Volume 14, Number 5
September - October 1997

Director’s Note

This issue of the newsletter is about
ecology education. Recent stories have
highlighted the Institute’s role in ecology
education for elementary school students,
and for the many young scientists who have
participated in the lES Research Experi-
ences for Undergraduates program. Here,
we look at educational opportunities for
older students.

We recently compiled a list of lES graduate
students who, during the past two years,
have completed or are completing their
doctoral theses. There are 60 names on the
list. The newsletter cover story, grown from
a “reunion” photo of some of my students
from over the years, begins a series on the
graduate student experience.

Annual enrollment in the lES Continuing
Education Program now exceeds 1,600. As
the story on page 3 describes, indications
are that these adult students are becoming
“ecological ambassadors”, applying in their
professional and private lives the
techniques and approaches learned here.

The lES Newsletter is published by the
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, located
at the Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum in
Millbrook, New York.

Director: Gene E. Likens
Administrator:Joseph S. Warner

Head of Education: Alan R. Berkowitz
Newsletter editor: Jill Cadwallader

Address newsletter correspondence to
the editor at:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Education Program, Box R

Millbrook NY 12545-0178

or e-mail toJillcad@aol.com

Printing: Central Press, Millbrook, N.Y.

The Graduate Experience:

Dr. Likens’ Students Carry on the
Tradition of Leadership in Ecology

Some of Dr. Likens ’past and present graduate students attended
the recent Cary Conference at lES. L. to r, back : Dr. Stuart Fisher,
Arizona State Univ.; Dr. Lars Hedin, Cornell Univ.; Dr. Likens;
Mr. Gregory Lewis, Cornell Univ.; Dr. David Strayer, lES;
front: Dr. fonathanCole,IES;Dr. Judy Meyer, Univ. of Georgia,
Athens; Dr. Kathleen Weathers, lES.

The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study,
begun by Dr. Gene E. Likens and col-
leagues in 1963, is renowned for its
science. It was in the early days of this
long-term research program that Dr.
Likens documented the presence of acid
rain in North America. Study of a water-
shed in the Hubbard Brook Experimental
Forest, in the White Mountains of New
Hampshire, after a commercial whole-
tree harvest produced data relevant to
forestry practices such as clear-cutting.
Ecologists have been doing research at
Hubbard Brook for almost 30 years to
learn more about what factors regulate
songbird populations. Dr. Likens and
collaborators are studying the ecological
fate of the breakdown products of
chemicals that have replaced chlorof luo-
rocarbons as aerosol propellants and
refrigerants. And this is just a sampling;
over 50 projects are ongoing at the site.

Hubbard Brook has an educational com-
ponent as well, as an outdoor laboratory
for graduate student research. For stu-
dents to earn a master’s or doctoral degree
in ecology, they not only must complete
the required course work and pass an oral
and written examination, but also must
develop a thesis, do the research and then
defend the results of that research before

their advisor and their
graduate committee.
Research in ecology, almost
without exception, includes
field work; to a hungry
graduate student, the
Hubbard Brook Experi-
mental Forest is a smorgas-
bord of field sites and
interesting questions.

For Dr. Likens, training
graduate students to
become strong ecologists is
as important as is his own
research. Since 1965, he has
advised 38 students through
the typically two- to six-year
degree process; 11 have
received master’s degrees
and 27 their doctorates.
Most, but not all, have done
their graduate research at
Hubbard Brook. While all
merit a profile here, space
permits only a selection.

Jonathan Cole: Aquatic Microbiology

As an Amherst College undergraduate,

Mr. Cole was an advisee of Dr. Stuart
Fisher, who had been one of Dr. Likens’
first graduate students. It was his work
with Dr. Fisher that led Mr. Cole to
become Dr. Likens’ graduate student at
Cornell University. His Ph.D. thesis was on
bacterial and algal interactions in fresh-
water bodies; he did his research at Mirror
Lake, in the Hubbard Brook Valley. After
earning his doctorate in 1982, Dr. Cole
took a post-doctoral position at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institute, where he
continued his microbial decomposition
studies 14,000 feet under the ocean’s
surface on board the deep-sea submers-
ible A Ivin.

In fall 1983, the Institute of Ecosystem
Studies opened under the directorship of
Dr. Likens, and Dr. Cole was the first
ecologist to be hired at the assistant
scientist level. He brought with him
funding to study the role of molybdenum
in the nitrogen cycle of lakes and oceans
and to continue his deep-sea decomposi-
tion research. Among his current projects
are a study of carbon and phosphorus
budgets in Mirror Lake, in collaboration
with Dr. Nina Caraco and Dr. Likens, and

continued on page 2

Graduate Students, from page 1

Hudson River research, primarily dealing
with phytoplankton productivity. Dr. Cole
is also doing “whole-lake studies” in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In a paper
published last summer in Science, he and
Dr. Michael Pace described how preda-
tory fish directly affect biogeochemical
cycling, and presented whole-lake studies
as a model for biogeochemical cycling in
other ecosystems.

David Strayer: Freshwater Shellfish

Dr. Strayer came to lES as a post-doctoral
associate in fall 1983, also with a degree
from Cornell. With Dr. Likens as his grad-
uate advisor, he had done thesis research
on the benthic animals — the bottom-
dwellers — of Mirror Lake. In 1985, he
joined the Institute’s scientific staff. An
aquatic ecologist. Dr. Strayer is particu-
larly interested in the ecology of freshwa-
ter animals and is doing pioneering
research on the invasion of the Hudson
River ecosystem by the zebra mussel.

Another of Dr. Strayer’s interests is North
America’s freshwater clams. Of the
approximately 300 species, says the ecolo-
gist, only 25% are considered “secure”;
human impacts — water pollution and
habitat destruction — have given these
shellfish the dubious distinction of being
the most threatened of any group of
organisms in North America. Dr. Strayer
feels that to reverse the situation we must
understand the ecology of these animals,
and since 1990 he has been developing
ways to monitor mussel populations and
learn why the animals live where they do.
His main field site is the Neversink River,
near Port Jervis, N.Y., where, in collabora-
tion with the Lower Hudson Chapter of
the Nature Conservancy, he studies the
dwarf wedge mussel. These animals are
on the federal endangered species list
with only about two dozen populations
remaining in the world, all of them in
eastern North America; the Neversink
River has the second largest population.
After observing mussels at 270 quadrats
in the river. Dr. Strayer is finding that the
stability of the river bottom is more
important to the animals’ survival than
are more commonly considered param-
eters such as water depth, sediment size
and stream velocity.

Kathleen Weathers: Atmospheric
Deposition to Forests

As a master’s degree student at Yale
University early in the 1980s, Dr. Weathers
worked with Dr. F. Herbert Bormann, one
of the co-founders of the Hubbard Brook
Ecosystem Study, and was hired to collect

cloud water for a pilot project initiated by
Drs. Likens and Bormann. The project
developed into a nationwide study, and
Ms. Weathers ran it until fall 1986 when
she began a Ph.D. program at Rutgers
University. Dr. Likens was her advisor, and
her research, which was an offshoot of the
cloud water project, dealt with how
landscape features affect patterns of
atmospheric deposition. While working
toward her degree, she was appointed
manager of the laboratory facilities at the
Institute, and still devotes part of her time
to those responsibilities.

After completing her doctorate in 1993,
Dr. Weathers broadened the scope of her
research. She collaborates with Dr. Gary
Lovett on studies of nitrate concentra-
tions in stream water in the Catskill
Mountains and with Dr. Steward Pickett
and graduate student Mary Cadenasso on
atmospheric deposition to forest edges.
She is also the principal investigator for a
new study of how forests are fertilized by
nutrients from oceans and other sources,
being done on the island of Chiloe off the
coast of Chile. Dr. Weathers says that the
impact of nutrients via cloudwater there
are potentially large, with high levels of
nitrogen, and she hopes to learn if this is a
direct result of oceanic upwelling.

Lars Hedin: Forests as Biogeochemical
Systems

Dr. Hedin is another ecologist who does
research in Chile. A graduate student of
Dr. Likens in the late 1980s, Dr. Hedin did
research at Hubbard Brook on the effects
of air pollution on forest and aquatic
ecosystems. At the same time he began a
collaborative study, on Chiloe, with Dr.
Juan Armesto (an lES adjunct scientist) at
the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, with
a view toward establishing a parallel
project to the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem
Study. He received his doctorate from
Yale in 1989, and now is an Associate Pro-
fessor in the Section of Ecology and Sys-
tematics at Cornell University. His studies
of how forests work as biogeochemical
systems take him to Patagonia — because
southern Chile is one of the least polluted
regions on Earth, Dr. Hedin hopes to learn
how undisturbed forests function so that
he can better understand human effects
on those ecosystems.

The December 1996 edition of Scientific
A merican features an article on “Atmo-
spheric Dust and Acid Rain”. In it, co-
authors Hedin and Likens present
evidence that acid rain continues to have
harmful consequences, in spite of
regulations imposed by the Clean Air Act.

They propose that one reason for this may
be a reduction in atmospheric dust
particles, which carry minerals capable of
neutralizing acid rain, and suggest that
further reduction of acidic pollutants
may be the most effective solution.

Gregory Lewis: Linkages Between
Land and Water

Mr. Lewis is among the current group of
Dr. Likens’ students at Cornell. He did his
doctoral research in the Allegheny
National Forest in northwestern Pennsyl-
vania. There, in the early 1990s, an out-
break of elm span worm, a native species,
resulted in forest defoliation, with severe
damage to beech trees and moderate
damage to sugar maples and yellow birch.
Mr. Lewis studied the effects of this
defoliation on stream water chemistry in
two watersheds. He found that nitrate in
stream water increased during the defoli-
ation and remained high for two years
after the caterpillar population crashed
in 1994. These findings are consistent
with those from other studies of response
to deforestation — the experimental clear-
cut at Hubbard Brook, for example — in
which leaching of nitrate into streams
also was reported. Mr. Lewis is in the final
stages of finishing his thesis and has
accepted a postdoctoral position at the
Savanna River Ecology Laboratory in
Aiken, South Carolina, where he will
study the fate of radioisotopes in the
cooling reservoir of a nuclear reactor.

Dr. Likens’ philosophy is that graduate
training is a very special period in the
development of a scientist. “(The stu-
dents) need to learn skills and approaches
that will serve them well when they are
out on their own,” he believes, “ and I try
to help them develop independent skills
to the maximum extent possible.” And
because so many have done their field
work at Hubbard Brook, where Dr. Likens
continues to do research, he has had the
opportunity to work more closely with
them than might otherwise have been
possible. “I am very proud of the achieve-
ments of my students,” Dr. Likens says of
the many doctoral and masters’s degree
candidates with whom he has worked.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate to have
bright, creative students that at the same
time are nice people.”

Dr. Likens is currently supervising four
Ph.D. candidates in addition to Mr. Lewis,
all students at Cornell. Judging from the
successes of their predecessors, their
training will prepare them to continue
the tradition of scientific leadership.

lES Continuing Education Program Makes an Impact
on the Landscape

by William Montgomery, Program Leader- Continuing Education

“I will now try (because I know how) to use
ecologically-sound, non-chemical
controls,” wrote a student after complet-
ing the Insect Pests and Diseases of Plants
course taught at the Institute of Ecosys-
tem Studies by Ms. Caroline De Wilde,
Director of Horticulture at The New York
Botanical Garden. After Spring Wild-
flower Identification, instructed by lES
native plant gardener Judy Sullivan, a
participant said, “By learning more about
the world of wildflowers, I feel more
inspired to live an ecologically-friendly
lifestyle.” And following a Wetlands:
Ecology, Creation and Restoration workshop
led by lES aquatic ecologist Dr. Stuart E.G.
Findlay and others, a soil scientist wrote,
“After listening to the presentations, I can
clearly see the superficiality of my
consulting company’s approach to
wetland protection.”

Ecological leadership and educational
excellence are the primary goals of the
Institute’s Continuing Education Pro-
gram, which offers ecologically-focused
certificate programs in Landscape
Design, Gardening, and Natural Science
Illustration, as well as a number of
individual courses, workshops, and
excursions. Strengthening the ecological
perspective of existing programs and
developing new ecological programs are
priorities. During the academic year
ending in June, for example, 21 new
programs were introduced — more than

triple the number implemented six years
ago. Members of the Institute’s scientific,
gardening, and education staffs lead
many of the programs.

Students in the lES Continuing Education
Program come from across the northeast-
ern United States. They include young
people just starting out, and professionals
who are exploring new opportunities.
Some are owners and employees of local
landscaping and gardening companies
who want to learn more about the latest
and best methods in their field. Many are
homeowners who love their gardens and
want to make them even better. They are
couples and families who look forward to
the opportunity to learn and have fun at
the same time. Indications are that the
majority of these participants are leaving
with a better understanding of ecology
and its applications and that they are
using that understanding in their
professional and leisure pursuits.

Feedback from these participants is
important in evaluating the success of
each program and in fine-tuning future
offerings. Responses to a new question on
the evaluation form are demonstrating
the impact of programs on participants’
“tendency to apply ecologically-sound
principles”. On the average over the past
year, the tendency rating (on a 10-point
scale) “after” completing a program is 16%
higher than the rating “before”. Rating

changes have been particularly gratifying
for certain programs: 108% for Ecological
A Iternatives to Lawns and 58% for Ecologi-
cal Landscape Design: Successful Design with
Native Plants {for which lES Head of
Education Dr. Alan R. Berkowitz and I are
among the instructors). As documenta-
tion of the commitment to teach ecologi-
cal principles, even in core programs such
as Landscape Graphicsih'a.i are not clearly
ecological in focus, tendency to use
ecologically-sound principles ratings
“after” were considerably higher than the
ratings “before” — 67% higher in the case
of the graphics course.

Demonstration of ecological principles
for educational purposes on the Institute’s
grounds is another priority. A student
team — led by Dr. Bill Gundermann, Mr.
Eric Ewing, and Mr. Len Stevens — has
designed a plan for a model residential
ecological landscape at the Gifford
Tenant House, just east of the Gifford
House Visitor and Education Center. The
plan is now in the early stages of imple-
mentation, and lES visitors may notice
that a new red oak and seven eastern
white pine trees have been planted. In the
near future, students and visitors alike
will be able to use the Gifford Tenant
House landscape model to observe and
experience ecological design, implemen-
tation and management principles
applied attractively at a residential site.

The Institute’s mission is to create,
disseminate and apply knowledge about
ecological systems. The Institute’s
tradition is to accomplish this with a high
degree of excellence. The lES Continuing
Education Program strives to meet these
criteria, and evidence suggests that we are
succeeding.

S: * *

Editor’s note:yLx. William Montgomery
came to lES injanuary 1992, starting his
own second career with a master’s degree
from the Conway School of Landscape
Design. With a long-standing interest in
ecology and landscape architecture, he
focused the lES Continuing Education
Program to the Institute’s mission. Now,
after six years, Mr. Montgomery is
z moving on. The program that he has
S guided, however, will continue to imbue
5 landscape designers, gardeners, teachers
i and others with his high standards of
ecological and educational excellence.

Luanne Panarotti, left, program assistant for the lES Continuing Education Program, and Kathy
Austell, one of the editors of the program’s newsletter, “earthxuorks”.

INSTITUTE OF
ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
Education Program
BoxR

Millbrook, New York 12545-0178

Newsletter

Volume 14, Number 5
September - October 1997

Nonprofit Org.
US Postage
PAID

Millbrook, NY
Permit No. 16

100%

Recycled

Paper

Calendar

CONTINUING EDUCATION GREENHOUSE

lES ECOLOGY SHOP

The Winter/Spring 1998catalogue will be
available in mid-December. For program
information or a copy of the catalogue, call the
Continuing Education Program office at
914/677-9643. Upcoming holiday-season
“Natural Crafts” programs include:

Dec. 6: Fresh Green Holiday Wreath

Dec. 6: Raffia Angel

Dec. 13: Fresh Holiday Arrangement

SUNDAY ECOLOGY PROGRAMS

The lES greenhouse, a year-round tropical plant
paradise and a site for controlled environmental
research, is open until 3:30 p.m. daily except
public holidays. Admission is by free permit (see
“HOURS”).

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

For information on volunteering at lES, call
Su Marcy at 677-5359. One current need is for
Education Program volunteers, for data entry,
telephone answering and visitor reception.

Free public programs are held on the
first or second Sunday of the month.

Call 914/677-5359 to confirm the day’s
topic or, in case of poor weather, to learn
the status of the day’s program.

Meet at 2 p.m. at the Carriage House,
behind the Gifford House on Route 44A
for:

Dec. 7: An Origami “Ecosystem in
Winter”, led by Jill Cadwallader

lES SEMINARS

Free scientific seminars are held each
Friday at 11:00 a.m. at the lES Audito-
rium:

Judy K ilmer, right, has been a Perennial Garden xjolunteer
since summer 1994. Here she works in the greenhouse xoith
Display Gardener II Elizabeth Ashton.

Nov. 28: Thanksgiving Day, no seminar
Dec. 5: Bacterial Growth Efficiency. Dr. Fabio
Roland, lES Postdoctoral Associate (Juiz De Fora
Federal University, Brazil)

The seminar series will resume on Friday,
anuary 16.

Remember the Annual Holiday Sale at the
lES Ecology Shop ...

gifts, games, books, holiday and tropical
plants ... and refreshments
Friday, December 5: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday, December 6: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Sunday, December 7: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

HOURS

Winter hours: October 1 - April 30
Closed on public holidays
and during deer hunting season.
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 Ecology Shop is open Mon.- Fri., 11a.m.-
4 p.m.. Sat. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. & Sun. 1-4 p.m. (The shop is
closed weekdays from 1-1:30 p.m.)

* Free permits arc required for xxisitors and arc
available at the lES Ecology Shop or the Education
Program office daily until 3p.m.

New in the Shop _. great puzzles! ... key chains ...
picture frames ... for children ... puzzle books ...
beanbag animals ... ecology games ... and in the
Plant Room ... lovely hanging plants

•• Gift Certificates are available ••

Note: The lES Ecology Shop and the Plant Room
xvill be closed for renovation from Monday, Jan. 5,
through Friday, Jan. 16. They will reopen for
business on Saturday,Jan. 17.

MEMBERSHIP

Join the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Benefits
include subscription to the newsletter, member’s
rate for courses and excursions, a 10% discount
on lES Ecology Shop purchases, and participa-
tion in a reciprocal admissions piogram.
Individual membership: $30; family member-
ship: $40. Call Ms.Janice Claiborne at 677-5343.

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

TO CONTACT lES...

... for research, graduate opportunities, library
and administration:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Box AB

Millbrook NY 12545-0129
Tel: 914/677-5343 • Fax: 914/677-5976
Street address: Plant Science Building,

Route 44A, Millbrook, N.Y.

... for education, general information and the lES
Ecology Shop:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Education Program, Box R
Millbrook NY 12545-0178
Tel: 914/677-5359 • Fax: 914/677-6455
Street address: Gifford House Visitor and
Education Center, Route 44A, Millbrook, N.Y.

www.marist.edu /~ies
Under development www.ecostudies.org