Showing posts with label Conferences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conferences. Show all posts

Monday, July 24, 2017

Diatom of the Month - July 2017: New discoveries await!

July 24, 2017 0

In the last year and a half, ten different authors have talked about 19 diatom species from 19 different genera in our “Diatom of the Month” blog series (11 biraphid, 2 araphid, 2 centric, 1 epithemioid, 1 eunotioid, 1 monoraphid, and 1 nitzschioid), and we got to know about some fantastic 2D and 3D diatom art. We reached thousands of people online via social media (see image below), thus raising awareness about these beautiful and extremely useful primary producers and environmental indicators.


We importantly relied on the wonderful “Diatoms of the United States” resource for reference and inspiration, which has so far produced taxon pages for 155 genera (25 are underway), and 851 species (202 are underway)! This was made possible over the years by more than 110 taxon contributors, an effort led by Marina Potapova, Sarah Spaulding, and Mark Edlund and kept under scrutiny by the review board members. The DOTUS Facebook page provides regular updates and features as well as news about course like the Summer Field Courses in Iowa on ecology and systematics of diatoms, ecology and systematics of algae, ecology of algal blooms, and even an introductory course for high school students!


New discoveries on the world of diatoms keep taking place. For example, the “Diatoms from remote places” project led by Loren Bahls, curator of the Montana Diatom Collectionand funded by Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation has found 67 new and rare diatom taxa (belonging to over 20 genera).Volunteer collections comprise specimens from all of western North America’s major biomes —arctic tundra, boreal forest, temperate rainforest, deserts, alpine tundra, montane forest, and steppe—and all the samples are from remote, relatively unspoiled habitats. This initiative allowed to reveal that the central Cascades in Oregon is a diatom species diversity hotspot. And surely cool new discoveries about diatoms in lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands everywhere will emerge at the upcoming North American Diatom Symposium (Sep 27 - Oct 1) at the Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island in Lake Eerie!

The ~20,000 diatom taxa discovered / described by humans is only the tip of the diatom biodiversity iceberg! Believe it or not there may be up to 2-10 million species of diatom on Earth, with scientists still trying to better define "what a diatom species is" (Guiry, 2012). So many new species are yet to be discovered that citizen scientists, volunteers, and aficionados are very much needed to collect, preserve and study them, in the Everglades (see periphyton mats in the image below) and anywhere else where there is a little bit of water or moisture for some diatoms (and/or other algae) to survive.


Stay tuned and do not forget that these invisible organisms ‘paved the way’ for many other species on this planet (and, who knows, maybe beyond…)!

Guiry, M.D. (2012). How many species of algae are there? Journal of phycology 48: 1057-1063.


Spaulding, S.A., Lubinski, D.J. and Potapova, M. (2010). Diatoms of the United States. http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu. Accessed on 24 July, 2017.
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Thursday, February 16, 2017

Researching Algae, the Unsung Heroes of Aquatic Food Webs

February 16, 2017 0
by Luca Marazzi*

Why is it important to study algae?To start with, algae produce ~ 50% of the oxygen on planet Earth, they are food for small and large animals that in turn are eaten by people, but they also recycle nutrients and absorb CO2 from the air; by existing and doing their own thing, these microorganisms provide these so called ecosystem services to human beings (Fig. 1). Moreover, as algae reproduce fast and are often adapted to specific environmental conditions, understanding how many species of algae, and which ones, live where and why give us cues as to the health of aquatic ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes, and wetlands. 

Fig. 1. Simplified scheme of the role of algae in food webs (from my Ph.D. Thesis).


* Dr. Luca Marazzi is a freshwater ecologist working in Dr. Evelyn Gaiser’s research group in the School of Environment, Arts and Society at Florida International University. His main interest is how biodiversity, ecology, and distribution of algae in subtropical wetlands change with hydrology, nutrient concentrations and habitat. He curates the “Diatom of the month” blog series aimed to raise awareness on these algae, key primary producers and indicators of environmental change.

How did I get to do research on algae? For my Environmental Science MSc dissertation project, I worked in the northern Italy’s Alps studying Passerine bird migration, then my career path took me to office-based research on air quality and climate change. Wanting to go back to field research, I got a Ph.D. opportunity at University College London to study the biodiversity and biomass of microscopic algae in the Okavango Delta, a subject and a place I didn’t know much about, apart from biology courses and natural science readings. Between 2009 and 2010, I spent ~3 months in Maun (NW Botswana), to carry out the necessary sampling in this incredible, remote, and near pristine wetland in the middle of the Kalahari; another ~ 70 months were needed to master and apply taxonomy and microscope skills, conduct statistical analyses, read, think, and write my Thesis, as well as working to support my graduate studies.
Fast-forward 8+ years, here I am in sunny Miami, some 8,000 km away from the cold and misty mountain pass where I did my MSc research and 12,200 km from the Okavango, to work on another amazing wetland, the Everglades, as part of a Postdoctoral Associate contract in Dr. Evelyn’s Gaiser laboratory at Florida International University (FIU). After a few months at FIU putting together a database for the Comprehensive Everglades Research Plan Monitoring and Assessment Plan (CERP-MAP) and planning my publications, I decided, with my postdoc and Ph.D. advisors, to undertake an ambitious comparative study of patterns and drivers of species richness and life-history strategies in the Okavango and Everglades. We estimated that, the Okavango hosts, on average, ~80 species of algae in each sampling site, the Everglades have ‘only’ ~ 20 (Fig. 2). This is likely due to phosphorus scarcity, habitat fragmentation due to water diversion schemes, and nutrient pollution in the Everglades whereas the Okavango is still a near pristine wetland. Moreover, Florida is a long peninsula, while the Zambezi ecoregion in Africa has been historically well connected so that organisms may be able to better disperse to and from this wetland than in the Everglades. For more information, our paper “Algal richness and life-history strategies are influenced by hydrology and phosphorus in two major subtropical wetlands” is published in this month's issue of Freshwater Biology.




Fig. 2. Map of estimated algal richness and photos from the air: Okavango (above) and Everglades (below). Okavango (site averages); UPH= Upper Panhandle; LPH=Lower Panhandle; XAK=Xakanaxa; BOR=Boro; SAN=Santantadibe.Everglades; LKO=Lake Okeechobee; LOX=Loxahatchee; Out_ENP=Outside of Everglades National Park (including the Water Conservation Areas, WCA 2 and 3); ENP=Everglades National Park.

Although, in the Okavango, the flooding cycles have a stronger influence on species richness, as compared to phosphorus in the Everglades, maintaining and restoring the natural hydrology in these wetlands is critical for the preservation of algal communities, and thus for the health of food webs. Due to their outstanding geographic features and biodiversity, both these wetlands are protected as World Heritage sites, and are included in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and so it is critical to keep monitoring these ecosystems. 

What’s next?
I am currently researching how algal dominance changes with nutrients and hydrology in the Everglades, which is relevant for freshwater flow and water quality restoration scenarios. I am also trying to create opportunities for comparative research in other subtropical wetlands. Last September, I visited the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and, with other 800 experts, attended the excellent 10th INTECOL Wetlands conference in Changshu. I presented my comparative work and co-organized a workshop on future directions in wetlands studies, strengthened previous connections and made new ones with various colleagues working in Asia, South America and Australia. In June, other FIU scholars and I are planning to present our work at the next Society of Wetland Scientists’ meeting in Puerto Rico (“Celebrating Wetland Diversity Across the Landscape: Mountains to Mangroves”), where we aim to foster new collaborations with ecologists conducting research on wetland ecosystems and food webs in Central and South America, and beyond. Moreover, Dr. Gaiser, Dr. Barry H. Rosen (USGS) and I co-organized a special session on how algae / periphyton mats may respond to different nutrient and hydrology scenarios in the Everglades for the Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER 2017) conference. As wetlands are facing unprecedented anthropogenic impacts due to, for example, land use change, water diversion, and global warming, such collaborations among scientists, and between us and policy makers, are crucial to foster and inform sustainable management practices and strong conservation and restoration activities.
                                  
                                      
                                  
                                 

Fig. 3. (from top to bottom) In front of the conference venue with Drs. Wolfgang Junk (Federal University of Mato Grosso, Brazil), Max Finlayson (Charles Sturt University, Australia) and Xuhui Dong (Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark and Chinese Academy of Sciences); our International Network for Next Generation Ecologists workshop; two pictures from one of the conference fieldtrips to Shanghu Lake.

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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Action to Activism

May 29, 2014 0
This post was written by first-time blogger, grad student Edward Linden, of Dr. Rene Price's of hydrology at FIU (http://www2.fiu.edu/~pricer/).
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          Less than a year ago, all that I knew about Everglades was its general location in Florida and the presence of alligators. Through numerous scientific talks given at FIU, my classes, and my research, I have gained a great deal of knowledge about the history of the Everglades as it relates to my field of study. The Saturday that I spent in Gainesville at UF opened my eyes to an entirely new aspect of the Everglades that I had not previously considered; the political side.

          I was well aware of the detrimental anthropogenic influences that the region has experienced, so I knew that humans were intimately involved with the changes that have occurred over the past hundred years. I was also aware of CERP (Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan) and CEPP (Central Everglades Planning Project), which were created in response to all of the changes than humans have induced, but I hadn’t given thought to the initiation of these restorative measures. Without important projects like these, the Everglades ecosystem would be in much worse shape than it is today. These restorations would never have come into existence without the advocacy that past environmental activists have put forth to decision makers in government. Decision makers in government are responsible for creating the funding that allows for many of the current restorative activities that have already happened and continue to occur. If not for the advocacy of past activists, the public funding that is currently in place for projects like the FCE LTER would simply not exist.
          The workshop began with an introduction by Senator Bob Graham, during which he communicated its goal: to create a bridge to apply personal experience to a larger challenge using the emotional and physical attachments that concern you to action. His introduction was followed by a superb overview of the natural and anthropogenic history of the Everglades, with talks given by UF and FIU faculty, the USGS, and the Everglades Foundation.

          Talks included a general physical history (Stephen Davis, Everglades Foundation); an examination of the pulsed, natural and managerial cycles (Marc Brown, UF); a discussion of the challenges and difficulties of science and monitoring with respect to everglades restoration (Vic Engel, USGS); the predicted impacts of climate change and sea level rise (Tiffany Troxler, FIU); the convoluted legal history of everglades water quality litigation (Richard Hamann, UF); the difficulties of communicating issues to policy makers (Dawn Sheriffs, Everglades Foundation); and an introduction to the friction between agricultural interests and restoration efforts (Katrina Schwartz, UF).
          The second part of the workshop began with an impromptu play. In the play, Chris Hand (the senator’s assistant and co-author of their book) acted as a congressman and willing participants that the senator had recruited during the lunch break played the parts of environmental advocates, demonstrating some of the common pitfalls that many advocates endure. The play was used as a segue into a discussion of the their book: America, the Owner’s Manual: Making Government Work For You. Senator Graham and Mr. Hand then discussed the process of building coalitions and persuading decision makers, making each of the components very approachable and understandable.
          The final portion of the workshop consisted of a pair of breakout groups that focused on advocacy techniques and sea level rise; topics selected based on the audience’s choices. These productive groups presented their discussion results afterwards as the conclusion to the workshop.
          There are many people interested in advocating for various causes, but few know how to achieve their goals. Regardless of what background a person may have, the advocacy tools taught in the workshop and the history of the Everglades that was presented combined to produce an excellent foundation for making one’s ideas heard by decision makers. I hope that the workshop can be held soon at FIU, where there are a large number of students interested in advocacy for the Everglades.
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Thursday, August 29, 2013

7 Ways to Make to Most Out of Your First National Conference

August 29, 2013 0
A few weeks ago, I attended my first national conference, Botanical Society of America’s Botany 2013 Celebrating Diversity! (BSA) in New Orleans, LA. Here are 7 lessons I learned along the way:

1 )      Go to the big conferences, even if you don’t have a lot of data yet
I just finished up my first year of my PhD program, and I didn't have a lot of “real” data to speak of. So I did what I could, and presented a poster outlining my doctoral thesis proposal. Unexpectedly, I got so much valuable, constructive feedback from experts in my field.  I really valued this experience, because at this stage in my program, that feedback provided me with new perspectives on my project before I execute it. Plus, I got to know PI’s, post-docs, and graduate students from other universities that expressed interest in collaborating with me in the future.

2 )      Attend the student professional development luncheons, mixers, etc.
At BSA, there were ample opportunities provided to us as students, to get involved with the society, network with colleagues, and mentor undergraduates. One event that really stood out was the Student Involvement Luncheon, at which they set up a speed-dating style session with professionals that work in various aspects of Botany. Students rotated through tables of natural history museum curators, small liberal arts university faculty, and full-time researchers from Monsanto, large research universities and various governmental agencies. Talk about an opportunity to network—asking questions regarding everyday work environments and get advice on how to succeed in graduate school from successful professionals.
PLANTS Mentors and Mentees at BSA 2013, photo courtesy of Ann Sakai



3 )      Do your homework
Even though it seems daunting, read through all the titles (abstracts, if you are really good!) of presentations and names of presenting authors before you get to the conference. I recommend this for a few reasons: first so that you can create a personal conference schedule for yourself, second to maximize the talks you attend, and so you are aware of which researchers will be at the conference who work in your field. If you are brave, which you should be because everyone at the conferences loves talking to graduate students, plan which researchers you may want to approach to discuss your research throughout the conference.

4 )      Session-hop, but pace yourself
It seems that there are a couple approaches to conferences. You can sit in a session and stay for most of the presentations or you can hop between rooms all day dipping in and out of different sessions all day. Since this was my first time at BSA, I opted for session-hopping on day one and two-- that way I could get a better understanding of the breadth of the conference. I attended talks on paleobotany, taxonomy, tropical botany, ecology, science education, plant-animal interactions, to name a few. Especially since there are other national conferences that I am interested in attending annually, this method helped me better understand what types of research BSA represents. However, by the end of day two, I had racked up 3-4 talks every hour for 8 hours each day. You do the math--I was exhausted! The third day I opted to sit in on entire sessions. This approach worked really well for me because that was the day that the sessions particularly related to my thesis work. Also, I saw presentations that hadn’t piqued my interest in the agenda—some of which ending up being my favorite of the conference.

5  )      Come prepared with an “elevator speech”
Luckily I had a professor who made a point of getting us all to practice describing our research in an interesting and informative way in thirty seconds or less. Make sure that before you go to the conference, you can do this. Practice with you lab-mates, fellow graduate students, your non-science friends, family, or whoever you can get to listen. Make sure it is fast and doesn’t make eyes glaze over or create temporary memory loss. Also by practicing it, you will be less likely to stumble over your words and more likely to sound clever and confident while you are talking to that researcher whom you have been “stalking” all conference long.

6 )      Find ways to fund your trip or at least make it affordable
Most of the larger societies hosting national conferences have student grants available. These grant cycles are usually early, so make sure to check the website well before the conference. Also, some societies allow students to volunteer at the conference in exchange for reimbursing their registration fees. Your department or university graduate school may also have small grants available for travel or professional development. I got a grant from FCE (THANK YOU!) and a couple other smaller grants that helped offset the cost of my trip. Finally, two of my lab mates and I shared a hotel room, which made a huge difference! An alternative to that is staying in a nearby hostel instead of the conference hotel, but try to find one that is within walking distance to the conference.

7 )      Make time to enjoy the location of the conference
Lastly, there is nothing worse than going somewhere for four days and never leaving a hotel conference room. Make time during lunch or the evening to get out and experience where you are. Especially since I am a plant-geek and a field ecologist, I really can’t be inside all day without going a little stir crazy. But beyond getting some fresh air, it is important, because conferences may be some of the only times throughout graduate school that you get to go to visit new places (for free, if you’ve followed tip 6!). BSA was in NOLA, so my lab-mates and I made it a point to go out to eat lots of gumbo, crawfish etouffee, po’boys, muffalettas, and jambalaya. We also made the required trip to Café du Monde and even got to hear a jazz and a brass band! Also, we went with our advisor to the Audubon Insectarium--all without missing a single presentation.

I hope these tips help you in planning your next conference experience.
 -Julia




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Monday, September 10, 2012

Sea-level research at 8000 feet

September 10, 2012 0
In continuation of Ann’s post a couple weeks back, conferences and meetings are very important in becoming a successful and knowledgeable graduate student. Currently, I am in Estes Park, Colorado, which is about 1.5 hours outside Denver and adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park for the Long-Term Ecological Research All-Scientists Meeting. In a nut-shell, this meeting is held once every three years and brings together scientists and researchers from 26 LTER sites around the country and around the world. This meeting differs from a conference by being primarily focused on cross-site and interdisciplinary collaboration. This is done by holding working group discussion sessions surrounding a particular topic. Scientist that are interested in that topic can participate in a discussion session that has a specific outcome; typically information exchange, brainstorming, or a product such as data analysis or a journal article. 
Map of all 26 LTER sites

The working group sessions that are held at a meeting are typically selected by way of a request for proposals. This request is sent to the general scientist community, in this case the LTER community. Researchers will then submit a proposal of the session that they want to hold; including the purpose of the session, the importance, and the potential outcome of the session. This LTER ASM meeting, I had the opportunity to submit a proposal that was accepted by the LTER group that focused on graduate student research in research topics related to hydrology, or how water interacts with the environment. The LTER community has been promoting collaboration between researchers at different sites and between different fields of study. Because of this and my own interests in scientific collaboration, I contacted two graduate students to help co-organize this meeting with me; one from the Everglades/ FCE LTER group and one from the Arctic (ARC) LTER. Additionally, we invited 9 other graduate students from 8 separate LTER sites, spanning tropical to desert conditions, and coastal to inland environments and a wide range of topics from nutient cycling to water flows. You can view some of the presentations from our working group session here.
The reason why we put this session together was to identify relationships between nature and society among the various LTER sites that are inherently linked by water. The 26 LTER sites represent sites that have long-term datasets and allow scientists to look at environment and societal changes over ecological timescales on the orders of years and decades. Long-term data is important, because some of the processes that occur in nature take longer than the few years that a student might be at school doing their research.

In addition to the workshops, we still hold a poster session to highlight the research that we have been working on. I will have my poster up during the meeting to show off my remote sensing research (see earlier blog post). Essenitally I will be presenting how we can use satellite data to measure chloride concentrations and evapotranspiration (evaporation + transpiration). You can read through my abstract here.
These meetings are great opportunities to interact with other graduate students, faculty and researchers that conduct similar research and to learn about what cutting edge research is going on in other parts of the country and world. Additionally, the LTER meetings do a really good job of promoting collaboration and camaraderie between graduate students and faculty by holding social events and field trips. And it’s pretty hard to pass up a field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  With that, I will leave you with some pictures from the conference.

Cheers,
D



Graduate Student Mixer- Great opporutnity to meet other great grad students from around the states

Graduate Student Symposium at LTER ASM

View of the Rocky Mountains from the front of our housing


View from our back patio


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Thursday, August 23, 2012

I'm in Minnesota, oh ya!

August 23, 2012 0
Greetings from St. Paul, Minnesota!  I have left the sweltering heat of south Florida for a few days to attend the American Fisheries Society Conference.  Attending conferences is a must-do for graduate students.  It's a chance to share your research with a large, scientific audience, get feedback from the top scientists in your field, and make connections (and new friends) along the way.  These meetings can be a bit overwhelming so I've generated some tips to help you get through them:

Photo Credit.
1)  If you're attending a national meeting, chances are there will be anywhere from 10 to 15 talks going on at once.  Running from room to room to see all of them isn't necessarily the best approach.  Stay in one session for a series of talks and sit near the front.  If there are discussions after the talks, don't run off.  Sit and listen and even participate if you have something worthwhile to add!  

Photo Credit.
2) Network network network.  This becomes more important as your graduation date nears but it's never too early to get your name (and your research) out there to the professionals.  To be honest, this is the HARDEST thing to do, at least in my opinion.  If you're lucky, you're adviser will introduce you to some colleagues, but you can't always count on that.  So your best bet is to stalk the agencies or professors that you'd want to work for and attend their talks.  Go up to them afterwards but be prepared to wait behind the 10 other people that also want to tell them how great their research is.  This is another reason why sitting in the front gives you an advantage!  Or, look for them at the social events and make your move then.  Ask them to come to your talk (see point 3 below) or give them a CONCISE overview of your research interest or thesis/dissertation work.  State where you're in school and who your adviser is as well, especially if you know s/he has a connection there.   It could be just a brief encounter and you may walk away feeling that got you nowhere, but don't be discouraged!  Email them a week or so after the conference (so it doesn't get buried under the 100s of emails s/he's likely not reading while s/he's traveling) and keep at it over the next several months.  They may not have funding at that moment, but things can change pretty quickly and you want to make sure you aren't forgotten.

Photo Credit.
3)  If you want people to attend your talk or poster, just ask.  I was desperate for some feedback and wasn't sure if my title was catchy enough to attract a large audience.  So, I went up to people whose research was similar to mine and simply asked them if they would attend my talk.  Show them EXACTLY in the program when and where your talk or poster is so they'll remember.  This worked surprisingly well for me this week.

Photo Credit.
4) Don't be afraid to go alone.  There are numerous student social events and I can assure you, you aren't the only person there that doesn't know anybody.  Yes, it can be a bit awkward arriving alone and then frantically searching the room for an empty chair so you aren't wandering aimlessly...but once you get over the initial uncomfortableness of it all, you end up meeting people along the way.  Don't be afraid to introduce yourself to other attendees.  If you saw their talk or sat in a session and noticed they were there as well, that can be an ice breaker.  

That's about all the advice I have for now.  I'll be posting at a later date tips and tricks for making successful PowerPoint presentations but if you questions in the meantime, leave a note below!



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