Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

 

Faculty and Student Newsletter

July 2005

 

Previous newsletters may be found at:

http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~deenr/news.html

 

 

 

Presentations:

Cristina Frank, a Master’s student in the Joanna Burger lab, presented a paper at  the Annual Meeting of Society for Conservation Biology in the University of Brazil in Brasilia, Brazil. (7/15-7/19). The presentation was titled “The influence of habitat availability on migratory raptor distribution at a coastal stopover in New Jersey.”

 

Dr. Peter Morin was an invited speaker at the 20th Gordon Conference on Microbial Population Biology, Proctor Academy, Andover, NH, 18 July 2005.  His talk was titled: "The Ecology of Aquatic Microbial Communities."

 

Tom Virzi, a Julie Lockwood Ph.D. student, was invited to speak at the Mordecai Land Trust annual meeting in August.  The Trust manages a salt marsh island in Barnegat Bay off Beach Haven.  Mordecai Island is an important breeding area for several state endangered species including black skimmers and common terns, and the island has a small population of American oystercatchers that he will be monitoring next year.  Tom’s presentation will discuss the struggles of beach nesting birds in NJ and the need for conservation efforts to protect

important areas like Mordecai Island.

 

Publications:

Galbraith, S.L., and W.H. Martin.  2005.  “Vegetation change over 28 years in an old-growth mixed mesophytic forest in eastern Kentucky.”  Castanea 70(2).

Shannon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Steven Handel lab.

 

Christopher F. Steiner, Zachary T. Long, Jennifer A. Krumins and Peter J. Morin. 2005. Temporal Stability of Aquatic Food Webs: Partitioning the Effects of Species Diversity, Species Composition and Enrichment. Ecology Letters. 8:819-828. 

Chris is currently a post-doc at the University of Illinois. He was previously a post-doc in the Morin lab. Zac received his Ph.D. in October as a member of the Morin lab and is currently a post-doc at UNC Chapel Hill Marine Lab in Morehead City.

 

Lockwood, J.L. Introduction: Insights into biogeography.  Pages 309-314, in D. Sax, J. Stachowicz  and S. Gaines (eds). Species Invasions - insights into ecology, evolution and biogeography.  Sinauer Press. 2005

McKinney, M.L. and J.L. Lockwood. Community composition and homogenization: evenness and abundance of native and exotic  species.  Pages 365-381 in, D. Sax, J. Stachowicz  and S. Gaines (eds). Species Invasions - insights into ecology, evolution and biogeography.  Sinauer Press. 2005

Pejchar, L, K. Holl and J. Lockwood.  Hawaiian honeycreeper home range size varies with habitat: implications for native Acacia koa forestry.  Ecological Applications 15(3): 1053-1061.

 

Faculty Achievements and Activities:

Dr. Julie Lockwood has received the following grants:

  • Critical Ecosystems Science Initiative, National Park Service for Fire effects on Cape Sable seaside sparrows, - $146,000

 

  • Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for Conservation of threatened grassland birds within Duke Farms, - $5450

 

Advisory Panels:

Dr. Julie Lockwood, Dr. Steven Handel and Dr. Mikal Forup, a postdoc in the Handel lab, participated in a Facilities Review for Duke Farms on 28 June where they helped the Duke Farms brainstorm and plan for their upcoming facilities upgrades and transitions towards environmental research.

 

Student Awards, Achievements, and Activities:

Joe Paulin, a David Ehrenfeld Ph.D. student, gave an hour and a half interactive presentation on black bears to kids ranging in age from 7-13 at Family Martial Arts Academy Summer Karate Camp in Highland Park. Topics covered included how to react when encountering a bear, things to do around the home or campground to reduce the chances of attracting a bear, basic bear biology, and how radio collared bears are tracked.

Emilie Stander, a Ph.D. candidate in the Joan Ehrenfeld lab, will be facilitating a workshop for high school students on soil ecology at the Wave Hill Forest Project Summer Collaborative in the Bronx on July 27th.

 

The Wave Hill Garden is a non-profit garden run by New York City that provides educational programs for both adults and children. This summer 35 high school students are completing a 7 week internship on Forest Ecology. Emilie will be presenting a one-day workshop on soil ecology as a part of that class.

 

For more information about the internship and the Wave Hill Garden see:

http://www.wavehill.org/education/high_school_internships.html

 

Tom Virzi, a Ph.D. candidate in the Julie Lockwood lab, received funding from the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife, Endangered & Nongame Species Program.  Tom was awarded $15,000, to work in collaboration with them on data collection for the American Oystercatcher study.

 

Transitions:

Alison Seigel, Colleen Hatfield student, successfully defended her Master’s thesis titled “Avian Response to Urban Marsh Restoration” on July 8th.  Alison is continuing on as Ph.D. student in the E&E graduate program in the Julie Lockwood lab.