Sustainability Roundtable Talks at Trinity

Posted on September 25, 2015 by cgeiss

by Isabelle Moore (’18)

The first sustainability roundtable meeting organized by Green Campus and the ENVS program.

Yesterday was the first of what I hope will become a series of Sustainability Roundtable Talks at Trinity. The goal of the event, which was organized by Green Campus and the Environmental Science Program, was to bring together students, faculty, and staff members within the Trinity community who are each in some way involved in sustainability efforts on campus.

Despite a bit of a rocky start, (and only a few days to put this event together) we managed to get a roomful of about 20 students, staff, and faculty. After everyone got food and introductions were made, people got to voice different sustainability concerns present on campus as well as propose possible solutions.

We touched on topics such as up and coming compost projects, energy efficient lighting in the library (our best-lit building on campus), and on campus parking (a daily struggle for all). The overwhelming conclusion of the event was that a lot of cool sustainability projects are going down at Trinity. What we need to work on now is doing a better job of publicizing them.

Grand Unveiling at the Knox Preserve

Posted on July 19, 2015 by cgeiss

Gathering at the Knox Preserve under the watchful eye of several ferocious guard dogs.

Members of the Avalonia Land Conservancy and Trinity’s ENVS program spent Saturday morning at the Knox Preserve in Stonington, CT to unveil four interpretative signs that outline the major habitats of the Knox Preserve. the signs were designed by Eunice Kimm (’14) as part of her integrating experience. During her senior year Eunice worked closely with Drs. Cameron Douglass and Joan Morrison, identifying and drawing birds that are common at the preserve and designing the signs.

Eunice Kimm (’14) enjoying the sunset at Fimmvörðuháls in southern Iceland during our 2014 field trip to iceland.

The event started with lots of good food from the First and Last Bakery and a few short introductory statements by Beth Sullivan from the Avalonia Land Conservancy and Cameron Douglass from Trinity College. Beth thanked all the volunteers who help to maintain the preserve and came out at the crack of dawn to install the signs. Cameron told us about the ecological value of the preserve, the Conservancy’s efforts to combat invasive species and, and Connectiut’s unofficial state plant.

Beth Sullivan and Cameron Douglass standing between us and the coffee. :-(

Beth Sullivan and Cameron Douglass (with borrowed hat!) standing between us and the coffee. :-(

The unveiling took only seconds (I almost missed it), but Cameron kept us entertained by introducing us to the various habitats and the management challenges associated with each.

The moment of truth – no, don’t tell us about any typos!

We then went on a short walk through the preserve, learning about the history of the site and the ongoing research performed by Cameron, Joan and their students.

In the meadow part of the preserve.

Trinity crew with one of Eunice's signs. Sarah, Emily, Cameron with Parker (class of '36), Christoph (luriing Parker with some coffee), and saintly Preston (who still acts surprisingly normal after spending weeks with Cameron's all-female research crew)

Trinity crew with one of Eunice’s signs. Sarah, Emily, Cameron with Parker (class of ’36), Christoph (luring Parker with some coffee), and saintly Preston (who still acts surprisingly normal after spending weeks with Cameron’s all-female research crew)

Wildflowers galore!

You can learn more about the Avalonia Land Conservancy and the Knox Preserve by visiting the Conservancy’s website or reading Beth Sullivan’s blog. You can see Eunice’s signs for yourself by visiting the preserve and hiking the trails. Directions to the site are here – just don’t mess with Cameron’s flagging tape!

ENVS seniors celebrate Earth Day with honors presentations

Posted on April 22, 2015 by cgeiss

Dan, Justin and Prof. Gourley in the White Mountains

This afternoon the second batch of senior presentations started off with Bridget, who reported on the Bridges of Hartford and how they affect heavy metal concentrations in the Park River watershed. Bridget was supposed to present last week, but was too busy beating The College of New Jersey in Lacrosse (15-8).

Greg was next, updating us on invasive species work at Knox Preserve in Southington, CT. He investigated the effects of various treatments (mowing, spraying with herbicides) on plant populations, ecosystem diversity and invasive species abundances. His research is part of a longer research effort by Prof. Douglass on invasive species management.

Greg presenting his research

Lia told us about her analysis of soil temperature data that had been collected since 2007. She had some bad news for us: soil temperatures had increased by an average of 0.25C per year, and two of the thermocouples need replacing. Jon and I will get right on it once the semester is over.

On we moved to the White Mountains: Justin presented baseline data for aluminum and calcium concentrations in forest soils prior to clear cutting. Dan analyzed the same sites for mercury and organic matter concentrations. Their work is the beginning of a long-term study on the effects of clear cutting on forest soils in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Justin explaining some finer points of his statistical analyses.

Brooke finished the afternoon on a high-note presenting her mineral analyses of lake sediments from Otsego Lake, NY. Brooke used X-Ray Diffraction to quantify the abundance of terrigenous materials in lake sedimenst and reconstruct storm events. Her analyses confirmed the influence of eralier storms and revealed a period of low lake levels between 2000 – 6000 years B.P.

Brooke’s lake-level model.

ENVS Senior Presentations Show off Wide Range of Research Interests

Posted on April 20, 2015 by cgeiss

Ben presenting his research on stone walls

Last Wednesdays ENVS students and faculty were treated to a series of senior presentations about our student’s integrating experience. Maria kicked it off with a talk on altruism and organic markets, finding consumers of large-scale organic markets (think Whole Foods etc.) act mostly for selfish reasons (healthier, better for me), while shoppers in a local neighborhood co-op in Spain cited mostly social and community reasons for shopping at the co-op.

Shoppers at a small neighborhood co-op – image M. Wachtman

Rose and Kate presented their work performed while abroad with the School for Field Studies. Rose studied water management in the Ambroseli region of Kenya, while Kate told us about skinks from Whakatiwai regional park in new Zealand.

Shaina and Jenna both introduced us to their mapping projects. Shaina presented interactive maps of schools within the Park River watershed, while Jenna showed off her GIS wizardry skills estimating plant biomass based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).

NDVI index for Know Preserve, Avalonia Land Conservancy, Stonington, CT. – image by J. Wilborne

Alessandro and Tori presented research on magnetic properties of lake sediments and data from our weather station respectively, while Ben brought us up to date on current animal studies on and around the stone walls (and compost piles) on professor Smedley’s property.

Our senior presentations will continue this Wednesday with five seniors presenting the results of their honors theses. Presentations will be held on 4/22 in McCook 115 from 1:30 until the bitter end.
Refreshments will be served.
(so, please come – Jon orders too much food anyway)

Invasive plants: good, bad or just ugly?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by cgeiss

Can you spot the invasive plant(s)? Cameron’s study site near Mystic, CT

Cameron Douglass, our postdoctoral fellow, will give a research talk entitled “Invasive plants: good, bad or just ugly?” on Friday, April 3rd at 3PM in the McCook Auditorium. I hope you all can make it. here is the abstract to Cameron’s talk:

Invasive plants are thought to cause many negative ecological impacts, but new research suggests that they may also play beneficial roles. The problem is that we know little about how the properties of individual invasive species or groups of them might drive those impacts. Our research focuses on this problem, and uses a nature preserve near Mystic, CT to study whether invasive plants are as problematic as advertised, or rather are just misunderstood.

Refreshments will be available after the talk.

Summer Research Roundup – Part 1

Posted on September 30, 2014 by cgeiss

The weed lab crew in the field.

Four months ago the summer 2014 field season started for the Weed Lab crew, and despite what the picture shows (Tracy and Dr. D not pictured) we got a ton of work done at the Knox Preserve in Mystic. All told 850 soil samples were collected, an especially mean feat considering that half the site is densely forested. Most of the summer was spent analyzing moisture, salinity and carbon levels in the collected soils. But twice during the summer we re-visited sampling plots established last fall to monitor plant community responses to the removal of invasive plants by measuring plant species diversity, abundance, canopy cover and changes in the morphology of specific species. We worked hard, had some fun too, and now have a ton of data to start sifting through!

ENVS kicks off the semester with a pre-orientation program

Posted on August 25, 2014 by cgeiss

At Riverside Park

For the first time the ENVS program offered a pre-orientation program centered around the water quality in Hartford’s public parks. However, students will not only explore Hartford’s rivers, they will also get an opportunity to sample some of Hartford’s restaurants. As it turns out, our program was the only one that did NOT treat their participants to delicious Mather food, but took them to Riverside Park for a nice little barbecue. Joan forgot the veggie burgers, but luckily she was the only vegetarian of the group, and we fed her plenty of watermelon and potato chips.

Members of the Class of 2018

Some of the younger members of the Class of 2018

Tomorrow the students will explore several of Hartford’s parks, hike up to Heublein Tower for lunch, and take the first water quality measurements.

Gray is the New Black: Epilogue 1 – to Múlaskáli

Posted on July 21, 2014 by cgeiss

downtown Höfn during rush hour

Things are definitely happening in Höfn. Its claim to fame is that it’s one of the few (only?) good natural harbors on the southern coast of Iceland. It has a town hall, a public pool, a small fleet of fishing boats and a few bars. After an hour of strolling through the town we’ve seen it all and start recognizing the locals.

Höfn harbor

We continue our quest for the best hot dog in Iceland and so far the local Olís station is the clear winner. We have three dogs each and wash it down with some fine 3.5% Tuborg.

The next day at 9AM we meet Sissi our superjeep driver from Fjallastakkur, who takes us to the trail head at Illikambur. It was definitely worth the money! We cross an impressive river, which would have been a major pain to cross on foot. Lauren would have had a blast!

View from Illikambuur back towards the coast.

View from Illikambur back towards the coast.

The trail down to the Múlaskáli hut.

Taking advantage of a warden-less hut.

After an hour we arrive at a small parking lot at the edge of a deep gorge. From there it is a short 30-minute walk to the hut at Múlaskáli. We share the hut and campsite with Nigel, a 50-something year old hiker from Hull in England. Since there is no warden or caretaker at the hut we set up our tent between some birch trees. The hut has a beautiful, flag-less flag pole and for the first time our Trinity flag flies high and proud for a photo op before we move it closer to our tent.

No need to start an international incident: the flag goes into a birch tree by our tent.

In the afternoon we go on a short hike up a nearby mountain. The weather is not particularly bad, but the clouds are low and the trails start out steep. With only a light daypack it feels like flying up those mountains.

View across the valley.

Jon finds a new chair for his office.

No, we are not lost, but one member of he expedition is taking a long time to take photographs, leaving plenty of time to ponder the map.

We make it almost to the top, but reach the clouds and snow just below the summit. Since the inside of every cloud looks pretty much the same we turn around and return to our camp site.

Öxarfellsjökull, a small glacier coming off the Vatnajökull ice cap.

Waiting for the photographer – again…

Scree slope at the angle of repose.

At camp we explore the hut, which is very nice, cook dinner, plan tomorrow’s hike and go to bed early.

Making good use of the Múlaskáli hut.

back to the regular trip
still not enough? onward to day 2 of our Ljónsoræfi adventure

ENVS Students Participate in Barry Square Clean-up

Posted on May 5, 2014 by cgeiss

This Saturday more than a dozen of our majors took a break from studying and volunteered their time to the Barry Square Neighborhood Organization. The students met Hyacinth Yennie (P ’06) at 9AM in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. After a few bagels and the obligatory T-shirts the group picked up trash along Maple Street.

The Perks of Volunteering

Posted on May 5, 2014 by cgeiss

Last week I spent an afternoon at a nearby elementary school teaching 3rd graders about rocks. The already knew about the rock cycle, but their hand samples were pretty mediocre – pebble size, maybe. So I loaded up our cart with a couple hundred pounds of rocks and spent the afternoon teaching those kids on “How to become a rock-detective”. It was fun and I got some cool thank-you letters back. Mackenzie clearly remembered what volcanic bombs look like:
The students wrote thank you letters and asked follow up questions. Here are a few:

Q: What is your favorite rock?
A: A blue schist from Russian River, CA

Q: On a scale from 1 to 1,000,0000 how much do you like your job?
A: 999,980 (nothing is perfect, but some things come close)

Q: What do you teach those College kids?
A: Lots of stuff: Geology, Physics, Climatology, how to do research and plenty more

Q: How much money do you make?
A: Enough to feed my wife, kids, two dogs, and a cat.

Q: What do you do all day?
A: I teach, do research, visit nosy 3rd graders, spend too much time in meetings.

And, finally, I received an awesome portrait, drawn by an amazing artist.
I must say my new friend Angelo got it right: flannel shirt, rolled up sleeves, beard, glasses, rock cart (note the ripple marks on the sandstone!!) – the works.

:-)

The Extension of my Arm

News from Trinity's Environmental Science Program

Category Archives: program stuff