begin her master’s degree studying soil ecology and agriculture.
To start, Chante is working on a new Project GREEEN-funded study, Identifying Michigan soil microalgae, which can build mesic biocrusts, promoting soil health in row crop agriculture. This summer, Chante is sampling plots from the Resource Gradient Experiment at KBS to establish baseline measurements and investigate how previously applied nitrogen influences nitrogen fixation rates and the microbial communities living within cyanobacterial crusts.
As well, at the Montcalm Research Center, sample collection will include one of those low, perpetually damp spots we often see in fields around here. "Comparing conditions inside and outside the wet spot may help us understand how moisture influences cyanobacterial growth and nitrogen dynamics,” Chante says.
Originally from Iowa City, Chante describes herself as "more of a city person” though she does have a deeply felt connection to agriculture through her grandmother's farm. Her path to the Tiemann lab wasn't entirely straightforward. She arrived at MSU as a horticulture major, "I came to MSU because I love the environment," she says. After her first year, she discovered Environmental Studies and quickly found her fit. "What I really appreciated about Environmental Studies was the emphasis on communication.” In addition to working in the Tiemann lab since her junior year, Chante has completed internships at both the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida, experiences that exposed her to a wide range of agricultural research and teaching facilities.
This summer, Chante's day-to-day will be managing sample collections, watering and monitoring experimental growth, and identifying cyanobacteria and associated microbial communities growing from field samples, along with a few side trips to Boston and Iowa City!
"This is very under explored research topic and a new area of focus both here and in India,” said Lisa, who has been preparing this work for some time. "I had an undergrad in my lab (Grace) who did great work this year to get us started, and now Chante will continue this summer—generating an isolate collection and preliminary data for future proposals."
