Nikki Roach: I am studying marsh birds in coastal South Carolina and I am looking at their distribution and abundance and using sea level rise models to determine how vulnerable they will be to habitat changes. A lot of marsh birds are stressed and vulnerable to changes in sea level rise, coastal development and storm severity so we are looking to find areas that are critical for conservation for these secretive species. We are using call playback surveys. We broadcast bird vocalizations throughout the marsh and we listen for them to call back. A lot of these birds are very secretive, they are not often seen but they are heard and so this is the best way to go about surveying for them. Baruch is a great resource for graduate students, I hope that more people come down here to do research and I think they are expanding a lot and creating a lot of great opportunities for Clemson students. I really enjoy working at Baruch, the people are great, the housing is wonderful, it has been really easy to work with the people. I have been stuck on a sandbar in the middle of the marsh and had one of the professors come to my aid and bring water and snacks, so they have been extremely helpful in all aspects of my research. Axel Morales: I am working in research with the pigment of the leaf and the relationship with the signature of the trees. And the signature is basically like a wavelength that the leaf transmits from the leaf. We cannot see it because it is not visible for human eyes but with a very specific camera that is called a hyper-spectral camera, I can actually capture those signatures for difference in the leaf so I can estimate the biodiversity of the forest. I am doing that because it is very important to quantity of species are in the forest. Some forest in the different part of the world are difficult to access so with this technique I can identify those species that are rare or endanger extinction. Jamie Duberstein: I have several research projects under way, including a project I have recently started that is funded by the U.S. Geologic Survey. The USGS Land Carbon Project aims to provide a national assessment of future potential carbon storage, greenhouse gas fluxes and estimation of local and regional scale ecosystem services such as recreation opportunities, providing wildlife habitat and nutrient cycling. The goal is to guide the management of lands owned by the Department of the Interior and my study site is located in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. The Dismal Swamp has one hundred and twelve thousand acres of forested wetlands that have been mostly drained via extensive ditches in order to provide land suitable for settlement and to harvest large tracts of Atlantic white cedar. The loss of cedar and lack of water causes the peat soils to literally evaporate as a result of decomposition of this primarily organic soil. The logging, draining and loss of peat drastically changed how the Dismal Swamp functions as a wetland. My colleagues and I are studying different forest types within Dismal Swamp in order to evaluate the amount of peat that has been lost, carbon cycling, green house gas release, rates of peat formation, nutrient cycling, growth rates of different trees and effects of fire management so that refuge staff can better prescribe and evaluate their water management practices in those areas. This research is very applied with the primary goal of guiding the refuge so they can more effectively restore key areas with Atlantic white cedar habitat.

• published: 25 Sep 2014
• views: 48