The maintenance of "natural" microbial nutrient cycling processes in urban ecosystems is important to the functioning of these systems. Students can participate in several different projects that are part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a long-term study of Baltimore, Maryland, including: the effects of exotic species on soil nutrient cycling processes, microbial processes in urban riparian forests and nutrient cycling in forest, agricultural and residential areas within the city.

Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are the vectors of several human diseases, including Lyme disease.  Local abundance of ticks infected with pathogens is a key risk factor for these diseases.  Students will be guided in devising projects to ask what biotic and abiotic factors might regulate ticks.  For example, ticks can be attacked by forest-floor fungi, and the abundance of fungi might be influenced by exotic plants.  Ticks appear to benefit from the protection provided by thick leaf litter, but exotic earthworms might reduce leaf litter thickness.  Small mammal hosts that support tick populations might be affected by vegetative cover and food availability on the forest floor.  Some of the factors that potentially regulate tick populations could be amenable to manipulation for the benefit of human health.  Students will be encouraged to explore both the basic science and its translation for public use.

Widespread contamination of surface and groundwaters with sodium chloride used to remove ice from roadways has led to increased interest in, and use of, alternatives. These calcium-magnesium acetate, and novel methods to improve the effectiveness of NaCl – such as blending with organic materials like beet pulp and brewery waste. The use of these alternatives raises the question of the effects of their on ecosystems. Any wide-spread distribution of organic compounds is likely to alter microbial growth, and the respiration and metabolism of other organic matter in the ecosystem. Cary Institute scientists have conducted research on road-salt for over a decade, in close coordination with Dutchess County agencies and local governments. Work by REU students would be designed in consultation with individuals from these (and other) agencies, providing a conduit for application of findings.  Local highway superintendents and agencies monitoring water quality could provide information on rates of application, likely areas targeted for trial of new materials, and potential levels of concern.

The human incidence of vector-borne disease has risen among urban populations in the past decade, including annual recurrence of West Nile virus in the United States and dengue virus globally. Managing human disease risk requires an understanding of how mosquito populations grow and behave in human-dominated landscapes. There are over sixty different species of mosquito in the mid-Atlantic region, and only a small number of those are important vectors of human disease. REU students will investigate how environmental variables that reflect human presence (e.g., storm water practices, diurnal temperature ranges, road salt, nitrogen), influence mosquito community ecology and population demography, with a focus on mosquito vectors of human diseases. Students will interact with land managers through the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES-LTER) and the Dutchess County Cooperative Extension Agency to identify field sites and share results. Interested students may also use statistical analyses to explore relationships between mosquito population/community characteristics and human disease risk.

Hemlock trees are widespread in the eastern U.S. and are an important component of mature forests. These majestic trees are under attack by an invasive Asian insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), causing hemlock mortality throughout the eastern U.S.  It is present at varying densities across hemlock stands in the Hudson River Valley. The REU student will devise a project to investigate how environmental variables, such as nitrogen fertilization and water availability, influence insect survival and tree-level response.

Understanding ecosystems is increasingly vital for decision making and citizenship, yet ecosystem literacy eludes educators and the public. REU students will have the opportunity to explore basic questions about thinking and learning, and how people use scientific understanding in citizenship contexts. Their findings will contribute to Institute and other education and outreach programs. Students may choose to design and carry out their own investigations, with audiences such as youngsters in the Institute’s Ecology Summer Day Camp, or teachers in Institute workshops. Alternatively, they might delve into rich collections of student, teacher and adult responses to surveys and interviews done by past students and education researchers. Data is available from the Earthworms and Ecosystems, Teaching the Nature of Ecological Science, Changing Hudson and other projects. Students will meet the Cary Institute’s Institutional Review Board’s requirements for human subjects research, and will gain experience in social science research linked to ecological inquiry.

Veeries are one of many species of songbirds that migrate from the neotropics to sing and breed in the forests of North America every summer.  Each species of songbird uses a species-specific repertoire of songs and other vocalizations (calls) to communicate.  During the breeding season, most songbirds use their vocalizations to choose their mates and defend the territories in which they breed.  Veeries have eerily beautiful and unusually complex songs in addition to a large repertoire of calls.  As an REU student, you will design and carry out a project exploring one or more aspects of veery communication; for example, how males use their calls during territorial disputes with neighboring males, or how predators on adults (owls) or nests (chipmunks) affect veery singing behavior.  For your project you can expect to observe veery behavior and record veery vocalizations in the field, and catalogue and analyze your recordings in the lab.  In addition, you will also have the opportunity to work with our team of graduate students and field assistants to capture and color-band veeries and find veery nests.    

Safeguarding the supply of high quality clean drinking water is one of the largest challenges facing humankind. Although advances in technology have allowed humans to keep pace with agricultural and health needs, they have also introduced contaminants such as fertilizer and pharmaceutical compounds into aquatic ecosystems. Increased nutrients can alter ecosystem processes such as growth and production, while the effects of pharmaceuticals are not currently understood. We will examine the effects of pharmaceuticals and/or nutrients on stream ecosystem function by designing studies for either the laboratory or field. The student will focus on an ecosystem process such as retention and uptake of compounds or growth and production of biota.  In addition to the experimental study, the student will also examine the prevalence of the compound being studied and examine its use and production. This aspect of the research will allow the student to put her or his research in the larger context of nutrient and novel containments, how widely used these compounds are, and what measures are available for their disposal and removal. Currently, there are no regulations controlling the maximum level of exposure from pharmaceuticals or nutrients (except nitrogen) in aquatic ecosystems. We will explore the relative benefits and costs of these compounds and whether the compound studied merit regulation based on our results.  The student will write a scientific paper on the research findings and may writean article for the public exploring issues of environmental exposure and regulation of these compounds.

Shore zones are among the most ecologically valuable habitats on the planet, supporting high biodiversity and high rates of biogeochemical processing (http://www.springerlink.com/content/147526m7134jnt48/fulltext.pdf ).  Shore zones along the Hudson River and around the world have been highly modified by activities such as armoring shores with walls or riprap, dredging on the water side and filling on the land side, removal of vegetation and floating debris, introductions of non-native species, and so on. These changes often radically change the ecological structure and function of the shore zone. Such modifications are likely to increase and intensify in response to rising sea level and increasing pressure to develop waterfront property. Can engineered shore zones be modified to enhance their ecological functioning without compromising their engineering performance? Students will design, build, and test structures or management procedures to enhance the ecological function of Hudson River shore zones.

This project will apply principles of body size scaling rules -- i.e., how some features of organisms, such as metabolic rate, scale as a function of body size -- to the diverse effects of ecosystem engineers, such as bio-erosion, bioturbation and bio-stabilization. Scaling rules ascertain the degree to which per capita biomass can account for variation in the effect magnitudes of different engineering species. The approach may provide a quantitative way to compare different ecosystem engineering species (e.g., sponges versus parrot fish that both erode corals), while also potentially affording explanation for effect magnitudes (e.g., chemical versus mechanical erosion, respectively). The project would involve compiling data sets from published literature and then analyzing them. The student should be interested in the search for general ecological principles; have an aptitude for literature data mining; be able to construct and manage databases; and conduct relatively straightforward statistical analyses (e.g., regression).