Editorships:

Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

Faculty and Student Professional Update

March 2004

Editorships:

Dr. Edwin Green was named Editor-in-Chief of the journal Forest Science. His appointment runs from February 2004-January 2007.

Dr. Green was also made Associate Editor of the journal Ecological and Environmental Statistics. This is a six-year term ending in 2010.

Dr. Jason Grabosky is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Arboriculture.

Dr. Richard Lathrop has been named Associate Editor of Forest Science.

Presentations:

Dr. Peter Smouse is on sabbatical at CIFOR-INIA in Madrid, Spain. While there, he has presented a seminar to the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones de Agricultura y Alimentaria entitled: " Propagule flow in extended populations of forest trees."

Clément J.C.* Vegetation – Nitrogen – Iron Interactions in riparian wetlands. October 8^th, 2003. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, France.

Clément J.C. Effects of roots and nitrates on redox chemistry of wetland soils. October 9^th, 2003. IMEP- University of Marseille, France.

Dr. David Ehrenfeld spoke at a forum presented on Biotechnology: Pros and Cons at Rutgers University.

Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld will be giving an invited talk at the "Biological Invasion: Species Exchanges between Eastern Asia and North America - Environmental and Economic Threats" in Beijing, China, in June.

Dr. Jason Grabosky gave a presentation at Bartlett consumer education day at the Freylingheysen Arboretum March 11,2004 entitled "Mulch use in the landscape."

Dr. Jason Grabosky presented two talks at Rutgers OCPE Advanced Turfgrass Symposium Feb 26, 2004 entitled "Inventory use for golf course management of amenity trees" and "Tree selection for golf courses"

Dr. Jason Grabosky gave a presentation at Rutgers OCPE Landscape Professional Training Feb 11, 2004 entitled "Soil compaction and landscape management."

Dr. Jason Grabosky gave a presentation at the NJASLA Annual Chapter Conference Atlantic City NJ Feb 9, 2004 entitled "Can trees and parking lots mix?"

Dr. Jason Grabosky presented a seminar at the Rutgers OCPE Urban Forestry Short Course January 30, 2004 entitled "Establishing trees in parking lots."

Dr Jason Grabosky gave a presentation at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society / Philadelphia Flower Show April 9,2004 entitled "Sites have a history: site assessment"

Dr. Steven Handel has been invited to give a series of lectures on urban restoration ecology to the Department of Ecosystem Science at Stockholm Univ., this April.

Daniel Hernandez, a graduate student in Dr. David Drake’s lab, presented a talk at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) - Shorebird Technical Committee meeting (Smyrna, DE) in November entitled: "Foraging behavior of migratory shorebirds in Delaware Bay"

Dr. Richard Lathrop presented a talk on the New Jersey Landscape Change Project at the Mid-Atlantic Land Use/Land Cover Conference at Baltimore, MD, January 8-9, 2005

Dr. Richard Lathrop was the featured speaker at the first NJ Department of Environmental Protection Cook College Alumni get-together.

Dr. Julie Lockwood gave a presentation at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) entitled "Biotic homogenization and the breakdown of biogeographic barriers".

James MacDonald, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Judith Weis, presented a poster at the AIBS meeting entitled "It’s easier being green: Why the invasive crab C. maenas is a threat to C. sapidus in New jersey."

Alison Seigel, a student in Colleen Hatfield’s lab, gave a talk at the U.S.-International Association of Landscape Ecologists (US-IALE) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. The talk was titled "Spatial and temporal analysis of avian response to marsh restoration in the New Jersey Meadowlands."

Shannon Nix Stohr, a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. John Dighton, gave a presentation at the December 2003 Mini-Symposium on International Experience: Perspectives from Cook College Students entitled "Trust, Courtesy and Thoughtfulness: Perspectives from Norway". Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Dr. Lena Struwe presented the talk "The flora of the Lost Worlds" at the Philadelphia Botanical Club, PA, on 18 December 2003.

Dr. John Tedrow (Emeritus) gave a seminar entitled "Wetland Soils" at French and Perillo, Consulting Engineers.

*J.C. Clement is a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld’s lab.

Student Presentations at NEEC

The Northeast Ecology and Evolution Conference (NEEC) was held this year at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. The Rutgers Ecology and Evolution GSA was acknowledged for starting NEEC in 2003. Several of our current students presented papers at this conference.

Kyle Bennett, a graduate student in Dr. Rich Lutz’s lab, presented a talk at NEEC entitled "Constructing a Monograph of Northwest Atlantic Larval Bivalve Morphologies."

Robert Cox presented two talks entitled "Phrynosomatid lizards as a model system for integrative studies of growth and sexual size dimorphism." And "Testosterone inhibits growth in juvenile male Eastern Fence Lizards (Sceloporus undulates): Implications for energy allocation and sexual size dimorphism."

Daniel Hernandez, a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. David Drake's Lab, presented a talk at NEEC entitled: "Foraging efficiency of migratory shorebirds in Delaware Bay, USA"

Matthew Palmer, PhD candidate in Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld’s lab, gave a presentation at the Northeast Ecology and Evolution Conference (NEEC) entitled: Microtopography in Pinelands fens: Effects on soil environment, plant performance, and plant diversity patterns.

Joseph Paulin, a graduate student in Dr. David Ehrenfeld’s lab, presented a talk at NEEC entitled "Ursus americanus: Can New Jersey Bear It?"

Annual Rutgers-Princeton-University of Pennsylvania Graduate Student Symposium

This year the symposium was held in IMCS at Rutgers on February 28^th. William Landesman, a graduate student in George Morren’s lab, organized the event.

Heather Bowman-Cutway, a Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld PhD student and soon to be Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Mercer University in Macon Georgia, presented a talk entitled "Is all urban land the same? Invasibility in urban wetlands.

Kristen Ross, a PhD candidate in Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld’s lab, talked on her current research in a presentation entitled "Effects of nitrogen supply on the dynamics and control of Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)."

Jennifer Adams Krumins, a graduate student in Dr. Peter Morin’s lab, gave a talk entitled "Linking ecosystem diversity and bacterial decomposition."

Papers Published:

Hefting M., J.C. Clément, D. Dowrick, A.C. Cosandey, S. Bernal, C. Cimpian, T.P. Burt & G. Pinay, 2004. Soil nitrogen cycling in riparian wetlands along an European climatic gradient. Biogeochemistry 67 (1): 113-134.

Clément J.C., R.M. Holmes, B. Peterson & G. Pinay, 2003. Isotopic investigation of denitrification in a riparian ecosystem in northwest France. Journal of Applied Ecology 40 (6): 1035-1048.

Gould, A. B., Hamilton, G., Vodak, M., Grabosky, J., and Lashomb, J. 2004. Bacterial leaf scorch of oak in New Jersey: incidence and economic impact. Phytopathology (accepted).

Ehrenfeld, J.G., H.B. Cutway, R. Hamilton IV, and E. Stander. 2003. Hydrologic description of forested wetlands in northeastern New Jersey, USA -- an urban/suburban region. Wetlands 23(4): 685-700.

Grabosky, J. and E. Gilman. 2004. "Measurement and prediction of tree growth reduction from tree planting space design in established parking lots". Journal of Arboriculture 30(3): 154-164

Cassey, P., T.M. Blackburn, G. Russell, K. Jones, and J.L. Lockwood. 2004 Influences on the transport and establishment of exotic bird species: a analysis of the parrots (Psittaciformes) of the world. Global Change Biology 10:427-426.

Cassey, P., T.M. Blackburn, K. Jones, and J.L. Lockwood. 2004. Mistakes in the analysis of exotic species establishment: source pool designation and correlates of introduction success among parrots (Psittaciformes) of the world. Journal of Biogeography 31:277-284

Lockwood, J.L. Predicting which species will become invasive: what’s taxonomy got to do with it? In: Phylogeny and Conservation, edited by A. Purvis, J. Gittleman and T. Brooks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Lockwood, J.L. and C.L. Samuels. Assembly models and restoration practice. In: Assembly rules and restoration ecology: bridging the gap between theory and practice, edited by V. Temperton, R. Hobbs, S. Halle, and T. Nuttle. Island Press, Washington DC.

Paul Giller, Helmut Hillebrand, Ulrike-G. Berninger, Mark O. Gessner, Stephen Hawkins, Pablo Inchausti, Cheryl Inglis, Heather Leslie, Björn Malmqvist, Michael T. Monaghan, Peter J. Morin and Gregory O’Mullan. 2004. Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic environments. Oikos 104:423-436.

Morin, P. J. and J. McGrady-Steed. 2004. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in aquatic microbial systems: a new analysis of temporal variation and diversity-predictability relations. Oikos 104:458-466.

Price, J. E*. and P. J. Morin. 2004. Colonization history determines alternate community states in a food web of intraguild predators. Ecology 85(4):1017-1028.

Simkin, S.M., D.N. Lewis, K.C. Weathers, G.M. Lovett, and K. Schwarz.** 2004. Determination of Sulfate, Nitrate, and Chloride in Throughfall using Ion-Exchange Resins. Water, Air and Soil Pollution. 153: 343-354.

Austerlitz F, Dick CW, Dutech C, Klein E, Oddou-Muratorio S, Smouse PE and Sork V.L. 2004. Using genetic markers to estimate the pollen dispersal curve. Molec. Ecol. 13:937-954.

Dyer RJ, Westfall RD, Sork VL and Smouse PE. 2004. Two-generation analysis of pollen flow across a landscape. V. A stepwise approach for extracting factors contributing to pollen structure. Heredity (In Press)

Stohr, S.N.*** and Dighton, J. 2004. Effects of species diversity on establishment and coexistence: a phylloplane fungal community model system. Microbial Ecology. In Press

Struwe, L. 2004. Columelliaceae, Desfontainiaceae, Loganiaceae, Plocospermataceae. Pages 108-109, 126-127, 219-221, 299-300. In: Flowering Plant Families of the American Tropics (A. Henderson, S. A. Mori, S. V. Heald, N. P. Smith, and D. W. Stevenson, eds.), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. [a taxonomic encyclopedia of tropical plant families]

Struwe, L. & V. A. Albert. 2004. Gelsemiaceae, Gentianaceae. Pages 164-166, 166-168. In: Flowering Plant Families of the American Tropics (A. Henderson, S. A. Mori, S. V. Heald, N. P. Smith, and D. W. Stevenson, eds.), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. [a taxonomic encyclopedia of tropical plant families]
Mansion, G. & L. Struwe. (in press, est. 2004) Phylogeny of Chironiinae (Gentianaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

Struwe, L. & V. A. Albert. (in press, est. 2004) Monograph of neotropical Potalia (Gentianaceae: Potalieae). Systematic Botany

Struwe, L., J. R. Grant, K. B. Lepis, M., M. Zarate, & J. Pringle. (in press). Gentianaceae. In: Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Bolivia. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

Struwe, L. (in press, est. Dec 2004) Gentianaceae. In: O. Hokche (ed.), Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora de Venezuela, Venezuela.

Struwe, L. (in press, est. 2004) Gelsemiaceae. In: Families and Genera of Flowering Plants (K. Kubitzki, ed.), vol. Asteridae-Gentianales (J. W. Kadereit, vol. ed.). Springer Verlag.

Struwe, L. (in press, est. 2004). Gentianaceae. In: R. Duno, ed., Catalogo Anotada de los Llanos, Venezuela.

Struwe, L. and T. Motley (in press, est. 2004) Loganiaceae (including Antoniaceae, Geniostomaceae, Spigeliaceae, and Strychnaceae). In: Families and Genera of Flowering Plants (K. Kubitzki, ed.), vol. Asteridae-Gentianales (J. W. Kadereit, vol. ed.). Springer Verlag.

Struwe, L. & S. R. Jensen. (in press, est. 2004) Plocospermataceae. In: Families and Genera of Flowering Plants (K. Kubitzki, ed.), vol. Asteridae-Lamiales (J. W. Kadereit, vol. ed.). Springer Verlag.

Xu, Ming. 2004. Spatial Analysis of Pan Evaporation Trends in China 1955-2000. Journal of Geophysical Research (in Press)

*Jennifer E. Price is a PhD candidate in Dr. Peter Morin’s lab.

**Kirsten Schwarz is a graduate student in the labs of Dr. S.T. A. Pickett and Dr. Richard Lathrop.

***Shannon Nix Stohr is a PhD candidate in Dr. John Dighton’s lab.

Meetings and Conferences attended:

G. Pinay, J.C. Clément, & R. Lensi. Scaling up denitrification activity in heterogeneous lanscapes. November 2-6, 2003. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings. Denver, Colorado, USA.

Dr. Julie Lockwood attended a workshop at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) titled " Exotic Species: A source of insight for ecology, evolution and biogeography".

Dr. Peter Morin organized a workshop held at the National Science Foundation on January 7-9 on Experimental Model Systems in Community Ecology. The workshop, funded by a NSF grant to Rutgers University, involved discussions among leading ecologists about new approaches to studies of ecological systems. Participants came from several different institutions, including Rutgers, Columbia, Dartmouth, UC Davis, Kansas, Virginia, Montana, The Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Kansas State, Florida, North Carolina State, and Ohio Wesleyan University.

Dr. Peter Morin co-organized (with colleagues at Stanford and Portand State) and participated in a working group on Microbial Biodiversity at NCEAS (the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis) in Santa Barbara, CA on Dec. 12-15, 2003. The group funded by NCEAS seeks to build conceptual bridges between microbial ecologists and ecologists who study larger organisms. Progress from this group will be reported at a symposium to be held at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America (Portland , OR; August 2004).

Dr. Peter Morin was an invited participant in an international meeting on food web ecology sponsored by the European Science Foundation through the InterACT Research Network. The conference was held at the University of Giessen on November 12-15, 2003, and included 65 participants from Europe and North America. Morin also serves as an official external non-EU observer for the InterACT Network. Proceedings of the conference will be forthcoming in a book edited by Peter de Ruiter, John Moore, Volkmar Wolters published by Academic Press.

Dr. Peter Morin was an invited participant in the second BioMERGE adaptive synthesis workshop held at the Missouri Botanical Garden on October 24-26, 2003. BioMERGE is a NSF-funded research coordination network that seeks to advance knowledge about links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Dr. Peter Morin was an invited participant in a NSF-funded assessment of the new system of Ecological Preserves being established at Indiana University. The assessment took place in Bloomington Indiana on 17-19 October 2003, and was designed to advise university administrators on the value and optimal use of ecological preserves for research, education, and outreach.

Dr. Lena Struwe attended the first ICBG-Central Asia conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, during March 10-12. (see Grants Received). The group from the United States included 6 participants from Cook College, one from University of Illinois, and one representative from NIH. The conference was the first official meeting of a new 5-year project and included participants from many universities in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. We also visited Samarkand State University, Tashkent Agrarian University, and met with local officials.

Dr. Lena Struwe was invited to organize a symposium for the International Botanical Congress, held every five years. The next congress will be held in July 2005 in Vienna, Austria

Advisory Panels:

Dr. Richard Lathrop assisted the Governor McGreevey's New Jersey Highlands Task Force in developing their Action Plan for the Highlands (released March 6, 2004). As part of the Action Plan over 100,000 acres of the New Jersey Highlands were delineated as a core preservation area to protect the Highlands critical watersheds and wildlife habitat.

Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld has been invited to serve a three-year term on the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council.

Dr. Julie Lockwood served on the New Jersey Audubon Society – Important Bird Areas Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting.

Grants:

Dr. Lena Struwe is Co-PI on a new 5-year NIH-ICBG, International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups, grant titled "Building New Pharmaceutical Capabilities in Central Asia", headed by Dr. Ilya Raskin. Dr Struwe is the Associate Program Leader for Biodiversity, Bioinformaticsand Training Associate Program. The funded amount is ca. $3.8 million and Rutgers University has provided matching funds for part of the training program. She is responsible for biodiversity data management and the professional training program within this interdisciplinary grant, which primarily focuses on searching for new pharmaceuticals among microbes, plants, and fungi in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Collaborative partners are several universities in the two Central Asian countries as well as University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Dr. Lena Struwe received supplemental REU funds ($15,844) from NSF for supporting two undergraduate students to work within her research project "Phylogeny and biogeography of the neotropical tribe Helieae (Gentianaceae)" during the next fiscal year.

Faculty Achievements and Activities:

Dr. Jason Grabosky is very active in the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA): His activites include:
President: Arboricultural Research and Education Academy (AREA) 2004-2006
Author: ISA AREA NEWSLETTER
ISA Board Certified Master Arborist Certification (BCMA) Test committee (2002-2008) Exam development team: Domain Chair for Ecology and Construction Management testing domains
Student Society Arboriculture Interim Re-organization Committee: AREA Liason.

Student Grants and Fellowships:

Paulin, J.B. and D. Drake. "Reducing human-wildlife conflicts in New Jersey: an integrated research and wildlife management education program." Funded by the Northeast Wildlife Damage Management Research and Outreach Cooperative. ($30,000 awarded February 2004).

Paulin J. B. 2004 Berryman East Graduate Fellowship, for graduate students conducting human-wildlife conflicts research east of the Mississippi River. Funded by Mississippi State University Forest and Wildlife Research Center Berryman Institute and sponsored by US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services. (Renewal $15,150 awarded January 2004).

Student Awards, Achievements, and Activities:

James MacDonald was awarded the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Visiting Scientist Award.

Daniel Hernandez received a Special Studies Opportunity Award from Cook College Office of Research and Graduate Programs to study shorebirds in Tierra del Fuego, Chile and the Canadian Arctic.

Daniel Hernandez is a member of the Shorebird Research Team of the NJ Dept. of Fish & Wildlife - Endangered Nongame Species Program. Aside from continuing work in Delaware Bay, he participated in an expedition to Tierra del Fuego, Chile in February and will be participating in another expedition to the Canadian Arctic this summer.

Jeanmaire Molina, a graduate student working with Dr. Lena Struwe, received a special study award from the Graduate School –NB to conduct research in the Palanan Preserve in the Philippines this summer.

Matthew Palmer received the Graduate School Teaching Award for 2003-2004. The award will be presented at the Graduate School – NB Spring Reception on April 29^th

Alison Seigel was awarded the NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Award. This award was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Michigan State University (MSU). The purpose of this awards program is to assist some outstanding students to attend IALE 2004 (the 19th annual conference of the U.S. Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology), in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lauren Spearman, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Michael May, received a special study award from the Graduate School-NB to catalog the mantids of South Africa.