September 2023: A very busy summer comes to an end. Some highlights:
Our MacroGas project was busy in the field, focusing on New Hope Creek. Many surveys were made, sensors deployed, gas sampled, floating chambers constructed, and RShiny apps built. Lots of data to parse through!
Attended and presented at ESA in Portland, OR. Great to see so many faces from UGA, NCSU, La Selva, and Duke, and new friends made on Bob Hall's beer tour
August 2023: Big job alert! I will be starting at the Jones Center at Ichauway in a Scientist position, studying Hydrology and Biogeochemistry of the Coastal Plain. Thrilled to return to the Jones Center and to work in the Lower Flint River basin again. More things to come on this front!
March 2023: Very excited to see a new paper from the STREAMS project in Biogeochemistry, led by Marcelo Ardon. Using two sources of long-term data at La Selva, we determined the extent to which tree growth predicts stream N concentrations, and raised more questions than we answered! Excited to see this out and for new investigations!
January 2023: Happy New Year! And happy to be a part of the MacroGas project, led by Drs. Amanda Delvecchia (UNC) and Emily Bernhardt (Duke). I'll be coordinating field work in New Hope Creek and helping with modeling ecosystem metabolism in New Hope Creek and the NEON sites with undergraduate and graduate students from both schools
October 22: Participated in the Geoscience Teaching Outdoors program on a field tour of ghost forests in coastal NC. We took ~20 K-12 teachers into the field and discussed forested wetlands and forested wetland loss as a result of sea-level rise
October 8-10: Taught the Wetlands of Coastal North Carolina (ENV 792) course. The students explored coastal wetlands on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsular and the Outer Banks, seeing the range of salinity and the effects of sea-level rise on these ecosystems.
August 29 2022: FDOC at Duke! I'm thrilled to be co-teaching ENV 812 Wetland Ecology and Management with Kiera O'Donnell
July 2022: Lab trip to Hubbard Brook forest and Mirror Lake, New Hampshire. Great bonding and exploring of northern forests
July 2022: 2 PhD chapters published! Check out papers in Biogeochemistry and Ecosphere! These 2 papers explore drivers and biological effects of CO2 inputs to low solute streams at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica.
In Biogeochemistry, we use an array of O2 and CO2 sensors to measure in-stream and groundwater C fluxes and determine a relationship of C inputs and acidification events in low solute streams. Fun data to play with and certainly an area of research to keep an eye on, as methods and models will get better and scaled up (in time and space).
In Ecosphere, we evaluated the acidification events in low solute streams using an in field experiment. We modified the pH of a low solute stream and compared the response at the ecosystem, community, and individual scales. We found few differences, and our thoughts are the organisms are adapted to these disturbances. Climate change projections anticipate more extreme and frequent acidification events, and in-stream responses should be a priority.
May 2022: Attended Joint Aquatic Science Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, MI. Overcame travel difficulties to participate and share our research on NEON data to estimate stream metabolism at their 27 wadable and non-wadable streams and rivers. The #DukeBGC lab shared a house for a week, good bonding! Great to see so many friends and colleagues after 2 virtual conferences in 2020 and 2021.
