Newsletter

Volume 12, Number 4
July - August 1995

Director’s Note

lES scientists have served as mentors in the
National Science Foundation-funded Research
Experiences for Undergraduates Program
(pages 2-3) for eight years. During this time,

74 college students' — primarily those about to
begin their junior or senior years — have spent
their summers here doing independent
ecological studies of their own design .

The program’s coordinators survey former
participants to learn how the program may
have affected their career choices. Responses to
a 1 993 questionnaire showed that a majority of
the students from the 1 988-1992 programs
were working toward advanced degrees in
science or medicine. Several chose careers as
scientific librarians, as educators and as
environmental consultants. Some students were
as yet undecided. A second survey is about to
be sent to all alumni for more detailed
statistical analysis.

In today ’s rapidly changing world there is a
greatneed forwell-trained scientists. We are
proud of the role TES plays in supporting and
encouraging the scientific interests ofso many
young people.

The lES Newsletter is published by the
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, located at the
Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum in Millbrook,
New York. All newsletter correspondence
should be addressed to the editor.

Gene E. Likens, Director
Joseph S. Warner, Administrator
Alan R. Berkowitz, Head of Education

Editor: Jill Cadwallader
Printing: Central Press

INSTITUTE OF ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
Education Program
Box R (Route 44A)

Millbrook, NY 12545-0178
(914) 677-5359

Dr. Likens Wins Top Awards

In mid-summer, Dr. Gene E. Likens,
Director of the Institute of Ecosystem
Studies, received the world’s highest award
for limnology as well as the Ecological
Society of America’s most coveted prize.

Late in July, Dr. Likens traveled to Sao
Paolo, Brazil to attend the 26th Congress of
the International Association for Theoretical
and Applied Limnology. There, at the
closing ceremonies. Association President
Professor Dr. Petur Jonasson awarded him
the Einar Naumann-August Thienemann
Medal and told the audience that “this is
the highest international honor bestowed
upon a limnologist”. The medal, awarded
only every three years, is given to scientists
who have contributed greatly to the
development of limnology, which is the
scientific study of the physics, chemistry,
geology and biology of inland waters. The
citation for Dr. Likens stated that the award
was “for his profound contributions to the
fields of nutrient cycling and biogeochemis-
try, particularly for his seminal research in
land-water relationships and for his
extraordinary leadership in the promotion of
ecosystem science”.

Several days later, on August 1, Dr. Likens
attended the 80th annual meeting of the
Ecological Society of America (ESA) and
received the Society’s 1995 Eminent
Ecologist Award for outstanding contribu-
tions to the science of ecology. Sharing the
award was Dr. F.H. Bormann, Emeritus
Professor of Forestry and Environmental
Studies at Yale University; Drs. Likens and
Bormann are co-founders of the Hubbard
Brook Ecosystem Study. In presenting the
award, ESA President Dr. Judy Meyer said
that what Drs. Likens and Bormann have
accomplished and fostered at Hubbard
Brook “epitomizes the concept of a
sustained and distinguished contribution” to
ecology and biological science. The
Eminent Ecologist Award is given to senior
scientists whose work meets this criterion.

Among the approximately 2,300 attendees
at the ESA meeting were 19 scientists and
educators from the Institute as well as four
members of the lES Board of Trustees.

Dr. Likens traveled to Brazil and Utah from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he
spends each summer working at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. This forest is the site of the
Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES), an ecological research program that he and three
colleagues — Dr. F. Herbert Bormann (see text), and Dr. Robert S. Pierce (U.S. Forest Service) and
Dr. Noye M. Johnson (Dartmouth College), both of whom are deceased — developed in 1 963. HBES
quickly became a model for long-term ecosystem research and currently is a field site for studies by
dozens of investigators and their students. Among Dr. Likens ' many on-going HBES research
projects are a long-term study of the biogeochemistry of calcium in forest watersheds and associated
aquatic ecosystems — the project recognized by the ESA 's Emminent Ecologist Award — and a study
to determine if the chemicals replacing chlorofluorocarbons are environmentally safe. In addition, he
supervises the laboratory and field work of his graduate students.

Here, Dr. Likens stands by a precipitation collector, one of his research tools at Hubbard Brook.

For most of their lives, students learn
science as passive consumers of the fruits of
others’ efforts. The Institute’s Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
Program gives students a chance to be
producers of ecological knowledge.

Funding from the National Science
Foundation (NSF)* since 1988 and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 1994
allows students to become integral parts of
the lES community each summer to conduct
independent research in ecology.

The lES program goes beyond hands-on
research, emphasizing other dimensions of
the scientific enterprise as well. Through
discussions and seminars, students learn
how to ask good questions, design success-
ful studies, make convincing presentations
and write effective papers. Program
directors Drs. Alan Berkowitz, Stuart
Findlay and Steward Pickett, together with
REU coordinator Ms. Stephanie Shoemaker
and the scientist mentors, make the social
construction of knowledge a part of the
REU student experience. The group also
explores the broader contexts — socio-
economic, intellectual, political, ethical and
personal — within which research takes
place. Finally, the REU group probes the
issue of diversity — of research style,
disposition and background — to gain a
deeper sense of the benefits it brings to the
scientific enterprise and the challenges we
all face in fostering such diversity.

The three-month program begins late in
May. In 1995, 220 college undergraduates
from across the country applied for the 10
REU internship positions at lES. Eight of
the recipients were supported by the NSF
grant, and a donation to the Institute by The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through its
Minority Undergraduate Fellowship
Program, supported two additional stu-
dents. Also in 1995, supplemental grants
from NSF and The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation supported Dr. Charles H. Nilon
as a fourth program director.

Dr. Nilon: Scientist and Mentor

Good role models are important, especially
in a program that aims to reinforce and
strengthen a young person’s resolve to
tackle a challenging career in science. As

* The goal of NSF in developing the REU
program was to improve science education in the
U.S. and to help assure an adequate supply of
top-notch scientists, mathematicians and
engineers for the future. Many institutions
compete for annual NSF funds to support REU
students, and consistently lES has been among
the recipients.

Total Immersion in Research and Research-in-Context for Summer Students

the REU student body increased in diversity
over the past eight years, the project
directors realized a need to increase the
diversity of the project leaders. Position
announcements for a visiting scientist were
sent to scientific colleagues nationwide, and
Dr. Charles Nilon, associate professor of
wildlife management at the University of
Missouri-Columbia, was selected.

During Dr. Nil on’s stay at the Institute, he
was involved both in his own research and
with the REU program. Flis research
interests lie in the area of urban ecology,
specifically how mammals, primarily, but
also some reptiles and amphibians, use
habitat patches in cities. His existing
research plots are in New York City,
Kansas City, Chicago and Columbia,
Missouri. While at lES, he not only set up
additional grids in New York City but also
established grids in the Institute’s forests
and at Fordham University’s Calder
Ecology Center in Armonk, N.Y. At these
sites he studied how the numbers of small
mammals relate to vegetation structure and
composition. In the New York City plots,
he found six mammal species. The white-
footed mouse was by far the most common,
comprising 60-75% of all captures,
followed by chipmunks and gray squirrels;
short-tail shrews, meadow voles and the
southern flying squirrel were present in
smaller numbers. The City Parks Founda-
tion has noted a high amount of seed and
seedling predation, and Dr. Nilon is trying
to learn more about whether the urban
mammals he studies are responsible.

In his position as an REU project director.
Dr. Nilon put on his educator’s hat. At the
University of Missouri, he is involved with
the McNair Program, a U.S. Department of
Education initiative designed to encourage
low-income, first-generation college
students to continue on to graduate school
and Ph.D. programs in science and social
science. He brought his experience with this

and other projects involving students in
science to his work in the lES REU
program. He organized and moderated one
of the regularly scheduled Research-in-
Context afternoon workshops for REU
students, discussing “Diversity in the
Scientific Community”. And he still had
time to be a mentor — a scientific advisor
and collaborator — for Mr. Erik C.
Peterson, an REU student from Fordham
University, Bronx, N.Y. (see box).

The Students

REU students work independently in
collaboration with a scientific mentor,
designing their own studies, doing field
and/or laboratory research and analyzing
results. In late August they present their
findings at a symposium attended by
Institute staff and members of the public.
Final reports are published by the institute
as an lES Occasional Publication.

Research is not the only learning opportu-
nity the students enjoy during their summer
at the Institute. At a mid-summer Forum on
Opportunities in Ecology, REU Program

participants, together with students from
nearby colleges and universities, meet with
professionals from science-related fields.
This program offers an opportunity to
experience vicariously the challenges and
rewards of careers in academia, museum
curatorship, field research, science writing,
education, consulting, industry, city
government, environmental research and
environmental law, among others.

This year, for the third time, REU students
became teachers-for-a-day, working with
at-risk high school students through the
Liberty Environmental Science Academy
(ajoint program of Bank Street College of
Education, New York City and Bard
College, Annandale, N.Y.), and demon-
strating their research at field sites around
the Institute. Weekly REU seminars
focused on Research Strategies, about
scientific methods, theory, etc., and
Research-in-Context, designed to help
students put their own research into the
broader perspective of the discipline of
ecology, the scientific community and
society in general.

Research-in-Context Series:

Case Study, New York City
Water Supply

One component of the 1994 and 1995 REU
Research-in-Context series was a case
study to engage the students in considering
the interface between ecological research,
public policy and social concerns. The
students were confronted with New York
City’s water dilemma; it is the only city in
America with a population of over one
million that does not need to filter its
drinking water. However, if the city’s water
fails to meet new Environmental Protection
Agency standards, the water will have to be
filtered at a cost of approximately $6 billion
to build a new filtration plant plus $300
million in annual operating expenses.

The students were asked to consider what
the different perspectives on the issue might
be and whom they would like to hear from
in considering the science/society interface
in this matter. Representatives invited to a
panel discussion included Ms. Deborah
DeWan from The Catskill Center; Mr. J.
Wolfe Tone from the New York City
Department of Environmental Protection;
Mr. Dick Coombe, chairperson of the
Whole Farm Program; and Dr. Peter
Groffinan from lES. Together, they
addressed a series of questions covering all
sides of the water issue.

At the final meeting, students considered
ways that ecological research influenced
and was influenced by the unfolding New

York City water supply issue. After a lively
group discussion of the points about which
the students were most excited, sub-groups
produced written statements summarizing
students’ views on the key issues. The
combined statement will be included in the
lES Occasional Publication reporting
research findings of the 1995 REU Program.

1995 REU students and their individual
research projects were:

• Anna E. Arreola (Stanford University,
Stanford, Ca.): A comparison of denitrifica-
tion among three vegetation types in a
freshwater marsh. Dr. Peter M.

Groffman, mentor.

• Dawn Berggren (Univ. of Florida,
Gainesville, FI.): Leaf development and
consumer attack: An analysis of field
patterns. Dr. Clive G. Jones, mentor.

• Amy Burtelow (Douglass College,

Rutgers Univ., Brunswick, N..!.): Short and
long term effects of earthworms on
denitrification in the forest floor. Dr.
Patrick Bohlen, mentor.

• Melissa R. Finn (Fairfield Univ.,

Fairfield, Ct.): The effect of submerged
aquatic macrophytes on sediment
porewater chemistry. Drs. Cathleen
Wigand and Stuart E.G. Findlay, mentors.

• Rima B. Franklin (Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.): An exami-
nation of food web dynamics: Does carbon
availability affect species abundance in
the hyporheic zone of a small stream?

Dr. Stuart E.G. Findlay, mentor.

• Heather M. Hill (Clark Atlanta Univ.,
Atlanta, Ga.): Small mammal tree-seed
predators along forest edges. Di'. Richard
S. Ostfeld, mentor.

• Phoebe .1. Lam (Massachusetts Institute
ofTechnology, Cambridge, Ma.); The
effect of food quality on growth and
reproduction of zooplankton. Drs. Nina
F.M. Caraco and Michael L. Pace,
mentors.

• Rachel H. Levine (Wesleyan Univ.,
Middletown, Ct.): Responses o/' Vibernum
acerifolium (maple leaf vibernum) and
Ostrya virginiana (American ironwood) to
intact edges, thinned edges and gaps.

Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett, mentor.

• Erik C. Peterson (Fordham Univ., Bronx,
N.Y.): Species composition of the herba-
ceous vegetation along an urban-to-rural
gradient. Dr. Charles H. Nilon, mentor.

• Beth L. Sparks (Juniata College,
Huntingdon, Pa.): The effects of low
dissolved oxygen on juveniles q/’ Elliptio
complanata . a freshwater clam. Dr. David
L. Strayer, mentor.

Applications for the summer 1996 REU Program are now available.
Deadline for application is February 15, 1996.

REU Research: Oak Forests Get Special Attention

Mr. Erik Peterson designed his REU study
to pursue his interest in forests. He chose to
investigate how the species composition of
groundlayer vegetation — specifically
herbaceous plants under one meter in
height — differed from the city to rural
areas. To accomplish this, he chose oak
stands that were being studied both by
scientists involved in the Institute’s Urban-
to-Rural Gradient Ecosystem Study and by
Dr. Nilon and his University of Missouri
graduate student Ramona Weidel. His
research sites were Inwood Hill Park in
Manhattan, N.Y. (urban), the Calder
Ecology Center (suburban) and lES (rural).

Previous studies of forest canopy trees have
found that the proportion of native species
to exotic (non-native) species is lower in
urban forest stands and higher in rural
stands. Mr. Peterson sampled all vegeta-
tion under one meter in height at each of 75
one square-meter quadrats at the three sites
along the gradient for a total of 225
samples. He found that while there was no
significant difference in the numbers of
exotic species at urban and rural sites, the

number of native species, as seedlings,
was significantly higher in the urban
forests. An explanation for this finding in
light of what has been learned previously
about canopy species is pending further
research.

Previous studies at Inwood Hill Park
suggest that the canopy species —
primarily oak — are not regenerating. Mr.
Peterson had selected oak stands for his
research to learn if this situation extended
across the gradient, and found that,
indeed, oak trees are not doing well.

While two of the three lES sampling grids
showed oak regeneration (i.e., oak
seedlings were well represented in the
square-meter quadrats), one did not, and
none of the grids in New York City or at
the Calder Ecology Center showed signs
of oak regeneration. (Mr. Peterson noted
that the latter site had very little ground-
level vegetation at all, and hypothesized
that this was due to a no hunting policy
that has resulted in over-browsing by
deer.)

Dr. Charles Nilon (left), one of the 1995 Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program
directors and mentors, and his REU student Erik Peterson studied small mammals and vegetation
structure in oak forests. Here they are identifying herbaceous plants growing in a square meter of
forest on the Arboretum 's Tea House Hill.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
Winter/Spring semester catalogues are being sent
to all lES members and Continuing Education
Program students in mid-December. Copies also
will be available at the Gifford House. The winter
semester begins during the third week of January .
Early winter classes and workshops include:

Landscape Design
Jan. 1 7 (7 sessions): Graphics
Jan. 30 (6 sessions): Principles of Landscape
Design

Gardening

Jan. 1 8 (6 sessions): Commercial Greenhouse
Management

Jan. 20: Ornamental Grasses in the Garden
Feb. 3: Hows of Houseplants
Feb. 3 : Developing Ecologically-Sound Nursery
and Landscape Practices
Feb. 5 (6 sessions): FundamentalsofGardening
Workshops

Feb. 4: Perennials in the Mixed Border

Other Courses

Jan. 20: Astronomy of the Winter Skies
Jan. 27: Buds and Bark: Winter Tree Identifica-
tion

Call 914/677-9643 for information.

SUNDAY ECOLOGY PROGRAMS
Free public programs are held on the first and
third Sunday ofthe month, except over holiday
weekends. (No programs are scheduled for January.)
Last-minute changes are sometimes unavoidable, so
call 9 1 4/677-5359 to confirm the day’s topic. In
case of poor weather, call 677-5358 after 1 p.m. to
learn the status ofthe day’s program. The following
programs begin at 2 p.m. at the Gifford House,
except as otherwise noted’'' :

Feb. 4: Echoes of the Ancient Skies, a program for
children and their families (* to be held at the lES
auditorium)

Feb. 18: Holiday weekend (no program)

Calendar

Sunday Ecology Programs, continued
Mar. 3: Human Accelerated Environmental
Change, a presentation by Dr. Gene E. Likens (’" to
be held at the lES Auditorium)

lES SEMINARS

The Institute’s program offree scientific seminars
features presentations by visiting scientists each
Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the lES Auditorium:

Jan. 12:Tobeannuonced

Jan. 19: Topic: Interaction strength in terrestrial
food webs. Speaker: Dr. Oswald Schmitz, School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Univ.

Jan. 26: Topic: Adaptive sampling techniques.
Speaker: Dr. Steven K. Thompson, Penn State Univ.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
The lES Volunteer Program is looking for enthusias-
tic women and men interested in working with
Institute staff for a few hours (or more) each week at
the Gifford House Visitor and Education Center. The
wish I ist inci udes salespeople in the Gift and Plant
Shop; gregarious individuals to greet visitors and
assistwith public education programs; andthose
whose organizational abilities help to make office
work go more smoothly. For information on
responsibilities and benefits, call Su Marcy, lES
volunteer coordinator, at 914/677-5359.

GREENHOUSE

The lES greenhouse, ayear-roundtropical plant
paradise and asite for controlled environmental
research, is open until 4:00 p.m. daily except public
holidays. Admission is by free permit (see “Hours”).

lES HOME PAGE

The Institute is on the World Wide Web. Visit the
lES home page at:

wvwv.marist.edu/~ies/

Note: With some software, you may need to use:

http://www.marist.edu/~ies/

HOURS

Winter hours: October 1 - April 30
Closed on public holidays.

Roadways are closed when snow-covered.
Public attractions are open Mon. - Sat., 9 a.m. -
4 p.m. & Sun. 1 -4 p.m., with a free permit.

The lES Gift and Plant Shop is open Mon.- Sat.,

1 1 a.m. - 4 p.m. & Sun. 1 -4 p.m. (The shop is closed
weekdays from 1 - 1 :30 p.m.)

Note: The Shop will close at 3 p.m. on Sunday,
December 24 and on Sunday, December 31.

•All visitors must pick up a free permit at the
Gifford House Visitor and Education Center on
Route 44A for access to IBS public attractions.
Permits are available until 4 p.m. daily.

lES GIFT AND PLANT SHOP
January Sale: Discounts all month!!

Newin theShop...poinsettiaandwildflower
sweatshirts... lES sweatshirts in great new colors ...

1 996 nature calendars (bats, butterflies, frogs,
songbirds and many more) ... Sierra Club holiday
card sets... for children ...animal finger puppets...
Peterson’s First Guides ... nature games ... and in the
Plant Shop ... holiday plants ... cacti ... pruners,
trimmers and knee pads for gardeners
Senior Citizens Days: 10% off on Wednesdays

MEMBERSHIP

Become a member of the Institute of Ecosystem
Studies. Benefits include amember's rate for lES
courses and excursions, a 1 0% discount on Gift Shop
purchases, a free subscription to the lES Newsletter
and participation in a reciprocal admissions program,
with benefits at over 1 00 nature centers, forest
preserves, gardens and conservatories in the U.S. and
Canada. Individual membership is $30; family
membership is $40. For information, call Ms. Janice
Claiborne at 9 14/677-5343.

The Institute’s Aldo Leopold Society: In addition
to receiving the benefits listed above, members of The
A1 do Leopol d Society are invited guests at spring and
fall lES science updates. Call Ms. Jan Mittan at
914/677-5343 for information.

For general information, call the lES Education Program Office at the Gifford House Visitor and Education Center:

914/677-5259 weekdays from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

INSTITUTE OF
ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
Education Program
Box R

Millbrook, New York 12545-0178

Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
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Newsletter

Volume 12, Number 4
July - August 1995

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