2023 | Utilizing Community Gardens for Enhancing Local Biodiversity
IGC Capstone Project | Interfaces of Global Change
Utilizing Community Gardens for Enhancing Local Biodiversity
Student Members:
- Prashasti Agarwal, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
- Taylor Fossett, Biological Sciences
Faculty Mentors:
- Dr. Jeff Walters, Biological Sciences
For their capstone project, Prashasti and Taylor led a collaborative effort with local community gardeners to enhance Blacksburg’s local biodiversity. They proposed to build a model for sustainable multi-use gardening, which can be customized to meet many needs of the people, and can easily be adopted in their backyards. They applied skills for working at the science/society interface by engaging local stakeholders (community garden members and managers) to make this project a success. They also created a pamphlet/brochure that displays their model for sustainable multi-use gardening, and disseminated that information to the community garden members. Their hope is that the pamphlet will provide novice gardeners a foundation for any future gardening projects, while enhancing local biodiversity.
The Interfaces of Global Change IGEP provides PhD students with a unique intellectual focus and training.
Each IGC Fellow gains depth in their specific scientific area of expertise (e.g. biology or engineering), while simultaneously gaining breadth in the multifaceted realm of global change and the science-policy interface.
