[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Fourth Annual Interfaces of Global Change (IGC) Graduate Research Symposium was held on April 25, 2019 in Fralin Hall. The gathering provides a forum for students and faculty to interact and explore connections between labs across campus. The day included 12 oral presentations and a poster session by 24 students.
The symposium highlighted the latest research from the program’s graduate student fellows, whose collective work addresses critical global changes impacting the environment and society. This includes problems surrounding climate change, pollution, invasive species, disease, and habitat loss.
Platform awards for Best Presentation were selected for the top three oral presentations. This year’s winners were:
First Place Angie Estrada, “Amphibian translocations: skin microbiome, body condition and disease status”
Second Place Ernie Osburn, “Forest disturbance alters soil microbial community structure and function in Appalachian ecosystems”
Third Place Stephen DeVilbiss, “Effects of freshwater salinization and associated base cations on fecal indicator persistence and bacterial community structure”[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”29816″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”29817″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Kudos to all the student participants! Your work is truly inspiring, important and impactful to the Virginia Tech community and beyond. Thank you to the GCC Faculty and other researchers on campus who came out to show their support for the IGC Fellows![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1556572530134{margin-bottom: 5px !important;}”]See more photos from the Symposium on FLICKER[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]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[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
With the goal of reconnecting fragmented knowledge, John Little and his colleagues have developed a tiered, system-of-systems framework to help solve complex socio-environmental problems by incorporating models from a variety of disciplines.
A few years ago, Little taught a class on sustainability. “I thought I would look into the sustainability knowledgebase and pick out the quantitative procedures that can be used to evaluate sustainability, so I could teach those. I found that what I was looking for hardly exists and thought that there had to be better approaches to evaluating sustainability,” said Little, the Charles E. Via Jr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.
The idea behind this approach is to simplify each system, or upscale it, in order to capture the essential dynamics. Within each system, there are multiple interacting elements. Systems connect to other systems when their elements interact. For example, agricultural systems often interact with soil and land use systems; the business of farming interacts with economic systems, which interconnect with social systems.
“The idea is to upscale the models to the systems level and connect them together there. There may be some cases where we don’t have a process level model, so we go directly to the systems level,” said Little, an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, housed within the Fralin Life Science Institute. “By connecting them there, we can see what the main drivers are of the problem that we are trying to solve. In a way, modeling is the common language of science.”
Little and colleagues recently published a study in the journal Environmental Modelling and Software. They proposed that a tiered, system-of-systems framework would be most useful in developing sustainable and resilient solutions for complex socio-environmental problems.
Six sectors of a socio-environmental system grouped into the three subsystems of sustainability. Figure courtesy of Erich Hester.
Sustainability incorporates social, economic, and environmental subsystems, and when all three subsystems are in balance, the overall system is thought to be sustainable, or able to be maintained through time. A system-of-systems approach groups smaller, individual systems into a larger one that functions at a higher level than the sum of each individual system.
Little’s approach trades detail for broader knowledge of the entire system; detailed process-level models inform more aggregated system-level models. By including a simplified representation of the entire system, more systems can be incorporated.
Representation of the framework with more detailed process-level models and more aggregated system-level models. The bottom layer represents the real world, while the other four layers represent different systems. Figure courtesy of John Little.
“We need to have a system-of-systems model to capture the essential dynamics of the individual systems. Then we can see what drives the problem and focus on those things. We have to change the way we think and that’s the biggest battle,” Little said. “I want people to take whole systems and couple them. Then we may be able to solve the big problems.”
A representation of the tiered, system-of-systems framework applied to the Chesapeake Bay, which comprises a watershed and an estuary. Figure courtesy of John Little.
By simplifying and upscaling these watershed and estuary process models, they can be coupled with the economic system at a similar spatial and temporal resolution. Indicators reflect the actual state of the system, whereas orientors represent the desired state of the system.
“We have all these different, big-picture problems. The idea is that you choose your problem, your supreme orientor, and the initial systems you want to include in your system of systems and plug them in,” Little said. “Once the initial systems are being successfully simulated, you can add more systems, building complexity.”
In this framework, sustainability is the supreme orientor, or the ultimate goal for the system of systems. When the indicators match the orientors, the system of systems is considered to be in a sustainable state. As more systems are added, such as social systems, the evaluation becomes more comprehensive.
For example, a system-of-systems model could be used to address dead zones – areas of reduced oxygen levels – in the Chesapeake Bay. Cities in the watershed have large populations who need to eat. Fertilizer runoff from agricultural systems flows into the estuary, creating dead zones. How can agriculture and urban development be managed to prevent dead zones from forming? A system-of-systems model could be used to answer this question.
To address complex socio-environmental issues, researchers need to communicate across a wide variety of disciplines. However, collaboration is difficult when experts with different backgrounds cannot easily communicate. Little proposes that specially-trained “systems” experts in each discipline could upscale information from the process to the systems level, and then communicate that information with specially trained experts in other disciplines. In this way, knowledge would propagate more quickly across disciplines.
“Right now, there’s a barrier between all these disciplines – we can hardly communicate with people in other fields,” said Little. “We need to train people to communicate across different disciplines – not every detail, but the big picture. Information at the systems level would propagate very quickly because of these systems experts. They could integrate knowledge and overcome this barrier,” said Little.
Computer scientists are designing the proposed software framework so that it can be used to integrate many system-level models. The software will handle the exchange of information and the visualization of results.
Ideally, communities of scientists would develop models and upload them to a cyberinfrastructure repository. This would allow researchers to share models at the regional scale and use whichever models are needed for their specific problem. However, it is difficult to organize collaboration among such large communities.
“We need specially trained people to connect these models, so they can communicate across disciplines, as well as within their own discipline. They could speed up the propagation of information across knowledge domains,” Little said.
To address this, Little and colleagues received funding from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) to hold workshops to develop design guidelines for the framework. The goal is to make the software as user-friendly as possible to guide researchers in sharing their models and using other models as part of their systems analyses. Four Ph.D. students – including one advised by Little – are implementing portions of the framework as part of their Ph.D. research.
“The Global Systems Science workshop involving Tony Jakeman and Sondoss Elsawah that was held in Blacksburg last March and funded by Fralin, and the seed funding from the Global Change Center, were crucial in getting this going,” Little said. The Global Systems Science Destination Area focuses on finding solutions to critical problems associated with human activity and environmental change, including disease, water quality, and food production.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1555603768586{margin-bottom: 3px !important;}”]Congratulations to several IGC Fellows awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in 2019!![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]According to the National Science Foundation, “The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science and engineering. The GRFP provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering.”[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1555690091981{margin-bottom: 5px !important;}”]
Current Fellows:
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”28246″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Lauren Maynard (BIOL) – studying the chemical ecology of seed dispersal and fruit defense, as well as the multi-trophic interactions among plants, insects, and bats, with Dr. Susan Whitehead in the Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Interactions Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Stephen Plont(BIOL) – currently assessing how stream confluences influence ecosystem function, the fate of carbon and nutrients in stream networks, and ultimately how stream confluences impact downstream water quality, with Dr. Erin Hotchkiss in the Freshwater Ecosystem Ecology Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”28354″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”28247″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Daniel Smith(BSE) – studying how plant roots and soil microorganisms impact stream bank soil resistance to fluvial erosion, with Dr. Tess Thompson in the Watershed Assessment Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Ben Kligman (GEOS) received Honorable Mention! – whose research involves using the vertebrate fossil record and data from the stratigraphic record to understand how and why terrestrial ecosystems and evolutionary patterns change in geologic time, with Dr. Michelle Stocker in the Paleobiology and Geobiology Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”24804″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1555690110093{margin-bottom: 5px !important;}”]
Incoming Fellows:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”29638″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Gaëlle Blanvillain (FWC) – is interested in how rapid environmental changes affect the physiology, behavior and health of endemic populations of reptiles and amphibians, and the consequences at the population level of such changes over the long term. She is working with Dr. Bill Hopkins in the Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Melissa Burt (BIOL) – whose dissertation will likely focus on the effects of habitat fragmentation and climate on ant community dynamics and their interactions with plants that have ant-dispersed seeds, with Dr. Susan Whitehead in the Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Interactions Lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”29677″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”29639″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Abby Lewis (BIOL) – planning to study the effects of changing oxygen conditions on carbon dynamics in lakes and reservoirs, with Dr. Cayelan Carey in the Freshwater Ecosystem Science lab.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you’ve ever spent some time in the Caribbean, you might have noticed that humans are not the only organisms soaking up the sun. Anoles – diminutive little tree lizards – spend much of their day shuttling in and out of shade. But, according to a new study in Evolution led by assistant professor Martha Muñoz at Virginia Tech and Jhan Salazar at Universidad Icesi, this behavioral “thermoregulation” isn’t just affecting their body temperature. Surprisingly, it’s also slowing their evolution.
The idea that evolution can be slow on islands is actually somewhat strange. Ever since Darwin’s journey to the Galapagos, islands have been recognized as hotspots of rapid evolution, resulting in many ecologically diverse species. The reason why evolution often goes into overdrive on islands has to do with the ecological opportunity presented by simplified environments. When organisms wash up on remote islands, they find themselves freed of their usual competitors and predators, which frees them to rapidly diversify to fill new niches. This phenomenon of faster evolution is often referred to as the “island effect.”
Yet, the researchers discovered that physiological evolution in Anolis lizards is actually much slower on islands than on the mainland. What is causing evolution to stall?
The same ecological opportunity that frees island organisms from predators also facilitates behavioral thermoregulation. “Whereas mainland lizards spend most of their time hiding from predators, island lizards move around more, and are able to spend much of their day precisely shuttling between sun and shade,” said Muñoz, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”29648″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If it gets too hot, island lizards simply go find a shady spot. If it gets too cold, they can dash onto a sunny perch. By thermoregulating, island lizards are not just buffering themselves from thermal variation. They are effectively shielding themselves from natural selection. If lizards aren’t exposed to extreme temperatures, then selection on physiology is weakened. The result? Slower rates of physiological evolution. Effectively, island lizards use behavioral thermoregulation like SPF against natural selection!
Jhan Salazar said, “Our results show that faster evolution on islands is not a general rule.” This slower physiological evolution on islands stands in stark contrast to morphology, which has been shown to evolve faster in island anoles. When it comes to morphology and physiology on islands, it seems we are looking at different sides of the same coin. The same ecological release from predators and competition that allowed for the truly impressive amount of morphological diversification that has appeared quickly among island anoles, seems to additionally allow for more behavioral thermoregulation which slows physiological evolution.
“We are discovering that organisms are the architects of their own selective environments,” said Muñoz, “meaning that behavior and evolution are locked together in a delicate dance. This pas de deux tells us something important about how diversity arises in nature.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Scientists like putting data into their own specific boxes. Scientists stack those boxes based on things like significance and trends. Then scientists are left looking at room full of neat boxes; and move onto filling up the next room with more boxes.
To me, it seems like scientists have become an experienced, 5-star rated moving company and we (I’m working on my PhD, so this is my tribe) tend to become disheveled when items do not fit into those neat, stackable boxes. We tend to stay away from the “noise” (less predicative and replicable situations), but in many cases it is in the “noise” where we find the deepest meaning behind our research.
Social Science is the HR department of our scientific moving company. Social science accommodates the uncertainty of human-nature coupled systems and uncovers the values, behaviors, and uniqueness of each group. When scientists start to consider that individuals cannot be put into neat stackable boxes, because that’s not the nature of living things… that can be when we start to grasp the deeper understanding of our research.
Historically, social science and natural science have not been best friends. These fields are often divided by unfortunate terms such as soft and hard science. Today, academics are starting to erase this line and merge the fields to satisfy reviewers of interdisciplinary grants and funding. However; there still seems to be this lack of respect between fields and ultimately this sense that social scientists feel the need to justify their work.
In the IGC Seminar, fellow Bennett Grooms led an interactive discussion on the importance and benefits of linking social science with conservation and ecological sciences. A review paper by Bennett et al. (2017) addresses the scope, successes, and failures of social science as applied to conservation practices. It is written in a way to sell the benefits of social science to natural scientists. Bennet et al. (2017) says “conservation social sciences can be valuable for descriptive, diagnostic, disruptive, reflexive, generative, innovative, or instrumental reasons” for “document[ing] and describe[ing] the diversity of conservation practices”. Proposing the idea that scientists need to alter the lens at which they view research and consider that learned Behavior and Relationshipsmay be more significant than once thought.
Incorporating a social science lens allows us to provide a depth to natural science data, and intrinsically bridge the gap between social and natural scientists. It will take time and effort from both sides, as most noteworthy research does not come fast nor easily. However; think about the research potential out there if scientists thought more about behavior and relationships of groups before categorically putting them in boxes. Perhaps, the frameshift here to consider is why are we putting groups into boxes in the first place?[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”17994″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Lauren Wind is a 2nd year PhD student in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. She studies in the Krometis and Hession labs. Wind spends her time researching the spread of antibiotic resistance in our agricultural ecosystems. In her free time, she can be found enjoying a cup of coffee and writing downtown somewhere in the shade under the red oak trees.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Plastic pollution – specifically microplastics (MPs), which are <5mm sized plastic particles – is now ubiquitous in oceans and rivers. A combination of physical, chemical, and radiative (UV light) processes degrade large plastic materials into small fragments (MPs and even smaller nanoplastics) and leach chemical by-products. Once small, MPs become highly mobile, can adsorb other pollutants (such as DDT, PCBs, dioxins), and can be ingested by biota where MPs can have direct effects on an organism or bioaccumulate. MPs can be found in freshwater systems in concentrations just as high as in marine environments, although much less is known about their transport and fate given that less than 4% of MP studies during the past 15 years focused on freshwater systems.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]We are forming a “Plastic Pollution in Freshwater Systems” working group and are looking to organize individuals interested in collaborating on physical, chemical, environmental, ecological, biological, human health, social science, economics, etc. aspects of plastic pollution. In May, we will meet informally to assess interest and capabilities, then decide on whether to offer a seminar class in Fall 2019 on plastic pollution, and begin developing a strategy to submit a proposal(s) within the next year.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
For more information on plastic pollution in freshwater systems see:
Dr. Cathy Bodinof Jachowski, an Interfaces of Global Change fellow and alumna, accepted a position as an assistant professor at Clemson University in the Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department in August 2016. As you may know, Cathy has spent more than a decade studying hellbenders and she has continued her work on freshwater systems, amphibian and reptile ecology, and conservation physiology at Clemson. She now runs her own lab, the Freshwater Conservation Ecology Lab, and advises two Ph.D. candidates and three M.S. students.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”44992″ img_size=”500×500″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][vc_column_text]Cathy is currently working on a collaborative, interdisciplinary project to study American alligators in human-dominated landscapes. The work is privately funded through Nemours Wildlife Foundation with the help of CEO Dr. Ernie Wiggers, who helped organize representatives from the residential communities where the research takes place. She works alongside a team of state and local biologists, plus community stakeholders. The challenging, but fun, work is meant to benefit both people and alligators by understanding how landscape alterations affect alligator populations and how landscapes can be managed to minimize human-alligator conflicts.
“I have a tremendous team of collaborators that has helped get our project underway, including crocodilian experts Dr. Thomas Rainwater at Clemson, Tom Murphy, and Andrew Grosse,” said Cathy. “They were critical in the successful capture of 35 adult alligators that were fitted with satellite GPS tags, especially since I was pregnant when the tagging took place, so I was unable to help with the heavy lifting.”
The tags record locations every 3.5 hours and have produced informative data, such as the diversity of movement patterns among individuals. Some gators tend to stay in favorite areas while others are more adventurous and spend time in marine habitats. The team is studying how the gators use different habitats in varying land use conditions, such as how they use rivers and streams in contrast to golf course communities.
“There definitely seems to be an element of ‘personality’ and perhaps learned behavior in the patterns we see,” Cathy said.
As part of the study, an experiment is being done to determine if the routine capture of alligators serves as a form of negative conditioning to instill a healthy fear of humans. The team will conduct visual surveys to determine baseline data on alligator habituation to humans and will be capturing and marking alligators from half the study area to see if they are warier after being handled.
“It is so exciting to see our IGC fellows start their own careers, and quite rewarding to see them put the skills they learned from the IGC program to work. Cathy is a shining example of what we hope to foster in our students,” said Dr. Bill Hopkins, Cathy’s advisor and director of the Global Change Center.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]“The IGC program undoubtedly facilitated some of the most valuable learning experiences in my Ph.D. training and fostered an incredible number of strong friendships. For both, I am extremely grateful,” Cathy reflected. “In retrospect I think that some of the greatest benefits of the program came from simply spending time with students, faculty, and professionals outside my own field. Being able to talk to, and work with, individuals that have different perspectives and different values than your own will always be a valuable skill; whether you are teaching, conducting research, writing grants, or communicating science to the public. Two of the three external grants that are funding my current research involve collaborators outside my discipline. Being able to communicate effectively with them to write the grants and execute the project has been critical.”
“My advice to current and future fellows: embrace every opportunity to interact with individuals from other disciplines and practice effective science communication every day.” [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Cathy and daughter, River.
Outside of the lab, Cathy enjoys spending time with her husband David – the other Dr. Jachowski at Clemson – their daughter River, and their dog Molly.
“David and I are not only at the same university – we are also in the same department…our offices are just two doors apart! It was quite entertaining to watch the undergraduates figure out how to refer to each of us. I believe they currently use ‘Mrs. Dr. Jachowski’ and ‘Mr. Dr. Jachowski.’”
Cathy’s daughter was born in July 2018, just before Cathy started her third year as a faculty member. “I would be lying if I said that trying to balance my career while managing such a major life change wasn’t daunting…but we are figuring it out day by day. I named her River because, like the rivers I work in, every new day with her is an adventure, she is beautiful, and she is strong. I am counting down the days until she can snorkel for hellbenders with me.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In addition to her lab work, Cathy is passionate about science communication and the integration of science, society, and policy to promote sustainable change. Before joining the Hokie Nation, Cathy was the environmental education program coordinator at the University of Georgia. She continued to practice her science communication skills by participating in workshops and organizing community outreach events.
“I practice science communication constantly, whether it’s explaining my research to upper administrators, the press, potential and actual collaborators from outside my discipline, or the general public,” Cathy said. “While I still place a high value on outreach, I have been focusing more of my time on research and teaching since arriving at Clemson.”
Clemson is home to the Creative Inquiry Program (CIP), a program to encourage undergraduate involvement in research. Cathy is currently using CIP to involve five undergraduates in the alligator research while enlisting their help to develop a website to educate South Carolinians on alligator natural history and how to safely live in close proximity to them. Cathy hopes to have that website online this fall.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”45000″ img_size=”700×525″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Living during a period when the spread of misinformation is rampant, science continues to provide an objective way to collect and analyze information that can be used by anyone interested in considering it. While I have no control over what individuals might choose to do with the information that my research provides, I thoroughly enjoy the process of helping to answer important questions, creating new knowledge and facilitating transfer of that information to individuals charged with decision making,” Cathy explained.
“In this way, I view myself as playing a small, but important, role in a much bigger process; and I find that very rewarding. With this in mind, I think it is important to go beyond simply publishing my research in academic journals. I find that some of the most effective knowledge transfer occurs through less formal outlets, including final reports written to state and federal agencies, conversations with professionals, and presentations at professional meetings.”
Cathy earned her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in August 2016. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, she received her B.S. in environmental science from Georgetown College in Kentucky and her M.S. in fisheries and wildlife science from the University of Missouri.
While at Virginia Tech, Cathy was a fellow in the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. She worked in the Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Lab with Dr. Bill Hopkins, and her research focused on fully aquatic salamanders called hellbenders and how and why their populations have declined across most of its range. Cathy studied how land use could affect hellbender population density, physiology, and parasitism, which could help explain the decline in numbers.
– Written by Fralin Life Science Institute Communications Intern, Rasha Aridi[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_column_text]
Dr. Bodinof in the News!
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Check out May 2018 coverage by SC news station WJCL about a project to investigate alligator movement and behavior in residential communities along the South Carolina coast by Dr. Bodinof and collaborators:
https://www.wjcl.com/article/researchers-in-south-carolina-working-on-a-first-of-its-kind-alligator-study/20913616[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) tagged along with Cathy Jachowski and Bill Hopkins back in 2015 to learn more about their research with the Hellbender salamander. The VDGIF video below features some rare footage of hellbender egg collection and underwater use of artificial nest boxes![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQj12BGCesY”][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_cta h2=”Follow Cathy’s research via her website and Twitter!”]
Congratulations to Sydney Hope, Cristina Marcillo & Jeff Walters!
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The Virginia Tech Graduate School honored master’s and doctoral degree students from across the university at the school’s annual awards dinner during Graduate Education Week, March 25 – 29, 2019.
Students received awards for service, teaching, research, and top dissertations and theses. Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw also recognized the 2018 Edward A. Bouchet Honor Society inductees and the graduate students of the year.
Doctoral and master’s degree students were nominated for the awards by their colleges.
In addition to receiving their awards at the dinner, the students will be recognized during the Graduate Commencement Ceremony May 16.
Dean DePauw also awarded the Graduate School’s outstanding mentor awards to professors nominated by graduate students and faculty across the university.
2019 Outstanding Doctoral Degree Student in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, Sydney Hope:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”29428″ img_size=”250×350″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Sydney Hope is a Ph.D. candidate in Fish and Wildlife Conservation and a member of the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. Sydney has conducted her doctoral research as part of the Hopkins Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Lab.
Research summary: I study how environmental changes influence animal parental care behavior, and how this affects developing offspring. Specifically, I focus on egg incubation in birds. Many types of disturbances (changing climate, extreme weather, human development) affect the ability of a parent bird to warm their eggs during incubation, and small changes in temperature can have large effects on offspring. One of my major findings is that a small decrease in average incubation temperature negatively affects the ability of wood duck ducklings to exit their nest once they hatch, which is necessary for survival.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]
2019 Citizen Scholar, Cristina Marcillo:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”29429″ img_size=”250×350″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Cristina Marcillo is a Ph.D. student in Biological Systems Engineering and a member of the Interfaces for Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. Originally from Boston, Cristina earned a bachelor’s degree from Saint Francis University. Her project was working with the community of San Rafael Las Flores in Guatemala on drinking water sampling and citizen science.
Project summary: Limited information is available describing point of use water quality in rural Guatemala, particularly regarding geologic contaminants associated with chronic health risk, such as arsenic. In December 2018, I traveled to San Rafael Las Flores, Guatemala to sample household drinking water and conduct a water-use and quality perception survey. San Rafael Las Flores is a rural town adjacent to the Escobal silver mine, which has raised community concerns regarding potential water contamination.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In partnership with a research group in Guatemala (USAC-CECON) and a local community organization (CODIDENA), I planned a water sampling campaign. The goals of this project were to provide water quality information to homeowners, understand their water use and perceptions of service and quality, as well as train citizens to use low-tech water quality field kits, which would enable subsequent community-lead source monitoring. For 3 days in December 2018, a team of researchers and community leaders sampled household water in San Rafael Las Flores for lab analysis at Virginia Tech, ran rapid-result field kits (for arsenic, E. coli, & various physiochemical parameters), and surveyed households. For over 90% of participants, this study provided the first water quality information they had ever received. Community members who sampled in December have continued to monitor household and spring/surface waters since then and stay in contact with myself for technical support. This effort is one part of my dissertation research, which analyzes water policy and contaminant exposures in VA and rural Guatemala. Through this work, I have learned an incredible amount about Guatemala, a country that is part of my heritage, and learned to work with community organizations as stakeholders.
2019 Outstanding Faculty Mentor in the College of Science, Dr. Jeffrey Walters:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”7364″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Dr. Jeffrey Walters is the Harold H. Bailey Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a founding faculty member of the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program and the Global Change Center. His research focuses on avian behavioral ecology and conservation biology, and he has worked with a number of endangered species around the world, most notably the red-cockaded woodpecker in the southeastern United States. In his home department, Dr. Walters teaches graduate courses in Advanced Conservation Biology and Behavioral Ecology and has also taught undergraduate courses in Ethology and Ornithology. In addition, he has co-taught the IGC seminars and capstone course since their inception. He currently mentors 4 graduate students (all IGC Fellows) in his own lab, and serves on an additional 16 graduate advisory committees, including those of 9 IGC Fellows.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_gallery interval=”3″ images=”29416,29431″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1554843453622{margin-bottom: 10px !important;}”][vc_separator style=”shadow”][vc_column_text]Read the full article with all awardees.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
How many earths are needed to support our individual lifestyles? First year IGC fellow, Devin Hoffman, started his IGC seminar by polling the classroom about how sustainably we live. Take this simple test and see how many earths are needed for your lifestyle: (http://www.footprintcalculator.org/). If you’re anything like me or anyone else that was in the IGC classroom, your lifestyle is currently using more resources than what our planet has to offer. If everyone on Earth lived a lifestyle like an average American, we would consume over five earths, a startling total.
But what does this mean? Does this mean the planet is doomed, or that we all need to drastically change our lifestyles? Many IGC students say they strive for sustainable living and want to help create a healthy future for our planet. This leads to the question that Devin brought into our classroom, do we scientists need to live sustainably? Over the course of an hour we continued to circle around a single important topic, credibility. Scientists need to walk the talk. For example, if a scientist studying the impact of plastics on ocean life were seen littering plastics on the side of the road, people might question the validity of their science. This is hyperbolic, but how many climate scientists have carbon footprints that are larger than the general public? As scientists, we often have big footprints because we use laptops, work in large airconditioned buildings, and fly to scientific conferences to help advance our careers. Does this affect our credibility and how the general public perceives or accepts our research? We can all aim to live a little more sustainably, but is there a tipping point? At what point does a sustainable lifestyle detract from our ability to conduct science or advance our careers? Can we conduct our studies without laptops, or advance our careers without flying to at least some of them, or our field sites? I don’t have an answer, but it is clear that a key step for everyone is to walk the talk of our research and rhetoric, and strive for credibility.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”17389″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Brenen is an Interfaces of Global Change PhD student. His focus area is vertebrate paleontology, studying how traits evolve across mass extinctions, and he works with Dr. Sterling Nesbitt in the department of Geosciences.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Each morning, Jamie Morris, water production manager at the Western Virginia Water Authority in Roanoke, receives an automated email from a team of Virginia Tech researchers.
It resembles a weather forecast. But instead of predicting weather, it forecasts 16-day water quality conditions. It provides data about expected water temperatures and mixing, and soon it will include algae levels and amounts of dissolved oxygen in the Falling Creek Reservoir in Vinton.
Eventually, the water authority will begin using this information to determine how to chemically treat the reservoir water ahead of time, ensuring that it is palatable for Roanoke Valley residents. Falling Creek is one of four reservoirs managed by the authority.
“If we have a couple of days’ notice, that’s much better than having to react within minutes,” Morris said.
After more than a year, this unique water forecasting system, developed by a Virginia Tech team led by Cayelan Carey, an assistant professor of biological sciences, is ready to go. And it is drawing interest from groups around the globe who want to emulate it. In May, a representative from a group that manages lakes in Ireland and in other parts of Europe is making plans to visit Virginia Tech to see the forecasting system in action.
The work started in 2018 after Carey’s team received a $1 million Smart and Connected Communities grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a real-time water forecasting system for the reservoir. Since then, faculty and graduate students representing various disciplines have visited the reservoir weekly in the spring and summer and monthly in the winter to install sensors, take water samples, and collect other data.
Meanwhile, Falling Creek has been offline since June because of concern over poor water quality, Morris said.
The spring is an important time of year for tracking water quality. As outside temperatures warm, more algae can develop in water, creating taste and odor issues, and possibly staining.
Before Carey’s team got involved, the water authority’s lab technicians collected water samples by hand at the reservoir and took them back to the lab for testing, Morris said.
Now, “it’s much easier when I pull up a graph” from Carey’s lab, he said.
Sensors that Carey’s team installed in the reservoir collect a variety of information, such as carbon and oxygen levels and aquatic life. This information, combined with weather predictions and a model, is transmitted to a cloud network that water utility managers and scientists can access, Carey said.
A key gauge in this forecast is the likelihood of the lake turning over, which occurs when cold temperatures cause the water layers to break down and mix, bringing iron, manganese, and nutrients from the bottom of the lake to the top. This results in poor water quality, Morris said.
Carey’s team uses a modeling system that Quinn Thomas, an assistant professor of forest dynamics and ecosystem modeling at Virginia Tech, created to study the growth of loblolly pine forests. It translates well to water work, he said.
“We can post our forecast before the next day happens,” Thomas said. “That’s the foundation of the scientific method, making predictions based on inference that you’ve developed over time.”
Carey’s team includes undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty who are ecologists, social scientists, geologists, and engineers spanning the College of Science, the College of Engineering, and the College of Natural Resources and Environment.
Across disciplines, “the whole idea is that every piece feeds into another piece,” Carey said.
For example, Virginia Tech computer science students have visited the reservoir to understand how water data is collected, while natural science students are helping social science students collect data.
“By engaging in the hands-on experience of working together in really applied settings, but in ways that are predictable to making a project work, students are being exposed to different disciplines in ways that would never be possible in the classroom,” Carey said.
Whitney Woelmer, a Virginia Tech graduate student studying biological sciences who works in Carey’s lab, is one of the team members. Her passion for water and the environment stems from growing up in Michigan, surrounded by the state’s many lakes.
“Our job is to say what we think will happen,” Woelmer said of the forecasting system. Her focus is analyzing the presence of the reservoir’s phytoplankton, which are microscopic algae.
Both students and faculty are gearing up for more visits to the reservoir this summer. Woelmer also is leading a new water sampling initiative in the Beaverdam Creek Reservoir, which is managed by the water authority, in Bedford County.
This summer, a Virginia Tech graduate student and a team of other students will survey Roanoke area residents about their water. Michael Sorice, an associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech, is leading this group. They plan to survey 800 Roanoke Valley residents about their water and their trust of a water utility’s work to keep it safe for consumption. The team will go door-to-door with surveys for residents to fill out.
The idea is to understand a community’s response, Sorice said. He also is working with the water authority to identify ways that employees can integrate data from the forecasting system into their daily workflow.
The fundamental question — “How can we design this system so that it is meeting a real need for the water authority?” Sorice said.
Check out May 2018 coverage by SC news station WJCL about a project to investigate alligator movement and behavior in residential communities along the South Carolina coast by Dr. Bodinof and collaborators:
