Fall 2011
Upstream
Newsletter
Stroud™ Scientists & Educators Present
Disseminating Our Findings to Our Peers & the Public at Large
Our 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.
- Scientists Share Stroud™ Studies on Fish and Invertebrate Responses to Temperature Change at Thermal Ecology and Regulation Workshop
- Stroud™ Scientists Travel to Prague to Present Findings at the 21st Annual Goldschmidt Conference
- Pennsylvania Watershed Specialists Learn to Build Environmental Sensor Networks
- Leaf Pack Workshops Held at Wilson College
- Whose Water is It, Anyway?
Scientists Share Stroud™ Studies on Fish and Invertebrate Responses to Temperature Change at Thermal Ecology and Regulation Workshop
The temperature controlled experimental aquariums facility at the Center.In October, Willy Eldridge, Ph.D., and John Jackson, Ph.D., traveled to Maple Grove, Minnesota to attend the Third Thermal Ecology and Regulation Workshop. Both Eldridge and Jackson delivered oral presentations on their research on the influence of the rate of water temperature change on fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates.
Gradual temperature change can have a stimulating effect on fish and invertebrates, but rapid temperature change can lead to thermal shock and death. Eldridge presented data from an investigation examining what rate of temperature change induces a sublethal response in fish. Jackson presented results from a parallel study on aquatic macroinvertebrate responses in laboratory simulations of thermal effluents from power plants.
Stroud™ Scientists Travel to Prague to Present Findings at the 21st Annual Goldschmidt Conference
Lou Kaplan, Ph.D., and Olyse Lazareva, Ph.D., travelled to the Czech Republic to participate in the 21st Annual Goldschmidt Conference. The Prague meeting was the largest ever Goldschmidt conference with over 3,700 lecture and poster contributions.
A view of the City of Prague from the banks of the Vltava River.The conference theme focused on exploring the planet with physical and chemical tools, including the measurement of low-temperature geochemistry reactions important to life on Earth.
Kaplan presented his pioneering work with Stroud™ colleagues Denis Newbold and Anthony Aufdenkampe on labeling dissolved organic carbon (DOC) derived from tulip poplar with a 13C isotope to trace the contribution of this terrestrially derived DOC to stream ecosystem metabolism.
Lazareva, a postdoc with the National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded Christina River Basin Critical Zone Observatory (CRB-CZO) at the University of Delaware and Stroud Water Research Center, presented a poster describing the influence of iron and manganese on the carbon cycle in soils in the Christina River Basin.
Pennsylvania Watershed Specialists Learn to Build Environmental Sensor Networks
Anthony Aufdenkampe, Ph.D., and Steve Hicks of the Stroud™ Center traveled to the 11th Annual Conservation District Watershed Specialist Training Meeting in State College in October to demonstrate how emerging technologies have made building one’s own environmental sensor network a reality. Aufdenkampe lead the workshop with an introductory seminar. He then began a sensor-building demonstration by switching to an overhead video feed of the electronics workbench. The feed showed Steve Hicks assembling components to build environmental sensors (such as a thermistor or a redox sensor) and connecting data loggers and radio transmiters. All in all, the workshop was well received by the 58 attendees.
See our 2011 Summer Upstream Newsletter article highlighting Steve Hicks’ work with environmental sensors: http://www.stroudcenter.org/newsletters/2011Summer/hicks.html
Leaf Pack Workshops Held at Wilson College
A natural leaf pack in a stream.In August, Stroud Education Program Manager Christina Medved led a two-day Leaf Pack Network® workshop for 16 teachers at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa. The teachers learned about general stream ecology and how to sample streams using leaf packs.
As a standard evaluation technique for our programs, participants took both pretests and post-tests about their knowledge of the subject matter. Pretest scores averaged 66 percent and improved greatly to average 95 percent at the end of the workshop.
Medved also led two Leaf Pack sessions at the National Science Teacher Association’s Regional Conference in Hartford, Conn. The conference theme was “Science Inspiring Growth.” Medved reported that “out of all the conferences over the last 10 years where I’ve presented Leaf Pack, I think these two were the best attended workshops. Nearly 60 people through our workshops in one day!”
One attendee commented that it was “the most useful and most applicable workshop I attended today. Really great!”
The workshops were conducted in collaboration with and sponsored by the LaMotte Company.
Whose Water is It, Anyway?
Undergraduate communication students at West Chester University and students at Cabrini College were treated in September to a seminar on water rights presented by Christina Medved. Students learned about water rights and conflicts taking place around the world. They were also introduced to a case study of the New York City water supply that described the historical perspective of how NYC obtained and built its more than 15 reservoirs and many miles of aqueducts that now provide water to more than 9 million people in the NYC metropolitan area.
Medved and Stroud Director of Education Susan Gill, Ph.D., have been co-teaching a class at Cabrini College this semester as part of their NSF-funded Creating Citizen Scientists collaboration with Cabrini College.
