In the Media

Christine Vatovec, Research Assistant Professor in the Rubenstein School and UVM’s College of Medicine, recently co-authored a paper challenging the assumption that down-the-drain disposal of medications significantly contributes to the presence of pharmaceuticals in Lake Champlain. Instead, their study indicates that students are mostly storing leftover drugs. The story has been covered by outlets like the New Scientist, Science Daily, Quatrz, Science 2.0, NewsWise and others. 

A Nature Communications study by Brendan Fisher and Gund Institute Affiliates Robin Naidoo and Andrew Balmford, which offered an economic case for protecting elephants, appeared in The Guardian, United Press International, Voice of America, Yahoo, Travel + Leisure, International Business Times, Pacific Standard, and Vice.

Biologist Joe Roman’s research on the benefits of whale scat in marine ecosystems was reported by the BBC, CBC, LiveScience, Yahoo and Science World Report. Roman’s Eat the Invaders project, which offers tasty recipes for cooking and eating invasive species, was also covered in New Scientist and the EPA Blog.  

Research by ecologist Leif Richardson on bees curing themselves with plant chemicals was featured in Bee Culture, the U.S. beekeeping magazine. USA Today also interviewed Leif Richardson about millions of honeybees killed by aerial Zika spraying in South Carolina.

Taylor Ricketts appeared in a Washington Post story about the first ever bee species added to the endangered species list. His commentary also appeared in the Denver Post and Canadian outlets, including the National Post and Vancouver Sun. 

Economist Jon Erickson spoke on Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s executive order giving preference for state contracts to businesses fighting climate change. “Government policies can often drive business practices,” Erickson told Northeast Public Radio. He was also featured in coverage of a conference dedicated to national water quality issues. Erickson appeared in the Iowa Gazette, Quad City Times, Mason City Globe Gazette and Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.

PhD student Lindsay Barbieri shared helpful tips for speaking to the public about drones. Barbieri, who uses drones to study agricultural GHG emissions, wrote her blog post for the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners. 

Eric Roy co-authored a paper titled: “The phosphorus cost of agricultural intensification in the tropics” (see publications section for full citation), which was named an Editor’s Pick for Crop Science & Agronomy and is in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. Related press coverage includednews stories in numerous outlets, including Science Daily, Digital Journal, and Global News Connect, and more.

Bill Keeton appeared in a Science Magazine article that examines the pros and cons of the world’s tallest wooden building, in Vancouver, Canada.

Lini Wollenberg and Meryl Richards’ recent research on the importance of tackling greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture to meet global climate change goals, published in a paper tiltied, “Reducing emissions from agriculture to meet the 2°C target” captured international media attention. Their work was covered in media outlets such as BBC, Washington Post, CBC News, Bloomberg.com, and many others.

Laura Sonter led the first study to use social media to measure the economic value of state protected lands for outdoor recreation. The study, co-authored by Taylor Ricketts and Keri Watson, appeared in Fox News, Popular Science, Yahoo, Travel + Leisure, Voice of America, Fusion, Inverse, Mental Floss, Biosphere, Sierra Club and Vermont Public Radio.

 

Awards, Scholarships, Appointments and Accomplishments

After presenting her work at SciDataCon (see Presentations), Lindsay Barbieri received a Gateway to Agricultural Careers grant award for her research on agriculture, precision ag data and sUAS. 

Xavier Brown (MSLS ’17) was recently awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and fellowship for Dreaming Out Loud, an organization that seeks to create economic opportunities for the DC metro region’s marginalized community members through building a healthy, equitable food system. 

Jed Murdoch spent the last year on a sabbatical in Mongolia funded by the Core Fulbright U.S. Scholars Program.  The goal of the sabbatical was to improve protected area management for wildlife in people in Mongolia, which is experiencing a period of rapid economic growth and landscape development.  He worked in partnership with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences Institute of General and Experimental Biology.  His wife, Ingrid Barcelo, who helps manage their USDA McIntire-Stennis research grant, and son Alex came along.  Ingrid helped develop a project on pelicans in western Mongolia with the non-profit Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia.  Jed received a Distinguished Scientist award from the Mongolian government, which recognizes contributions to nature and environment.  It is the highest award given by the government in the environmental field. He also taught several workshops on conservation biology for the environmental community in Mongolia, including a multi-day workshop on modeling wildlife data that was sponsored by the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar.  

This fall, Brendan O’Brien, MS student in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, began a three-semester internship supported by a $15,000 award from Casella Resource Solutions to conduct his research on soil amendment products produced through organics recycling strategies. Eric Roy will serve as his primary advisor. See full story for more information.

Denise Smith (MSLS ’17) is running for state senate in Franklin County and has received some high-profile endorsements to support her campaign.  

 

Class Notes

FOR 195 Woodturning & Forest Conservation: In this class, students explore forest health and use by choosing an appropriate tree to fell and convert into functional hardwood bowls. David Brynn and Ralph Tursini have taught this course for over 10 years at the University of Vermont's Jericho Research Forest. It's offered during the warmer months of each spring and fall semester to all who are interested.  You can check out photos from this September’s Woodturning and Forest Conservation class at  https://goo.gl/photos/kDtmBtjzEc7bGb1PA. To register, look for FOR 195 on the UVM Registrar's website:  http://www.uvm.edu/~rgweb/

 

Presentations and Conferences

Jim Duncan, Mike Finegan and Lindsay Barbieri 

Jim Duncan (RSENR Research Staff and Director of the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative), Mike Finnegan (Environmental Database and Web Developer) and Lindsay Barbieri (PhD Student in the Gund Institute) traveled to Denver, CO, to attend the Research Data Alliance (RDA) conference. RDA is an international organization of over 4000 members that promotes the sharing of research data through technical and social solutions to common barriers to sharing. Mike and Jim gave presentations at specialized working groups and a conference plenary on their work implementing several RDA best-practices recommendations on data typing and dynamic data citation within the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative database and website. This work is funded through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and the Research Data Alliance. Lindsay and Jim are working on several venues to share the resources and benefits of the work of RDA with RSENR and UVM research community. 

Lindsay Barbieri (PhD Student in Rubenstein and Gund Graduate Fellow) presented her work on agricultural monitoring: using small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) for Earth Science and Natural Resource research in Denver, Colorado during International Data Week's SciDataCon. She will travel to the AgGateway annual conference in Orlando, Florida in November to work with and learn from agriculture and industry partners. 

 

David Gudex-Cross 

David Gudex-Cross (RSENR PhD student) presented a poster at the 2016 Ecological Society of America (ESA) Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL entitled: "Enhanced Forest Cover Mapping using Spectral Unmixing and Object-based Classification of Multitemporal Landsat Imagery". He also gave a talk at the 2016 Eastern Canada and USA (ECANUSA) Forest Science Conference in Burlington, VT.

 

Jed Murdoch 

Jed Murdoch attended a conference on human dimensions of wildlife called Pathways Kenya sponsored mainly by Colorado State University to present some of my work.  Prof. Bob Manning and Jessica Espenshade, who recently completed her MS in NR at RSENR, also attended the conference.  The conference was held in Kenya, near Mount Kenya, in January 2016. 

Murdoch, J.  What is the value of habitat?  Estimating the marginal contribution of habitats to carrying capacity – a case study of corsac and red foxes in Mongolia.  Pathways Kenya, Pathways Kenya, CSU/Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Nanyuki, Kenya 2016. 

Espenshade, J., J. Murdoch, and R. Manning.  Public acceptability of development in the Northern Forest of Vermont, USA – the influence of wildlife information, recreation involvement, and demographic characteristics.  Pathways Kenya, CSU/Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Nanyuki, Kenya 2016. 

 

Eric Roy

Roy, E.D. Phosphorus recovery and recycling with ecological engineering: existing approaches and key challenges. American Ecological Engineering Society Conference, Knoxville, TN, Oral Presentation (June 2016)

Roy, E.D. Transformation of human nutrient flows through urine diversion: Local, regional, and global landscape contexts. 2^nd Annual Urine Diversion Summit. Brattleboro, VT, Oral Presentation (August 2016)

 

Ellen Marsden

Marsden, J. Ellen.  Colonization of newly constructed reefs by spawning lake trout takes time.  GLATOS workshop, Ann Arbor MI, Feb. 

Romine, J., R. Gresswell, M. Parsley, P. Sandstrom, N Heredia, P. Bigelow, L. Gutwosky, L. Simard, J. E. Marsden.  Acoustic telemetry in Yellowstone Lake.  Western American Fisheries Society conference.  

Euclide, P., T. Parent, E. Gozalez, N Flores, M Wargp, C. W. Kilpatrick, and J. E. Marsden.  Effect of Fish Dispersal Ability on Sensitivity to Habitat Fragmentation in a Large Lake.  International Association of Great Lakes Research annual conference, Guelph, ONT 

Simard, L., J. E. Marsden, P E. Bigelow, R. E. Gresswell.  Can suppression inform restoration? Insights from lake trout in Yellowstone Lake.  International Association of Great Lakes Research annual conference, Guelph, ONT 

Kozel, C.L. and J. E Marsden., Diet of young-of-the-year and juvenile lake trout in Lake Champlain. International Association of Great Lakes Research annual conference, Guelph, ONT 

Binder, T., S. Riley, M Ebener, J. E. Marsden, C. Krueger.  Lake-wide movement patters of two lake trout populations in Lake Huron: unplanned benefits of participation in GLATOS.  GLATOS workshop, Ann Arbor, Feb 9-10 

Pinheiro, V., and J. E. Marsden.  Lakewide fidelity to spawning reefs by lake trout in Lake Champlain GLATOS workshop, Ann Arbor MI, Feb. 

Farha, Steven A., Thomas Binder, John A. Janssen, Stephen C. Riley, J. Ellen Marsden, Michael Hansen, Charles R. Bronte ,Charles Krueger. Lake Trout Spawning Habitat Selection in the Drummond Island Refuge: Paradigm or Paradox? National American Fisheries Society conference 

 

Publications

Tony D’Amato

Catanzaro, P.F., A.W. D’Amato, and E.J. Silver Huff. 2016. Increasing forest resiliency for an uncertain future. University of Massachusetts, Cooperative Extension Landowner Outreach Pamphlet. 32 pp. PDF (http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/tonydamato/pubpdfs/Forest-Resiliency%20Pamphlet.pdf)

Dymond, S. F., A. W. D'Amato, R. K. Kolka, P. V. Bolstad, S. D. Sebestyen, and J. B. Bradford. 2016. Growth–climate relationships across topographic gradients in the northern Great Lakes. Ecohydrology 9:918-929.

Curzon, M. T., A. W. D'Amato, and B. J. Palik. 2016. Bioenergy harvest impacts to biodiversity and resilience vary across aspen-dominated forest ecosystems in the Lake States region, USA. Applied Vegetation Science 19:667-678.

 

Brendan Fisher 

Naidoo R, Fisher B, Manica A, Balmford A. Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants. Nature Communications. 2016 

Hua F, Wang X, Zheng X, Fisher B, Wang L, Zhu J, et al. Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world’s largest reforestation programme. Nature Communications. 2016 Sep 6;7:12717. 

Fisher B, Naidoo R. The Geography of Gender Inequality. PlosONE. 2016;11(3):e0145778.

 

Gillian Galford

Galford, Gillian L., Nash, Julie, Betts, Alan K., Carlson, Sam, Ford, Sarah, Hoogenboom, Ann, . . . Underwood, Kristen L. (2016). Bridging the climate information gap: A framework for engaging knowledge brokers and decision makers in state climate assessments. Climatic Change, Climatic Change, 8/23/2016. ***Co-authors are all either RSENR graduate students or community partners. The paper is a result of a graduate seminar.

 

William Keeton

Warren, D. R., W. S. Keeton, P. M. Kiffney, M. J. Kaylor, H. A. Bechtold, and J. Magee. 2016. Changing forests—changing streams: riparian forest stand development and ecosystem function in temperate headwaters. Ecosphere 7(8): e01435. 10.1002/ecs2.1435

 

Elllen Marsden 

Marsden^, J. E., J.  Johnson, J. He, N. Dingledine, J. Adams, T. R. Binder, N. Johnson and C. C. Krueger.  2016.  Five-year evaluation of habitat remediation in Thunder Bay, Lake Huron: comparison of characteristics of constructed reefs that attract spawning lake trout. Fisheries Research 183: 275–286.

 

Alan McIntosh and Jennifer Pontius

Jennifer Pontius and Alan McIntosh published a new textbook that uses on case studies to demonstrate how science can be applied to solve environment problems. Now available as an electronic resource through UVM’s library: http://uvm.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4673333.

McIntosh, A., & Pontius, Jennifer. (2016). Science and the global environment: Case studies for integrating science and the global environment. 

 

Jed Murdoch 

Ekernas, L. S., W. M. Sarmento, H. S. Davie, R. P. Reading, J. Murdoch, G. J. Wingard, S. Amgalanbaatar, and J. Berger.  In press.  Indirect effects of desert pastoralists help and hurt rare wildlife.  Conservation Biology. 

M’soka, J., S. Creel, M. Becker, and J. Murdoch.  Accepted.  Ecological and anthropogenic effects on the density of migratory and resident ungulates in a human-inhabited protected area.  African Journal of Ecology. 

Reading, R., J. Murdoch, S. Amgalanbaatar, H. Davie, M. Jorgensen, D. Kenny, T. Munkhzul, G. Onloragcha, L. Rhodes, J. Schneider, T. Selenge, E. Stotz, S. Buyandelger, E. Tuguldur, and G. Wingard.  Accepted.  From “paper park” to model protected area: transformation of Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Mongolia.  IUCN Parks Journal. 

Lkhagvasuren, M., J. Murdoch, T. Munkhzul, and A. Strong.  2016.  Predicting the effects of habitat loss on corsac fox occupancy in Mongolia.  Journal of Mammalogy 97:1153-1163. 

Reading, R., D. Kenny, J. Murdoch, and S. Batdorj.  2016.  Use of dental restorative temporization material for attaching radiotransmitters to hedgehogs.  Wildlife Society Bulletin 40:355-358.  

Murdoch, J., H. Davie, M. Galbadrah, and R. P. Reading.  2016.  Factors influencing red fox occupancy probability in central Mongolia.  Mammalian Biology 81:82-88. 

 

Eric Roy

Roy, E.D., E.A. Smith, S. Bargu, and J.R. White. 2016. Will Mississippi River diversions designed for coastal restoration cause harmful algal blooms? Ecological Engineering 91: 350-364.

 

Laura Sonter

Sonter LJ, Watson KB, Wood SA, Ricketts TH (2016) Spatial and Temporal Dynamics and Value of Nature-Based Recreation, Estimated via Social Media. PLoS ONE 11(9): e0162372. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162372

 

Patricia Stokowski

Derrien, M.D. & P.A. Stokowski. 2016. Discourses of Place: Environmental Interpretation about Vermont Forests. Environmental Communication. (September 2016) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2016.1211160 

Stokowski, P.A. 2016. Re-interpreting the past to shape the future: The uses of memory discourses in community tourism development. Tourism and Hospitality Research 16(3): 254-266.

 

Christine Vatovec

Vatovec, C., Phillips, P., Van Wagoner, E., Scott, T.-M., & Furlong, E. Investigating dynamic sources of pharmaceuticals: Demographic and seasonal use are more important than down-the-drain disposal in wastewater effluent in a University City setting. Science of the Total Environment. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.199

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716316539

 

Eric Zencey 

Eric Zencey published a commissioned essay in ASPENIA, the journal of the Italian arm of the Aspen Institute, titled “Malthus, Money, and the Zombie Debt Crisis of the Western Growth Economy.” Publication was in Vol. 74, October 2016. He also recently completed a GPI study for the state of Missouri, titled “Missouri’s Genuine Economy, 2000-2014.”  This work was done pro bono for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

 

Lini Wollenberg and Meryl Richards

de Haas Y, Davis S, Reisinger A, Richards MB, Difford G, Lassen J. 2016. Improved ruminant genetics: Implementation guidance for policymakers and investors. Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice Brief. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Dinesh D, Vermeulen S, Bacudo I, Baron DM, Castro-Nunez A, Hedger M, Huyer S, Iversen P, Laure A, Loboguerrero Rodriguez AM, Martius C, Neufeldt H, Nyasimi M, Richards M, Wollenberg L. 2016. Options for agriculture at Marrakech climate talks: messages for SBSTA 45 agriculture negotiators. CCAFS Report No. 16. Copenhagen: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Lee J, Ingalls M, Erickson JD, Wollenberg E. 2016. Bridging organizations in agricultural carbon markets and poverty alleviation: An analysis of pro-poor carbon market projects in East Africa. Global Environmental Change. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.04.015

Richards M, Bruun TB, Campbell B, Gregersen LE, Huyer S, Kuntze V, Madsen STN, Oldvig MB, Vasileiou I. 2016. How countries plan to address agricultural adaptation and mitigation: An analysis of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. CCAFS dataset version 1.2. https://ccafs.cgiar.org/agricultures-prominence-indcs-data-and-maps#.V7cy-lfSaQc

Richards MB, Metzel R, Chirinda N, Ly P, Nyamadzawo G, Vu QD, de Neergaard A, Oelofse M, Wollenberg E, Keller E, Malin D, Olesen JE, Hillier J, Rosenstock TS. Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N20 and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture. Scientific Reports. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26279

Rosenstock TS, Rufino MC, Butterbach-Bahl K, Wollenberg E, Richards M. Methods for Measuring Greenhouse Gas Balances and Evaluating Mitigation Options in Smallholder Agriculture. Springer International Publishing.  http://samples.ccafs.cgiar.org/measurement-methods-overview/

Wollenberg E, Richards M, Smith P, Havlík P, Obersteiner M, Tubiello FN, Herold M, Gerber P, Carter S, Reisinger A, van Vuuren D, Dickie A, Neufeldt H, Sander BO, Wassman R, Sommer R, Amonette JE, Falcucci A, Herrero M, Opio C, Roman-Cuesta R, Stehfest E, Westhoek H, Ortiz-Monasterio I, Sapkota T, Rufino MC, Thornton PK, Verchot L, West PC, Soussana JF, Baedeker T, Sadler M, Vermeulen S, Campbell BM. Reducing emissions from agriculture to meet the 2°C target. Global Change Biology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13340

Associated infographic: CCAFS. Annual emissions reductions from agriculture must reach 1 Gigatonne per year by 2030 to stay within 2°C warming limit. Infographic. http://www.slideshare.net/cgiarclimate/annual-emissions-reductions-from-agriculture-must-reach-1-gigatonne-per-year-by-2030-to-stay-within-2c-warming-limit

Lee J, Ingalls M, Erickson JD, Wollenberg E. 2016. Bridging organizations in agricultural carbon markets and poverty alleviation: An analysis of pro-poor carbon market projects in East Africa. Global Environmental Change 39:98-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.04.015

Colombo B, West P, Smith P, Tubiello FN, Gerber J, Engstrom P, Urevig A, Wollenberg E. 2016. How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate? Environment Reports: Food Matters. http://hdl.handle.net/10568/75768/ 

Pinto LFG, Hajjar R, Newton P, Agrawal A, Adshead D, Bini D, Mogaerts M, Cirhigiri L, Maguire-Rajpaul VA, González-Chaves A, McDermott C, Milder J, Pinho P, Robinson I, Rodkin M, Wollenberg E. 2016. Transitioning to more sustainable, low-emissions agriculture in Brazil. CCAFS Info Note. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). http://hdl.handle.net/10568/75631 

Richards MB, Metzel R, Chirinda N, Ly P, Nyamadzawo G, Vu QD, de Neergaard A, Oelofse M, Wollenberg E, Keller E, Malin D, Olesen JE, Hillier J, Rosenstock TS.   2016. Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N20 and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture. Scientific Reports 6 http://hdl.handle.net/10568/74313 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26279 

Wollenberg E, Richards M, Smith P, Havlík P, Obersteiner M, Tubiello FN, Herold M, Gerber P, Carter S, Reisinger A, van Vuuren D, Dickie A, Neufeldt H, Sander BO, Wassman R, Sommer R, Amonette JE, Falcucci A, Herrero M, Opio C, Roman-Cuesta R, Stehfest E, Westhoek H, Ortiz-Monasterio I, Sapkota T, Rufino MC, Thornton PK, Verchot L, West PC, Soussana JF, Baedeker T, Sadler M, Vermeulen S, Campbell BM. 2016. Reducing emissions from agriculture to meet the 2°C target. Global Change Biology. http://hdl.handle.net/10568/73438 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13340 

Richards M, Bruun TB, Campbell B, Gregersen LE, Huyer S, Kuntze V, Madsen STN, Oldvig MB, Vasileiou I. 2016. How countries plan to address agricultural adaptation and mitigation: An analysis of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. CCAFS dataset version 1.2. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). http://hdl.handle.net/10568/73255 

de Haas Y, Davis S, Reisinger A, Richards MB, Difford G, Lassen J. 2016. Improved ruminant genetics: Implementation guidance for policymakers and investors. Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice Brief. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). http://hdl.handle.net/10568/77041