http://vimeo.com/76533548
Partners on central Ohio’s Sustaining Scioto planning study talk about the effort in a Vimeo video (4:23). The next Environmental Professionals Network breakfast will feature the study. Everyone’s welcome. Details in our previous post.
January’s Environmental Professionals Network “Breakfast Club” program features Sustaining Scioto, a new planning study to ensure clean, secure water for central Ohioans. Registration is open. A reduced rate for students, which includes breakfast, is available. Learn more …
CFAES student Ben Rubinoff, a junior in the School of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Science Honors Program, is interning this summer with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on Chesapeake Bay. From a story called “Seeking Life in the Mud” on the center’s website:
Once the math is done, they head to the field. Either from inside a jon boat or up to their knees in murky water along the shore, they use a tool called a “petite ponar” to snatch sediment from the bottom surface. “It’s like big salad tongs,” said Rubinoff.
CFAES’s Wilma H. Shiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park will host a volunteer cleanup of the Olentangy River from 10 a.m. to noon this Saturday, April 19. The event is an early celebration of Earth Day. The park is at 352 W. Dodridge St. in Columbus. Activities will include planting trees, picking up trash and removing invasive honeysuckle shrubs. Everyone’s welcome. Free breakfast at 9 a.m.; free lunch at noon.
From Mazeika Sullivan on his EcoSummit presentation:
“Geomorphic–ecological linkages at the riverscape scale remain largely undocumented, particularly relative to high-quality, spatially explicit food webs.
“Drawing on data from the US Intermountain West, Midwest, and New England, this (presentation) aims to characterize riverine food webs and aquatic-terrestrial fluxes of carbon, energy, and organisms within a geomorphic context. […]
“We conclude by demonstrating that ecogeographic perspectives are essential to improved understanding of riverscape structure and function and may provide important information for both conservation and management of riverine resources.”
A look at some of the presentations by CFAES scientists at EcoSummit 2012, which starts Sept. 30:
“Fluvial Geomorphology and Food Webs: Linking Structure and Process at the Riverscape Scale” by Mazeika Sullivan, School of Environment and Natural Resources, et al. Part of the symposium titled “Ecogeomorphology: A Biophysical Framework for River Science.” Oct. 2, session 2, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sullivan and Gary Brierley of New Zealand’s University of Auckland are co-chairs of that symposium.
Backed by a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant, six departments at two universities (Ohio State, Case Western Reserve) will combine three science branches (social, physical, biological) to explore a single watershed — the Maumee River’s, the Great Lakes’ largest. Why? To better understand people’s actions there, especially when it comes to land use and policy, and how those actions affect Lake Erie. Factored in, too: Possible climate change impacts. Check out the project’s website.
If you’re in
terested in making a difference in your watershed, the 2011 Ohio Watershed Academy is just what you need. The course, offered March 28-May 31, is in its 11th year, and will be offered completely online for the first time this year. “Decisions affecting watersheds can be hard to make, and sometimes must be made very quickly,” said Anne Baird, one of the course instructors. “This course is primarily for people with vision — people who are interested in how to get people involved effectively and leading others to make good decisions.”
Enrollment deadline is Monday, March 21. For more information about the class, see the news release at http://go.osu.edu/wsa or the class web site at http://ohiowatersheds.osu.edu/owa.