Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

Faculty and Student Professional Update

May – 2004

Presentations:

Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld gave a presentation on "Wetlands in the Suburbs" at a meeting sponsored by the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association on "Using Science to Protect Wetlands: Making Science Available to All", held at Rider University on May 19, 2004.

Dr. Peter Morin delivered an invited plenary lecture on 19 May at the final LINKECOL meeting held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. LINKECOL is a European Science Foundation effort to promote the integration of community and ecosystem ecology. The meeting was attended by over 140 participants from Europe and N. America.

Papers Published:

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

Kjer, K.M. 2004. "Aligned 18S and Insect phylogeny". Systematic Biology 53(3): in press.

Lockwood, J.L. and C.L. Samuels. 2004. 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.

Advisory Panels:

Dr. Peter Morin served on the NSF Frontiers of Integrative Biology Research (FIBR) panel on May 13 and 14. FIBR is a new program designed to support broad-based integrative research that does not easily fit within the usual funding areas at the NSF.

Grants:

Dr. Karl Kjer received a NSF grant of $313,000. The grant is titled "The higher level phylogeny of Odonata." Co-PIs, Dr. Frank Carle, and Dr. Mike May.

Dr. Peter Morin is one of four co-PIs on a newly funded NSF LTREB grant ($229,000) that will provide continued support for the long-term succession study at Hutcheson Memorial Forest over the next five years. The study was initiated by Rutgers ecologists Murray Buell and John Small in 1958, and remains the longest running experimental study of post-agricultural vegetation change in the US. Dr. Scott Meiners, an assistant professor at Eastern Illinois University, who received his Ph.D. from the E&E Program at Rutgers in 1999, is the lead investigator for this project. The other co-PIs are Dr. Steward Pickett and Dr. Mary Cadenasso (RU E&E Ph.D. 1998) of the Institute for Ecosystem Studies.

Faculty Achievements and Activities:

Dr. Joanna Burger was made a fellow of IUPAC - the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Dr. Richard Lathrop, Jr. was the author of a study described in The Star Ledger on May 28, 2004 in an article entitled "Rutgers study finds steady development of Jersey Land." Dr. Lathrop’s analysis showed that the "decline in loss of wetlands from 1995 to 2000 was offset by increased destruction of forests" as the headline stated.

Student Grants and Fellowships:

Shannon Galbraith, a graduate student in Steven Handel’s group, received a National Science Foundation K-12 Teaching Fellowship for Rutgers University students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, for the 2004-2005 academic year. The students work a minimum of 10 hours a week with local middle and junior high school teachers to provide innovative learning experiences in math and science.

Emilie Stander, a graduate student advised by Joan Ehrenfeld, is a finalist in the EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship competition for 2004-2005.

Student Awards, Achievements, and Activities:

Jay Kelly, a graduate student advised Andrew Vayda, gave a talk on May 6 to a Conservation Biology class at the College of New Rochelle, NY, on the "Life and Travels of a Conservation Biologist" (i.e., his experience working in Hawaii, Florida, New Jersey, Brazil and elsewhere). The class was taught by Professor Faith Kostel-Hughes, a former post-doc in Steven Handel's group.

David LaPuma, a student in Julie Lockwood’s lab, has been running a Spring Migration website daily since April 9th.

The url is www.eden.rutgers.edu/~lapuma/migration. David has been downloading nightly NEXRAD Doppler Radar for the state of New Jersey, and posting it each morning to the website. The images allow you to see nocturnal migration (composed primarily of passerines: Warblers, Tanagers, Grosbeaks, Sparrows, Blackbirds, and the like) as birds pass over New Jersey towards their northern breeding grounds. Local birdwatchers use the website to predict where large numbers of birds are concentrating when either sunrise or unfavorable weather forces them to land. He will continue to update the site through mid-June and then begin again in August at the onset of fall migration.

Karen Mabb, a student in Julie Lockwood’s lab and also a member of the California Parrot Project, will give a presentation on "Urban legends: the truth about L.A.’s wild parrots". The presentation will be given at the Parrot Society of Los Angeles meeting to be held in Marina Del Ray, CA. in June. For more information on the California Parrot Project: http://parrotproject.org/.

Alumni News:

Dr. Jeremy W. Fox (E&E Ph.D. 2000, Advisor - Peter Morin), currently a postdoc at the Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College, Silwood Park, UK, has accepted an assistant professorship in the Department of Biology at the University of Calgary, Canada. Jeremy starts his new position in Canada on Sept 1.