Category: Conservation

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Announcements Conservation Educational Outreach IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Science Communication Water

IGC Fellows, VT Stream Team, and New River Land Trust create educational outreach Stream Box

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March 22, 2021

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Members of the VT Stream Team outreach committee, including Interfaces of Global Change IGEP fellows, Abby Lewis & Heather Wander, have created a “stream box” as part of an educational outreach initiative.  The stream box, a beautifully hand-painted mailbox located near the Nature Play Space at Blacksburg’s Heritage Park, is filled with activities and ID guides for people of all ages to learn about Tom’s Creek.  The project is a collaboration with the New River Land Trust, a local non-profit formed to protect farmland, forests, open spaces and historical places in Virginia’s New River region, and their Youth Education program, which also stewards the Nature Play Space at Heritage Park.

The Stream Team Outreach committee initially headed out to Tom’s Creek for a trash clean-up endeavor last fall, but didn’t find any trash to remove!  They instead chatted with a family by the creek to inquire what they might like to see related to environmental outreach in the area.  The family recommended ID guides – they loved to come out to the creek to explore but didn’t have the knowledge or resources needed to identify what they find.  This encounter sparked the idea for the Stream Box project.  The Stream Team group then reached out to the New River Land Trust outreach coordinator, Melissa “Mel” Henry, to pitch the idea and collaborate.  Mel helped with obtaining permission from the Town of Blacksburg Parks & Recreation department, designing educational materials, and also connected the group with Will Lattea, the Environmental Management Specialist for the Town of Blacksburg, who provided photos and resource ideas for the box.

What’s in the Stream Box?  One activity is designed to help kids observe how different sections of the stream move faster than others by “experimenting” with sticks in the water.  Another activity, called “Hear, See, Smell, Touch” asks kids to slowly and carefully make observations about the world around them.  Also included are scavenger hunts, a tutorial for how to use the iNaturalist app, basic ID guides for plants, reptiles and amphibians, and macro-invertebrates that are likely to be observed near the stream.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Substantial contributions to this project were made by Grace O’Malley, Jared Conner, Katherine Pérez Rivera, and Abby Lewis, all from the VT Stream Team.  Heather Wander, Tadhg Moore, and Adrienne Breef-Pilz also helped brainstorm projects ideas last fall.  Funding for the project is provided by the VT Stream Team. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”54887″ img_size=”large”][vc_single_image image=”54905″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”54890″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”54888″ img_size=”large”][vc_single_image image=”54912″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Announcements Climate Change Conservation Ideas

New Restoration Ecology Group welcomes participants

Restoration of native New Zealand plants, New Zealand
August 26, 2020

Friends and affiliates of the GCC are invited to join a new Restoration Ecology Working Group forming this semester. The group will meet virtually every other week, starting the week of September 7, and is open to anyone interested in collaborating on interdisciplinary projects related to restoration ecology. We will spend the Fall term reading literature, establishing rapport, and identifying targets for future work together. Our open-ended list of focal topics currently includes:
  • What to expect from the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)
  • Community participation in ecological restoration projects
  • COVID impacts on ecological restoration
  • Ecological restoration as a public health intervention
  • Creating more dynamic reference models for Virginia restoration
For more information, contact Leighton Reid (jlreid@vt.edu) or Karen Kovaka (kkovaka@vt.edu).
Or, simply fill out the poll to indicate your availability to meet: https://www.when2meet.com/?9609466-25xqn.
Check out Leighton Reid’s blog on restoration ecology while you’re at it!
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Biodiversity Blog Conservation Faculty Spotlight Global Change Science Communication Uncategorized Water

One fish, two fish: merging marine animal tracking with fishing fleet movements

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VT News | August 19, 2020

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated in 2018 that 34.2 percent of the world’s fish stocks were overfished, a worrying trend that has significant impacts on ocean environments and the fishing industries that utilize them.

Satellite technology has increased the capacities of researchers and scientists to collect data about marine animals while tracking the movements of commercial fishing vessels, two crucial drivers in the effort to maintain a healthy ocean ecosystem.

Virginia Tech collaborated with Stanford University and Global Fishing Watch to host “Fish and Ships,” an online workshop connecting researchers from around the world to discuss ways in which the merging of these two data sets might answer critical questions about human impacts on ocean biodiversity and sustainability. Participants brainstormed research approaches on overlapping species habitat maps with the data for national fishing fleet positions and discussed how emerging technologies can better model ocean dynamics.

“We’re in a new age in fisheries management,” said Assistant Professor Francesco Ferretti, of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, who coordinated the workshop. “Just a few years ago we had to rely mostly on what the fishers were telling us. Now we have a huge amount of data from satellites that track marine fishing vessels. From that data we can use models to track, predict, and characterize fishing operations around the world.”

Much of the fishing vessel data discussed was provided by Global Fishing Watch, which used the automatic identification system to track the movements of approximately 70,000 industrial fishing vessels from 2012 to 2016, resulting in the first “footprint map” of fishing fleet movement around the world. This map provides a crucial perspective on both the reach of commercial fishing and what drivers are potentially influencing the industry.

At the same time that fishing vessels are “pinging” data about where they are fishing, electronic tags on broad-ranging fish, such as tuna, swordfish, and sharks, are giving scientists new information about the movements of marine animals across the world’s oceans.

“We’re starting to do overlaps of these two data sets to see how much they cross paths,” explained Ferretti, a faculty member in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “One goal is to develop a landscape of interactions so we can understand the ways that fishing impacts fish populations. From that information, we can go further, perhaps developing guidelines to help manage the fishing industry and provide data that will improve its efficiency while allowing ocean marine animal populations a chance to recover.”

Ferretti notes that workshop participants particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work collaboratively: “This first workshop has been a great success. We created a consortium of more than 70 scientists from academic institutions, national and international management bodies, and nongovernment organizations, all willing to play ball in making the ocean a more transparent place to use resources and benefit from its services.”

The July workshop served as the kickoff meeting; Virginia Tech is planning to host a second workshop to address the inventorying and integration of large data sets and ongoing analyses.

“We are currently taking steps to invite all these scientists to Virginia Tech,” Ferretti said. “While COVID will likely impact our plans, we are considering numerous hosting options, from our Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C., to our marine facilities on the Chesapeake Bay, to our beautiful campus in Blacksburg. The goal will be a full immersion into the technical aspects of the projects brainstormed during the kickoff meeting.”

Ferretti noted that Virginia Tech has a role to play in protecting and preserving our oceans and hopes that the Fish and Ships venture will prove to be a flagship project towards that effort. The Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation is currently bolstering its research and educational opportunities in marine fisheries, ecology, and conservation.

“We are a technical university, and right now the ocean requires technical solutions,” said Ferretti, who is affiliated with the Global Change Center housed in Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “There is a great deal of marine technology being developed to understand our oceans better, and Virginia Tech can play a big role in that domain.”

 

Written by David Fleming

CONTACT:

Krista Timney
540-231-6157

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Categories
Blog Conservation IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Postcards Research

Postcard from a Fellow: Melissa Burt investigates seed dispersal by ants

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By Melissa Burt  |  June 30, 2020

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”50007″ img_size=”400×600″ add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]My original plan for this summer was to spend several weeks at the Savannah River Site in New Ellenton, SC investigating the effects of habitat connectivity on ant community dynamics. This year would have been the sixth (!) consecutive year of annual pitfall trapping for a project in which my collaborators and I are using a landscape experiment to investigate how habitat connectivity via corridors affects ant community dynamics. I also had plans to get started on a new study aimed at investigating the effects of connectivity on ant-plant seed dispersal networks in the same experiment. It was going to be a summer spent watching ants in a hotspot of biodiversity among the Longleaf pines. However, those plans all began to change as travel began to be restricted in March because of the COVID19 pandemic. My plan of spending a couple of weeks each month traveling back and forth from VA to SC was no longer a safe plan. 

Instead, I have switched gears a bit. I have still been observing ants and their interactions with seeds, but I am instead doing that in local field sites in southwest VA as part of a collaboration with Annika Nelson (postdoc in the Whitehead Lab in the Dept. of Biological Sciences). We are generally interested in how global change may impact important species interactions, such as seed dispersal.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]So, we have been visiting sites that occur over a gradient in elevation to measure rates of Bloodroot seed dispersal. Bloodroot seeds are known to be dispersed by ants – the seeds have a fleshy appendage called an elaiosome that the ants eat, but they leave the seed itself intact. Ants that disperse these seeds take the seed+elaiosome back to their nest, where they eat the elaiosome. The seed then gets moved to their trash piles either within or outside their nests. Many early-spring ephemeral plants in southern Appalachian forests disperse their seeds this way! In addition to measuring rates of seed dispersal, we have also been collecting seeds so that hopefully this fall we can measure their chemical composition. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”50006″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]My summer field season has changed in other ways as well. As a result of canceled childcare, I have been spending much more time multitasking my work responsibilities with my parenting responsibilities. Fortunately, I do have some flexibility in structuring my schedule so that I can do both. In some cases that has meant having my two boys with me in the field scouting for ants-dispersed plants. My 8 year-old is now an expert in identifying many ant dispersed plants, while my 3 year-old has found that he is more interested in finding salamanders under stones and logs). In other cases, this has meant working at night or early in the morning so that I can put all of my attention into work or muting my video and sound on zoom if my kids are being particularly loud during a virtual meeting. It’s certainly different than conducting research in “normal” times, but I’m doing my best to juggle it all during this pandemic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”50005″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”50004″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”45243″ img_size=””][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Melissa Burt is an Interfaces of Global Change fellow in the Biological Sciences Department under the advisement of Susan Whitehead. Her research will investigate the effects of human-mediated global change factors, such as habitat fragmentation and climate change, on plant-animal interactions (e.g. seed dispersal, herbivory, etc.) and will aim to connect these effects to community patterns.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Blog Conservation IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Postcards Research

Postcard from a Fellow: Jess Hernandez checks in on her local AirBnB tenants this summer

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By Jessica Hernandez  |  June 22, 2020

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”49937″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]It’s a sticky, humid afternoon in southwestern Virginia. Trucks are spraying manure across a sea of rolling hay fields. I’m downwind and standing in front of a wooden nestbox. AirBnB #73. As I lift the opening of the box, feathery missiles begin dive-bombing me, sharply turning away at the last second and skimming the top of my head. Tree swallows! And by the look of things, their shrieks (‘alarm calls’) are attracting more swallows to dive bomb me. Hurry up, Jess! I peek into the box. Intricately woven nest, bed of feathers on top, four newly hatched birds, two white teardrop-shaped eggs. Noted! I close the box and move on to the next one. One hundred and forty-five AirBnBs to go.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Over the past four years, I have been studying a local breeding population of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) at Kentland Farm. Female and male tree swallows arrive in Blacksburg around late March each year, pair up, and then spend the spring and summer breeding. Contrary to popular opinion, female and male tree swallows seek out mates in addition to their social partner – a pattern prevalent in many bird species. Paternity analyses conducted on tree swallow nests at Kentland Farm have confirmed that there is variation in the number of fathers per nest, with some nests having nestlings sired by one father and other nests having nestlings sired by multiple fathers. My research focuses on understanding the costs and benefits associated with having multiple mates, a question that has perplexed behavioral ecologists for decades.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49941″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In addition to research, another goal in setting up these nest boxes was to promote the conservation of tree swallows and other cavity-nesting birds. Tree swallows, for example, naturally breed in tree cavities, which have been rapidly disappearing as woodland clearing practices increase. Such practices have played a prominent role in the approximately 50% decline of tree swallow populations in the last five decades. While artificial nest boxes are not the solution to helping populations sustainably rebound, they provide much needed breeding cavities. Plus, setting up a nest box is something that can be done by people in their own backyard (see link below). The nest boxes set up by the Moore Lab at Virginia Tech, of which I am a member, have provided breeding cavities for over 2,000 tree swallows, as well as several eastern bluebirds and Carolina wrens over the past four years (2016-2020).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In non-Covid times I would be joined in the field by a crew of high school, undergraduate, and sometimes even fellow graduate students. Instead, I am alone in the field today checking in on the feathery AirBnB tenants. Just me, the smell of manure, and several hundred tree swallows perched on wires or acrobatically flying around catching insects in midair. Field research in the time of Covid.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”49936″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”49939″ img_size=”500×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]

Helpful links:

  • To document the birds you see and add to a collection of data provided by researchers, hardcore birders, and newbie birders alike, check out: https://ebird.org/

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”37637″ img_size=”300×400″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Jessica Hernandez is an Interfaces of Global Change fellow in the Biological Sciences Department under the advisement of Ignacio Moore. She studies a free-living population of box-nesting tree swallows (Tachcineta bicolor) that form social pair bonds throughout the breeding season yet also engage in extra-pair copulations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Blog Conservation Environmental Justice Interfaces of Global Change IGEP

Birding While Black

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From Backpacker Magazine  |  June 4, 2020

Amber Wendler looked the part, mostly. She had the binoculars hanging around her neck, she had her eyes cast upward toward the tree canopy where birds were flitting about, and she had her ears tuned to the sound of their songs.

So when the question came from another person who was up to the same thing, it caught her by surprise: “Are you a birder, too?”

Wendler recalls no ill will from the asker, a white person, but it did reinforce a feeling that Wendler and other Black birders often feel in the outdoors. “In those spaces there aren’t other Black people,” she said. “It’s easy for Black people to feel they don’t belong in outdoor spaces.”

With birding in particular, participation skews white. According to a 2011 study by the Fish and Wildlife Service, 93 percent of birders are white with 24 percent participation across the demographic. Among the Black population, the participation is 7 percent.

The Fish and Wildlife service pins some of this on a lack of access to outdoor spaces. Those living in large cities participate at 12 percent, whereas those in rural areas bird at 22 percent (the average national participation rate is 20 percent).

But the feeling is similar in other outdoor sports. “I’m almost always the only black person in a group of people going hiking,” Wendler said.

It’s with this gap in mind that an online group of Black scientists (@BlackAFinSTEM on Twitter) started #BlackBirdersWeek, a campaign to draw attention to Black people who bird in light of a recent event in New York City’s Central Park where a white woman called the police on a Black birder.

“I’ve never seen so many other people who look like me in nature,” said Wendler, who is a first-year PhD candidate in biology at Virginia Tech. “Increasing the visibility of Black people in nature is important. It’s important for Black kids to see other people who look like them and know they belong.”

For many people, it’s hard to understand why wild spaces are de facto “white spaces,” or that access to the outdoors is limited by anything beyond a simple desire to go into them. But even those people who do go into nature often find themselves feeling like or being treated like outsiders. As Wendler said, “These events happen many times and it just happened to be caught on video this time.”

That’s what @BlackAFinSTEM is hoping to challenge. “There’s a great need to increase visibility of Black people in nature and make spaces welcoming and safe for Black people and bring to the forefront systemic racism in the outdoors and amplify Black voices in the outdoors.”

Importantly, Wendler said, the burden to fix systemic issues like this can often fall to those who are most affected by them, but Wendler said addressing systemic racism everywhere in society requires everyone’s participation.

We can start, Wendler said, by listening to Black people and their experiences, then seeking to be an ally to Black people and “make outdoor spaces welcoming and safe.”

Follow Amber Wendler’s twitter feed @amberwendler.

Written by Casey Lyons

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Biodiversity Conservation Educational Outreach Ideas Science Communication

Science on Tap NRV moves online during the coronavirus pandemic

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | May 1, 2020

As the novel coronavirus continues to proliferate across the world, we are all being asked to do our part in preventing the spread — whether that be wearing a mask in public, maintaining a 6-foot distance from others, or staying at home.

Many businesses have resorted to postponing or cancelling their regularly scheduled events. But one organization, called Science on Tap-New River Valley (NRV), refuses to let the current situation stop them from celebrating scientific thought in the Blacksburg community.

“Science on Tap NRV encourages fun and engaging science-related conversations, and right now our goal is to go full steam ahead as we’ve been doing, with local needs and interests serving a timely forefront,” said Cassandra Hockman, one of the organizers for Science on Tap and a Ph.D. student in rhetoric and writing in the Virginia Tech Department of English. “I think having and engaging in some form of community is really important right now.”

Science on Tap NRV is a monthly event that invites science-inspired speakers, performers, and educators from across the New River Valley to talk about scientific research in a relaxed setting. The goal is to create mutual support between the local and scientific communities through open conversation and a glass of beer.

Around this time of year, the gathering occurs at the lively Rising Silo Brewery, a semi-outdoor farm brewery. But as the events of the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold, the organizers had to decide whether to cancel the event or push forward by virtual means. They chose the latter.

Hockman figured that now is a better time than any to hold a Science on Tap about viruses and viral transmission. In preparation for the event, Hockman collected questions about the coronavirus from the entire Science on Tap community. She then posed those questions to virus spread and airborne disease transmission experts Linsey Marr, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, and Kaisen Lin, a newly minted Ph.D. and former graduate student in Marr’s lab.

“Our events are meant to provide a community space for welcoming, genuine curiosity, as well as encourage conversation between researchers and community members,” said Hockman. “I had seen some coverage about air transmission, but not much, and I also saw Linsey Marr entering these public conversations online. Since I had met with her and covered her work a few years ago, I knew her expertise and public contributions were highly relevant and timely.”

On March 23, Hockman hosted the first virtual Science on Tap via Zoom.

During the interview, Marr tackled questions related to virus survival in humid conditions, viral transmission in small and open spaces, and what it truly means when a virus is “airborne.” And although uncertainties still remain about the novel coronavirus, Marr was very grateful for the opportunity to help clear the air. “We just want to spread good science and help people understand what’s going on,” said Marr.

 

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=e7_xxdtGdvw&feature=emb_logo”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Science on Tap NRV was the brainchild of Katie Burke, a digital features editor for the American Scientist. When she first moved to the Blacksburg area in 2015, Burke was on a mission to find local science communicators. Soon enough, she met Patricia Raun and Carrie Kroehler of the Virginia Tech Center for Communicating Science in the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.

“I noted to Patty and Carrie that there was no science outreach event in Blacksburg at the time, and that events like that are where locals, STEM researchers, and science communicators often can meet and discuss ideas,” said Burke. “Patty and Carrie encouraged me to start one and gave me a lot of the advice, connections, and moral support I needed as impetus to make it happen.”

The first Science on Tap event launched in the spring of 2017 with great success — and an even greater turnout.

“We have had incredible attendance from the get-go, with our first event bringing in well over 100 people and filling up Rising Silo, which indicates to me that Blacksburg really needed an event like this,” said Burke.

Every night kicks off with a trivia game, a comedic routine, or a demonstration. Then, an invited guest scientist speaks about their research, which is followed by a Q&A session.

Over the course of its three years, Science on Tap has featured research about lighthearted topics, such as animal flatulence and scientific humor, as well as more pressing issues like water quality and climate change.

“We’ve had so much fun, and you know, while we were at it, we brainstormed some ways to save the world and make it a better place,” said Burke.

Along with donations from attendees, Science on Tap receives support from the Virginia Tech Center for Communicating Science and the Virginia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi, a nonprofit honor society for scientists and engineers. Both organizations are large proponents of science outreach, and they provide a generous amount of support by promoting events, bringing in speakers, and supplying volunteers.

“Our guest speakers are generally volunteers, and the show wouldn’t exist without researchers and artists willing to come in front of a bunch of people in a bar,” said Burke. “We are, by nature, a pretty low-budget operation, and much of what we do is volunteer-driven. That allows us to offer the event for free and open to everyone.”

For now, Science on Tap will continue to follow a virtual layout to not only ensure the safety of the public, but to keep that insatiable love of learning and science enthusiasm rolling until it can be safely moved back into locations in the community.

“Our next virtual events will incorporate more opportunities for personal interaction and audience participation,” said Raun, who both directs the Center for Communicating Science and serves as a professor of performance and voice in the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts. “We’re looking forward to helping people connect during this time of social isolation.”

Science on Tap’s next virtual event will take place on May 7. For more details, visit the organization’s Facebook page.

If you have an idea for a Science on Tap event, or if you want to join the mailing list, contact scienceontapnrv@gmail.com.

Written by Kendall Daniels

 

CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Categories
Biodiversity Conservation Ideas

Connect with the natural world by observing the birds outside your window

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | April 8, 2020

As Virginians contribute to our national collective effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, a simple window or short walk offers an opportunity to connect to the rhythms of the natural world by observing common bird species.

“If you go outside in the morning right now, you can hear the ‘dawn chorus,’ the cacophony of bird calls as males are setting up their territories in spring,” said Robyn Puffenbarger, a Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener passionate about birdwatching. “You can tell the change of seasons by their calls. I find that incredibly relaxing.”

Extension Master Gardeners are trained volunteer educators who work within their local communities to encourage and promote environmentally sound horticulture practices through sustainable landscape management education and training.

Puffenbarger began observing birds after a mysterious species visited her table on a picnic and she was curious as to what species it was. She recommends birding as an easy way to learn about nature and a great way to pass time while social distancing.

Dana Hawley, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Virginia Tech College of Science agrees.

“You don’t have to leave the house to see birds, and you don’t even have to know what type of bird you’re looking at to enjoy watching a bird’s behavior as it interacts with its environment,” Hawley said. “And the benefits may go beyond simple enjoyment. Recent studies suggest that connecting with nature may directly improve our mental and physical health. Activities like birdwatching, which can be done from a window or porch, may be one of the easiest ways for us to lower our stress and anxiety levels in a time of national crisis.”

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How to start birding

For Virginians practicing social distancing, all you need to begin observing birds is a window.

“If you have trees outside and you look for birds in the morning, you will likely see bird activity pretty quickly,” said Hawley. “The next few weeks are a great time to spot birds moving in the trees because the leaves haven’t come back yet, so it’s a lot easier to see the treetops.”

While where you live will determine which birds you are most likely to see, there are a few common species all Virginians can begin looking for.

Hawley recommends looking for the following common birds:

  • Blue jay
  • Eastern bluebird
  • Carolina chickadee
  • Crow, two species are common!  Listen to hear the difference between Fish and American
  • Tufted titmouse
  • Downy woodpecker
  • European starling
  • American goldfinch
  • House sparrow
  • House finch
  • Mourning dove
  • Rock pigeon
  • Northern mockingbird
  • Northern cardinal

“Right now, goldfinches are molting so their feathers can look fun and mottled, like they’ve had yellow paint splashed on them,” said Hawley. “You can also look for indigo buntings and migratory warblers, which can be a little harder to spot. Many warblers are just passing through at this time of year, so this is a great time to see them before they continue north to nest.”

If you’d like to attract some of these species to your backyard, a birdbath or bird feeder is a great way to bring in more birds. For a list of bird food appropriate for attracting different types of birds, click here. To lure in warblers like yellow-rumped warblers — affectionately called “butter butts” for the yellow on their backside — which normally hang out high in the trees, Hawley recommends putting out mealworms on a raised platform.

“It takes practice to be able to identify birds, so if you are just starting out don’t get discouraged. The more you practice, the better you get at spotting birds and identifying them,” said Hawley, who adds that you don’t need to know a bird’s species in order to enjoy watching it interact with its environment.

If you find that you enjoy observing birds, there are a number of free bird identification apps that you can download with a smartphone, as well as online courses like those offered by Cornell Bird Lab.

“Birdwatching is a great excuse to get outside, take a chance to breathe, and put things in perspective,” said Hawley. “Birds are a reminder that we are part of something bigger.”

“Birds are everywhere. Even in the most urban environments, birds are there,” said Puffenbarger. “There are no large mammals in Antarctica, but there are birds.”

In the future, as the need for social distancing wanes and communities begin the process of recovery, birding can also be a social hobby.

The Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program offers training on backyard ecology and gardening for wildlife — including birds — and the chance to connect with other local gardening enthusiasts. The Virginia Master Naturalist program also offers volunteer opportunities for those passionate about wildlife. Bird clubs and organized bird walks also connect beginning birders with experienced birders who can share tips and tricks for birding in your area.

Interested in learning more about gardening? Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners can help. Master Gardeners bring the resources of Virginia’s land-grant universities – Virginia Tech and Virginia State University – to the people of the commonwealth. Contact your local Master Gardeners through your Extension office or click here to learn more about gardening in Virginia and the Virginia Extension Master Gardener program.

-Written by Devon Johnson

CONTACT:

Zeke Barlow
540-231-5417

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Biodiversity Conservation Disease Faculty Spotlight Global Change Research

Pathogen levels in the environment drive disease outbreaks in bats

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 16, 2020

Since 2005, millions of bats have perished from white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Although the disease has been found throughout much of the world, severe population declines have only occurred in North America — and now researchers at Virginia Tech know why.

In a new study led by Joseph Hoyt, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, researchers have found that the pathogen levels in the environment play a major role in whether bat populations are stable or experience severe declines from white-nose syndrome.

Hoyt and his international team of researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 16.

“This study shows that more contaminated environments, or potential ‘hot spots,’ are going to result in higher disease impacts. By understanding the relationship between how much pathogen is present in the environment and the size of an outbreak, we can know exactly how much environmental sanitization is needed to reduce the epidemic potential,” said Hoyt.

When infectious diseases first arise, it is crucial to understand how the disease is being transmitted. With a pathogen like Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which can exist outside of the host, researchers looked to the environmental pathogen reservoir — or the habitat in which a pathogen persists or grows in the absence of hosts.

Pseudogymnoascus destructans is a cold-loving fungus, which resides on the walls of caves, mines, and other subterranean environments. Every year, as the cold and debilitating winter draws near, bats hibernate in these infected sites until they can return to the landscape in spring. And it is during this time that bats contract white-nose syndrome.

As Hoyt and his team journeyed out to find the historical origin of this disease, they were the first to find that the pathogen has already been present in Asia for thousands of years. In an even more astounding discovery, they found that European and Asian bat populations face little to no impacts from white-nose syndrome compared to bats in North America.

A cluster of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) roosting in a cave at the end of winter in Jilin province, China. They are tightly packed, and one bat is flying away from the cluster and towards the camera.
A cluster of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) roosting in a cave at the end of winter in Jilin province, China. Photograph courtesy of Joseph R Hoyt.

This unprecedented study revealed that the environmental pathogen reservoir in European and Asian sites decayed over the summer months, which left a smaller amount of pathogen in the environment for bats to come into contact with the following winter. In contrast, there was no decay of the pathogen in sites over the summer in North America, which resulted in widespread infection and mortality.

“The fact is that bats are experiencing much less severe infections at the beginning of the hibernation season across Europe and Asia. As a result, they are still getting infected but the process of infection is delayed relative to North American bats. So, they are experiencing far lower transmission from the environment than bats experience here in North America,” said Kate Langwig, the second author of this paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science and an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, housed under the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “The differences in the environmental reservoir are really important for driving the dynamics of the disease across space.”

With lower transmission of the pathogen and some time on their side, bats will be able to emerge from their infected roosts in just enough time to escape certain death.

“Because the pathogen decays in the environment over summer in Europe and Asia, most bats don’t become infected until mid- to late- winter, which is too late for the infections to manifest into mortality. If you have delayed transmission, then bats are able to emerge in the spring and clear infection before it can ever result in death,” said Hoyt.

This is one of the first papers to link the extent of the environmental reservoir to the size of an outbreak, the number of individuals that become infected, the severity of those infections, and population impacts.

Hoyt hopes that this paper will highlight the importance of environmental pathogen reservoirs in driving infectious disease outbreaks.

“The environmental pathogen reservoir has the potential to be really important. The idea that as you get a more contaminated environment, that scales with the degree of population impacts, is something that hasn’t really been demonstrated before,” said Hoyt.

Hoyt and his team are now trying to use findings from Eurasian bat populations to help North American bats. More specifically, they are trying to reduce the amount of pathogen in the environment in North America over summer when bats are absent from these sites.

“We are trying to replicate the pathogen decay that is happening in Europe and Asia, and delay transmission. If we can push bats to not get infected until later in the winter, then they might be able to survive until spring,” said Hoyt.

This project received a majority of funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Introducing Talents to Universities, Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation, Mongolian State University of Education, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI.

– Written by Kendall Daniels

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CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Announcements Conservation Food & Agriculture Global Change Other Sponsored Lectures Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Innovative conservationist and business entrepreneur to present public lecture in Blacksburg on March 20

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 10, 2020

**UPDATE March 11, 2020:  POSTPONED due to Virginia Tech COVID-19 mitigation strategy and large event cancelation policy (more info here).

Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, a fourth-generation beekeeper and founder and CEO of Bee Downtown, will visit Virginia Tech on March 20.

Bonner will give a 4 p.m. distinguished public lecture titled “Moments that Matter: Leadership Through the Eyes of a Beekeeper” at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.

Honeybees are one of nature’s most important workers, and they pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year. However, honeybee populations — and the services they provide to ecosystems and society— are quickly declining.

To do her part in addressing this pressing global issue, Bonner founded Bee Downtown during her junior year of college. The company installs and maintains beehives on the roofs and campuses of corporations to rebuild honeybee populations in urban areas. Additionally, Bee Downtown offers educational programs, events, and leadership exercises to increase employee engagement in the workplace.

What began as a school project has grown to provide employee engagement and leadership development at more than 50 corporations like Delta, Chick-Fil-A, AT&T, and IBM. Bee Downtown now maintains more than 200 hives to house more than 12 million honeybees.

“Running a successful business is just like running a successful beehive,” Bonner said. “One honeybee makes a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. But together a hive can generate over a hundred pounds of honey in a matter of months. If we — as leaders, as a community — can work together, like a honeybee hive, we can collectively create a lasting change in the world that we are all proud to be a part of.”

By integrating sustainability with a corporate business model, Bonner engages employees in beekeeping while enabling them to “think outside the hive” on their leadership journey.

Bonner holds a beehive pallet, which is covered swarming with bees. She is wearing a grey tee-shirt with a bee on it, as she holds the pallet with her arms stretched far out. Courtesy: Bee Downtown.
Bonner with a beehive pallet. Courtesy: Bee Downtown.

 

Bonner is a storyteller, environmental steward, and empowering leader. She is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, a 2018 Inc Magazine 30 Under 30 Rising Star, a Southern Living Southerner of the Year, and a TEDx speaker. Top media outlets, such as Forbes, BBC, Inc Magazine, and the New York Times, have featured Bonner’s work.

Bonner’s visit represents the seventh lecture in the public Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. The lecture series brings some of the world’s leading scholars to the Blacksburg community to discuss critical environmental and societal issues in an open forum.

“The environmental problems we face today are so complex that it’s easy to become overwhelmed, leaving many to ponder how they can possibly make a positive difference. Leigh-Kathryn Bonner exemplifies the fact that every one of us can contribute toward solving the world’s most urgent challenges,” said William Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. “She has taken her passion for protecting pollinators and turned this into a highly successful business model that teaches corporate leaders and their employees about sustainability and social responsibility. She is an inspirational example of how we can each contribute to a sustainable future.”

Coordinated by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, the event is free and open to the public, thanks to joint funding efforts from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, College of Natural Resources and Environment, Apex Center for Entrepreneurs, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Virginia Tech Graduate School.

“There is a big focus on entrepreneurship in the technology sector right now and we think it’s really important for students to understand all of the different ways that they can be innovative and successful. The hands-on, community-based business model that Bee Downtown has launched in the corporate realm is an excellent example of this. We’re thrilled to support bringing these types of leaders to Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg community,” said Sean Collins, director of the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs at Virginia Tech.

For more information about the event, please contact the Global Change Center at 540-231-5400 or visit its website.

The Lyric Theatre is located at 135 College Ave. in Blacksburg. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Metered parking is available on the street as well as in the Kent Square garage. Anyone parking on the Virginia Tech campus before 5 p.m. will need a permit.

– Written by Rasha Aridi

 

CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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