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1. Learning from Worms: Forestry Researchers Build New Underground Lab at Michigan Tech |
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, and in their new "mesocosm," Michigan Tech faculty and students and US Forest Service scientists can monitor their impact on a simulated forest floor under varying conditions.
The mesocosm is that construction project you may have noticed next to the USDA Forest Service Forestry Sciences Lab, just above the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, off MacInnes Drive. It's the only one of its kind for northern forest research and one of very few anywhere in the country.
A mesocosm is an experimental enclosure designed to simulate natural conditions while environmental factors are manipulated. Its name refers to its size: it's larger than a microcosm, or miniature model, but smaller than a macrocosm, or large-scale representation of reality.
This mesocosm will be an underground tunnel containing 24, one-meter, stainless steel cubes. The surface will be open to the air, but the temperature, moisture, type of soil, organisms such as worms, and other belowground variables can be controlled independently in each cube. Researchers and their students will be able to monitor the effects of their manipulations of the environment in each cube visually through portholes and windows, as well as by data collected remotely.
In their first mesocosm research project, research ecologists Erik Lilleskov and Chris Swanston will be tracking what they call "the ecosystem engineers" of the forest floor. Swanston and Lilleskov, who work for the USDA Forest Service, also are adjunct faculty members at Michigan Tech. Their research will be a uniquely integrated analysis of the impact of invasive earthworms on the ecology of northern forests.
Lilleskov, Swanston and Michigan Tech collaborators will use the mesocosm to study the impact of the Eurasian earthworms that wriggle through this area's soil on the cycling of carbon, water and nutrients under controlled conditions. Native species of earthworms were killed off long ago by the glaciers that formed the Great Lakes, but their Eurasian cousins found their way here on ships and flourished.
"We know the worms have a major impact on the soil," said Swanston. In soil without worms, he explained, the rich humus, or decomposed organic matter, on the forest floor remains in a distinct mat on the forest floor. Worms eat the hummus, and as they move through it, they move it around.
"The worms don't make the forest better or worse, just different," Swanston noted. "They change the way roots grow, where they grow and how they grow."
This will be the first mesocosm-scale study of the effects of non-native earthworms on northern forest ecology. The researchers can manipulate and study carbon cycling above and below ground, hydrology (the effects of various levels of moisture), biochemical interactions of the worms with the soil, nutrient levels in the soil and plant responses.
"Studying all of these cycles in the same plots of soil under controlled conditions will provide a more comprehensive perspective on the impacts of earthworms on forest ecosystems than we have previously been able to attain," Swanston explained.
Margaret Gale, dean of the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, said the mesocosm "will continue to strengthen the ties between Forest Service researchers and Michigan Tech faculty and students. It has the potential to further excite our students and faculty about discovering new ways of looking at forested ecosystems and developing rigorous scientific studies that will help us explain the complexities of belowground processes."
K-12 students and teachers in the Global Change Teachers' Institutes and the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative at Michigan Tech will have opportunities to visit the mesocosm and to conduct classroom mesocosm studies, Swanston said.
Construction of the research facility is scheduled for completion in early 2009. |
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2. Society of Women Engineers' Website Takes Top Honors |
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
The website of Michigan Tech's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section won first place in the nation for a collegiate section at the SWE national conference in Baltimore earlier this month.
"We are very honored to have received this award," said Amy Palmgren, SWE outreach director, who has served as the Tech section's webmaster for the past three years. "Our section has always been proud of our website, and we are excited to receive a national award for it. The website has undergone a large transformation over the past few years, and many neat features have been added, such as member profiles, membership status information available to members upon logging in, updated events and minutes, and an archive of past officers."
All SWE student sections in the country were invited to apply for the award. The judges evaluated entries on format, content, layout and originality.
See the SWE website at http://swe.students.mtu.edu/ . |
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3. CTLFD Workshop Dec. 4 on Instructional Technology |
submitted by the CTLFD
The Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development will conduct a workshop, "Using Technology to Increase Instructional Impact and Monitor Student Learning," on Thursday, Dec. 4, from noon to 12:55 p.m. Lunch will be provided to those who register by Monday, Dec. 1.
In this session, Michael Meyer, physics lab coordinator, will demonstrate how he's used various technological tools and associated administrative techniques to maximize students' learning in a large lab course primarily instructed by teaching assistants.
Over the past four years, the physics department has developed systems that automatically randomize seating, check student learning and identify students with attendance or academic performance problems. These tools also allow students to provide rapid feedback on elements of the introductory physics labs, enabling continuous improvement. Other tools include integrated pre-lab videos, self-guided PowerPoint presentations, online pre-lab quizzes and other online resources (including simulations) that provide a rich pre-lab experience. These systems have led to a remarkably consistent, positive lab experience for these students. Join us for this exciting demonstration and discussion.
To register for this workshop, please contact the CTLFD, 487-2046, or visit www.admin.mtu.edu/ctlfd/workshops by Monday, Dec. 1. |
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4. New Staff |
Karen Wade has joined the staff of Educational Opportunity as a secretary. Before coming to Michigan Tech, Wade held the position of default supervisor at Citizens Bank--formerly known as Republic Bank and DTN Bank--where she was employed for 25 years. She is married to Ronald, lives in Hancock, actively volunteers for Relay for Life and has a membership with Curves for Women.
Tammy Kus has joined the staff of the Local Technical Assistance Program as an office assistant 5. She comes to Michigan Tech from Citizens Bank, where she was employed as a special insurance specialist. She is married to Craig, has one child, Taylor, and lives in Lake Linden. She enjoys stamping and scrapbooking, and she's an avid Nascar fan. |
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5. New Funding |
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Shiyue Fang (Chemistry) has received $35,000 from the University of Michigan, Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative (MUCI), for "Michigan University Commercialization Initiative: A Proposal for Purification of Oligonucleotides." |
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6. In Print |
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Professor Iosif Pinelis (Mathematical Sciences) published a paper, "On Inequalities for Sums of Bounded Random Variables," in the Journal of Mathematical Inequalities, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2008. |
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7. On the Road |
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Assistant Professor Yolanda Muņoz-Maldonado (Mathematical Sciences) gave an invited talk, "Testing the Equality of Mean Functions for Continuous Time Stochastic Processes," on Nov. 15 at the biannual Blackwell-Tapia Conference, sponsored by the Statistical and Applied Mathematics Sciences Institute (SAMSI) to recognize and showcase mathematical and statistical excellence by minority researchers. |
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