Eunice (who is getting ready to graduate soon) is finalizing her beautiful paintings of birds found at Avalonia Land Conservancy’s Knox Preserve. Paintings which will end up on educational signage that we are developing for the site to better inform the visiting public of the importance of managing bird habitat (and therefore invasive species) at Knox. But here’s a sneak preview of what the final paintings will look like:
Jacob and his poster on digital analysis of vegetation cover.
“JT” (Jordyn and Tracy) – Organic carbon gradients in a coastal Connecticut grassland
Very proud of my first group of research students – all five of whom presented posters at Trinity College’s 27th Annual Science Research Symposium. I’ve got high expectations for these students over the summer and (hopefully) next academic year!
By guest blogger Alex Perez (’17)
This semester, my independent study with Professor Cameron Douglass was based on creating a bike map for the city of Hartford. When I first arrived to Hartford and began biking around, I realized that there were a lack of bike lanes in the city, which made me not feel safe riding. Therefore, when Professor Douglass first told me about the opportunity to create the map, I was excited to work with him.
We created the map using ArcGIS, which I knew nothing about at first, but Professor Douglass was very helpful in teaching me how to use the program. Using ArcGIS, we developed a preliminary map (check it out here) with four different layers: one for existing bike lanes, one for additional bike lanes that would connect the existing lanes with each another, one for primary bike routes through Hartford, and another for routes outside the city.
I have really enjoyed working with Professor Douglass this semester to create a friendlier cycling environment for Hartford’s residents and visitors. In collaboration with other local transportation advocacy groups and colleagues at Trinity we hope to further advance this project by refining the current bike map and making it widely available to the public via the web. Ultimately, our goal is that individuals would be able to update and access the map on paper, on the web, and on mobile devices.
By guest blogger Eunice Kimm (’14)
Last Fall (2013) I started working on creating educational signs for the Avalonia Land Conservancy’s Knox Preserve near Mystic, CT. Avalonia is a non-profit organization that preserves over 3,000 acres of natural areas in southeastern Connecticut. Visitors frequently come to Knox Preserve to stroll the scenic paths, walk their dogs or watch birds, but many are unaware of underlying ecological issues – including invasive plant species – at the site.
The signs I am designing provide information on four types of habitat found at Knox Preserve: salt marshes, grasslands, coastal shrub lands, and stone walls in between these unique habitats that contain many different types of plants. Each sign will contain educational text and geographic data, as well as one or two drawings of common or important bird species found there. The sign covering the stone wall area will incorporate bird-banding data collected by Avalonia and volunteers since 1990, as well as GIS analyses to show how bird species demographics have changed over time. This visual representation will also show the influence of the area’s shifting habitats and invasive plant species. Hopefully, these signs will inform visitors about Avalonia’s efforts to manage these unique and valuable habitats at Knox Preserve, and restore critical bird nesting and stopover habitat to desirable native species .
Avalonia is an entirely volunteer-driven organization, and it is only through the work and dedication of devoted members that access to many of their properties is maintained. If people were better educated about what was really happening they might become more interested in helping with Avalonia’s efforts to protect this area.
Rough sketch of a yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens)
Welcome to the blog for Trinity College’s Invasive Plant Ecology Research Group. We study the impacts that invasive plant species are having in Connecticut’s diverse ecosystems using different laboratory and field experiments. Visit our Research Projects page for more information on ongoing and proposed projects, but head on over to our Lab Members page first to learn more about the folks involved in this research.