AEP Conesville Earth Day

Every year American Electric Power hosts Earth Day at their Conesville power plant near Coshocton, Ohio. Every year the Division of Molluscs shows up to spread the Good Word about imperiled freshwater mussels – this year was an unusually cold and overcast May 13. It was a unique opportunity to engage 400-500 middle school children with hands-on activities such as Match the Shell with the Stupid Common Name, Match the Mussel with its Host, and Find the PIT-Tagged Shell with the Expensive PIT Tag Reader. A good time was had by all. And free hotdogs! Kudos to AEP for the outreach.

AEP

 

FMCS 2015

stcharles

Shown are (L to R): Trisha Gibson, Amy Weber, Caitlin Byrne, Jackie Halmbacher. Well-grounded in front: Ieva Roznere.

The Department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology had a strong showing at the 2015 Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium held 22-27 March 2015 in St. Charles, Missouri, USA. Ieva Roznere won the Best Student Presentation at the meeting.

Contributed oral presentations:

Roznere, I., Watters, G.T., Wolfe, B.A., Daly, M. “Health assessment of relocated freshwater mussel Amblema plicata using metabolomics.”

Weber, A., Bauer, J., Watters, G.T. “Assessment of nutritional subsidies to freshwater mussels using a multiple natural abundance isotope approach.”

Anderson, R., Welte, N., Allison, J., Clayton, J., Douglas, B., Morrison, P., Watters, G., Boyer, A., Koch, L., McGregor, M., Fisher, B., Tiemann, J. “Cooperative recovery on a landscape scale: the reintroduction of Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma torulosa rangiana) and clubshell (Pleurobema clava) to sites in six states within their historic range.

Poster:

Gibson, T., Halmbacher, J., Tiemann, J., Watters, G.T. “Egg laying in the pleurocerid Lithasia armigera (Say, 1821) – a winter’s tale.”