Stroud Scientists & Educators PresentDisseminating Our Findings to our Peers & the Public at LargeOur ability to disseminate our findings to a broad audience allows us to increase awareness and create a public dialogue centered on the protection, preservation and restoration of watersheds everywhere. It’s for that reason that our scientists and educators engage in both scientific and public forums to share their findings. The following highlights recent presentations.

Stroud™ Scientists Play a Major Role at NABS
Taking Stock Of New York City’s Drinking Water
Schuylkill Watershed Congress
National Water Quality Monitoring Conference
American Society for Microbiology
Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association

STROUD SCIENTISTS PLAY A MAJOR ROLE AT NABS

Stroud scientists had a large presence at the 56th Annual Meeting of the North American Benthological Society (NABS) in Salt Lake City, Utah this May. NABS is an international scientific organization whose purpose is to promote better understanding of lakes, streams and rivers. At their annual meeting for the scientific community speakers disseminate new research results, interpretations and other information to their peers.

Stroud scientists have active leadership roles in several of the Society’s Executive Committees, including: the Constitutional Governance, Editorial, Endowment, Strategic Planning and Tax Certification committees, but their real commitment to NABS and its goals is best expressed through their research contributions which continue to further benthological science. The following is a list of their NABS presentations:

• Density, Growth, and Secondary Production of a Freshwater Crab in a Tropical Mountain Stream (John K. Jackson)

• Does Longitudinal Dispersion Influence the Measurement of Uptake Length? It Depends on the Péclet Number. (J. Denis Newbold)

• Habitat Stability and the Structure and Function of Benthic Bacterial Communities on Rocks and Sediments in a Small Temperate Stream (Louis A. Kaplan)

• Ecosystem Metabolism in a Stream Impacted by Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and One Undergoing AMD Remediation (Thomas L. Bott)

• Modeling Sources of Seston, Particulate Organic Carbon and Particulate Nitrogen within a Stream Ecosystem (David C. Richardson)

• Objectivity in the Resolution of Species: A Case Study in the Ephemerellidae (David H. Funk)

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Bern Sweeney recently joined presenters from The Clean Drinking Water Coalition (CDWC) and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, on May 15th, 2008 to discuss their respective findings on the state of New York City’s drinking water. The event, Taking Stock of New York City’s Drinking Water, drew a crowd of more than 100 New Yorkers thirsty for knowledge about the quality of the water they drink. Sweeney addressed the audience with an overview of trends in water quality in the NYC Watershed — the results of a recently completed 6-year study designed to provide a technical baseline for measuring future changes in the streams, rivers, and reservoirs that supply New York City's drinking water.

To watch the symposium presentations, go to: http://video.thirteen.org/episode/show/889

To select Dr. Sweeney's presentation, place your cursor at bottom edge of video pane to display the timeline, then move the timeline cursor to minute 33 of the video. Use of the timeline cursor function requires Internet Explorer or Safari browser.

For more information about the research study itself: http://www.stroudcenter.org/research/newyorkproject.htm

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SCHUYLKILL WATERSHED CONGRESS

Stroud senior scientist, John Jackson, was the keynote speaker at the Schuylkill Watershed Congress, held in May 2008. His presentation, Is a cold water fishery by any other name still as clean a stream? A look at Pennsylvania’s complex system for labeling streams, and what these labels mean for a stream’s biodiversity, management, and protection, was well received by the 200 participants.

Stroud education programs manager, Kristen Travers, also addressed the gathering with a presentation about the Stroud Water Research Center’s water quality study in Bucks County, PA – a study designed to replicate research conducted 40 years ago in the 1960s, before passage of the Clean Water Act, in order to determine exactly how water quality has changed since that time and how long-term changes to the watersheds have affected the streams within them.

For more information about this study, read her interview with senior scientist, Tom Bott at: http://www.stroudcenter.org/research/BucksCounty/interview.htm

NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING CONFERENCE

Monitoring: Key to Understanding our Waters was the theme of this year’s National Water Quality Monitoring Conference in Atlantic City, May, 2008. The conference highlighted the importance of monitoring in achieving the goal of clean water for all. Stroud education programs manager, Kristen Travers’ presented, Macroinvertebrate Monitoring: Training and Education for Volunteers.

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AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY

Members of the world's largest scientific society of individuals interested in the microbiological sciences, gathered in Boston for the American Society of Microbiology’s 2008 meeting this June. The Society’s mission is to advance microbiological sciences through the pursuit of scientific knowledge and dissemination of the results of fundamental and applied research. Stroud senior scientist, Lou Kaplan, and Ph.D. candidate, Karen Hogan, presented Storm Induced Transient Alterations in “Climax” Streambed Bacterial Community Structure in the Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Piedmont.

Learn more about Lou Kaplan at: http://www.stroudcenter.org/about/louiskaplan.htm.

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CHESTER RIDLEY CRUM WATERSHEDS ASSOCIATION

In concert with Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association (CRC) and the Habitat Resource Network of Southeastern Pennsylvania (HRN), Penn State’s Brandywine campus hosted an event in February 2008, to educate municipal officials, watershed associations and the public about the affects of stormwater runoff and how to counter it. Stroud education programs manager, Vivian Williams, presented Installing and Operating Rain Barrels, to a crowd of more than 100 attendees.

If you’re interested in learning more about Rain Barrels, the web is a great resource. We found the responses to these Frequently Asked Questions on Rainwater Harvesting useful and informative: http://www.harvesth2o.com/faq.shtml#6

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Back to Spring 2008 Upstream Newsletter

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