VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Hayden Zander, a Valley City State University junior from Killdeer, N.D., has been conducting research this summer with VCSU biology professor Andre DeLorme, Ph.D.

Zander’s research involves documenting the distribution of dragonfly species in North Dakota in an attempt to determine the impact of climate change.

One of the main concerns about global climate change is its impact on the geographic distribution of species. Dragonfly species distributions have been shown to be especially sensitive to climate change. It is predicted that southern species may expand northward and northern species may have their distributions greatly decreased by warming temperatures.

Since current distributions of dragonflies in North Dakota are not well known, Zander is traveling throughout the state collecting and documenting species to help benchmark their distribution.

Zander is conducting his research under the auspices of the Center for Regional Climate Studies (CRCS) at the University of North Dakota. VCSU is an associated institution of the CRCS.

His research is funded by a grant award from the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) pilot program of the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Zander is one of five North Dakota university students selected for an REU grant this summer.

North Dakota EPSCoR is a federal- and state-funded program designed to improve the ability of university and college researchers to compete more effectively for federal, regional and private research grants in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.