From Classroom Project to Published Study

Gabe Veltri, ‘24, and Olivia Roberts, ‘24, originally collaborated on a two-week research project in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) class on invertebrate zoology and biodiversity science taught by Professor of Biology Dr. Kristin Hultgren.

That project evolved into a year-long, fellowship-funded study that was recently published in the journal Urban Ecosystems and continues to inspire further research into the response of moss-dwelling invertebrates to pollution.

Initially Veltri and Roberts compared the invertebrate biodiversity in mosses on the Seattle University campus with those at Seattle’s Seward Park, discovering the campus had greater abundance of terrestrial invertebrate. With the encouragement and support of Dr. Hultgren, Veltri and Roberts decided to expand their research. This was made possible through the pair receiving the Gary L. Chamberlain Fellowship from the Center for Environmental Justice.

The fellowship is granted to two student projects each year and includes a $2,500 stipend. Veltri’s and Robert’s project, Composition of Moss Dwelling Invertebrate Communities in Southern Seattle: Duwamish Valley vs. Seattle Parks, garnered them the 2023-2024 fellowship.

In May 2024, they traveled to Spokane for the Northwest Scientific Association conference where they presented their research poster, Metals Matter for Mosses: Pollution Effects on Invertebrate Communities.

With discoveries from their lab work done, Veltri and Roberts began drafting the manuscript with their findings. After several reviews and editing rounds, including peer reviews from other faculty, their paper—Ecological impacts of metallic trace element pollution on moss-dwelling invertebrate communities­—was published in September 2025.

“The main conclusion was what we were expecting—moss had more heavy metal contamination in urban areas as opposed to parks,” Veltri says. The abstract of the paper further shares, “macrofaunal abundance and species diversity were significantly higher in park sites compared to urban sites” and the “results underscore the need for further research with larger sample sizes and greater taxonomic precision to better understand the impacts of MTE pollution on urban ecosystems.”

Based on their initial research, the expanded study focused on the moss species Pulvigera lyellii and the impact of heavy metal concentrations or metallic trace elements (MTE). By collecting and analyzing samples, they quantified the biodiversity present in the Duwamish Valley—a region with a longstanding history of industrial activity—and Seattle green spaces.

“I’m a marine biologist, so I've never really investigated the micro-communities inside mosses. It turns out they host a wide array of animals—everything from tardigrades to spiders and snails,” says Dr. Hultgren. “I also had no idea that moss sequestered heavy metals so well. …This makes them a convenient study system to look at the effects of air pollution, which we know is very damaging in parts of the Duwamish Valley.”

In their project description, Veltri and Roberts noted that “this type of research is critical to understand effects of varying biodiversity on ecosystem health, which can be further connected to human health and issues such as classism and racism that are potentially present in various communities.”

According to Roberts, a day-in-the-life of a student researcher varies greatly depending on the stage of the project.

“At the start of the project, we blocked out a two-week period to collect samples from different sites in Duwamish Valley and parks in the Seattle area,” Roberts says. “Then, we moved on to lab work, which was all done on campus. We put the moss samples in different funnels to have the invertebrates swim or crawl out. Once they were extracted, we started doing DNA barcoding.”

With the stipend from the fellowship, Roberts and Veltri purchased crucial lab supplies including equipment for the DNA barcoding and collection tubes. With guidance from Dr. Hultgren as their faculty mentor, the barcoding process took several months as they balanced research with their schoolwork as senior biology students.

“I gave them mentoring and lab support as they planned the study, collected samples, did the genetics work and traveled to UW-Tacoma to do the heavy metal work,” Dr. Hultgren says. “But overall, this was a very student-driven project. Gabe and Olivia really took the lead in most aspects of the study.”

For Veltri, the opportunity to do undergraduate research was a driving factor in his decision to attend SU.

"It was one of the reasons I chose a smaller university. I didn’t want to compete with 300 students in a class to try to talk to one professor,” Veltri says. “Dr. Hultgren was very hands-on and instrumental in making this research happen.”

Since graduating from SU, Veltri spent two summer field seasons doing stream sampling as part of the Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Program. He currently works for the Washington Conservation Corps with salmon habitat restoration.

Similarly, Roberts appreciates SU’s focus on research and the support and mentorship they received from Dr. Hultgren. Roberts is currently applying for PhD programs in marine biology.

Based on the discoveries of Veltri and Roberts, Dr. Hultgren is collaborating with colleagues at Pierce Community College and UW-Tacoma to develop this study as an ongoing project in first-year environmental science courses.

“This highlights the importance of doing research or internship-based courses at SU as a way to generate and test new research,” Dr. Hultgren says.