Recently funded...
J. Cavender-Bares (PI), J.R. Etterson and J.D. Sparks (Co-PIs). National Science Foundation. Collaborative Research: Adaptive differentiation, selection and water use of a seasonally dry tropical oak: implications for global change $ 565,529 (funded 12/4/08).
RiverWebs, a Freshwater Illustrated documentary film about an international group of river ecologists, will be shown at noon on Friday, April 3 in the Kirby Lounge. This film is being shown in conjunction with the biology seminar presented by Kurt Fausch, a Colorado State University professor and one of the scientists featured in the film, at 3:15pm in 185 Life Science.
Tom Hrabik will be giving a seminar titled 'Diel vertical migration of three trophic levels in the deep waters of Lake Superior' at 11:30am on Wednesday, April 1, at the MPCA Office located at 525 Lake Avenue S. in Duluth during the Twin Ports Freshwater Folk monthly meeting.
Celebrate Earth Hour from 8:30-9:30pm on Saturday, March 28 by turning off our lights. This international conservation effort has been brought to the attention of UMD and the Duluth community by undergraduate students Tom Cariveau, Lindsey Nelson and Bryan Nelson.
Congratulations to Lyle Shannon, the biology department's first Inspirational Teacher of the Life Sciences (ITLS) awardee! Beginning in 2009 the ITLS will be awarded annually to a Department of Biology faculty member whose teaching has inspired others to think critically about the biological sciences. This is a person who has inspired students to do their best work and has helped shape careers. The ITLS awardee is an innovative teacher who offers students guidance, and inspires current and future teachers to pursue excellence in the classroom.
Cindy Hale’s research is the focus of an article in this month’s Scientific American (March 2009, page 22). The article by Michael Tennesen is titled “Crawling to Oblivion: Invasive earthworms denude Great Lakes forests.” Hale will be teaching BIOL 4803 Ecology Field Methods May Session 2009.
Graduate Programs Information Session
Monday, March 9
115 SSB
12:00 noon Learn about some of the great graduate programs offered at UMD! Bring your questions to ask representatives from these programs: Academic Health Center Duluth, Center for Environmental Education, Integrated Biosciences Program, Water Resources Sciences.
Hosted by the UMD Biology Club
Allen Mensinger co-authored two recent articles with research colleagues:
1. Maruska, KP, Korzan,WJ, and Mensinger, AF. 2009. Individual, temporal, and population-level variations in circulating 11-ketotestosterone and 17β-estradiol concentrations in the oyster toadfish Opsanus tau. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 152: 569-578.
2. Maruska, KP and Mensinger, AF. 2009. Acoustic characteristics and variations in grunt vocalizations in the oyster toadfish Opsanus tau. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 84:325-337.
Gerald Niemi (NRRI, Biology, UMD), Lucinda Johnson (NRRI, UMD), and Valerie Brady (NRRI, MN Sea Grant, UMD) are three of eight co-authors of the International Joint Commission’s white paper entitled “Ecosystem responses to regulation-based water level changes in the Upper Great Lakes.” This paper forms the basis for evaluation of ecosystem effects of the potential water level regulation plans in the Upper Great Lakes of Huron, Michigan, and Superior and their connecting channels.
February 12, 2009 is International Darwin Day, a global celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. In recognition, the UMD Departments of Biology and Geological Science, along with Sigma Xi will be hosting a visit from Dr. Brian Barnes, Director and Professor from the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks. Dr. Barnes will give two lectures on the UMD campus, "Strategies for Overwintering in Arctic Animals" at 3:30pm on Thursday, February 12 in 175 LSci and "Sex and Time in the Hibernating Arctic Ground Squirrel" at 3:15pm on Friday, Februrary 13 in 185 LSci.
Steve Bortone, biology professor, presented “A Model for Testing the Efficacy of Artificial Habitats in Fisheries Management” at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario Chapters of the American Fisheries Society in Duluth in February, 2009.
Biology professor Robert Hecky and colleagues recently published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that was selected as one of the top 100 science stories of 2008 by Discover magazine. In a 37-year experiment with a lake in northern Ontario, scientists demonstrated that controlling phosphorus in particular is the key to reversing eutrophication. To reference the paper: Schindler, D.W., Hecky, R.E., Findlay, D.L., et al...2008, Eutrophication of lakes cannot be controlled by reducing nitrogen input: Results of a 37-year whole-ecosystem experiment: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, v. 105, P. 11254-11258.
The UMD Center for Freshwater Research and Policy (CFRP) recently published Fresh Water: Understanding and solving freshwater problems facing the world, a publication that highlights aquatic research being conducted at UMD and how freshwater professionals in northern Minnesota are making a global impact. This publication includes information about the research of Drs. Randall Hicks, John Pastor, Donn Branstrator, Gerald Niemi, Tom Hrabik, Robert Hecky, Stephanie Guildford and a number of graduate students within the biology department. Copies of this publication can be downloaded from the CFRP website.
Victoria Olson, IBS graduate student, will be giving a seminar titled 'The Effects of the Spiny Water Flea (Bythotrephes longimanus) on Fish Diets and Mercury Levels' at 11:30am on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at the MPCA Office located at 525 Lake Avenue S. in Duluth during the Twin Ports Freshwater Folk weekly meeting.
Congratulations to biology students who were granted Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) awards for the spring semester. Use this link for a description and more information about UROP.
2009 spring semester UROPs in the biology department...
Chromosome Mapping of Spermatogenesis Defective Genes in C. elegans, Kate Bennington (Kroft)
Genetic Mapping of the Fertilization Defective Mutant eb137 in C. elegans, Gabriel Fall (Kroft)
Metabolism of Hibernating Mammals and the Effects of Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF21), Heather Moline (Andrews)
Efficiacy of Standard Minnow Traps for Round Goby (Apollina melanostomus) Collection, Jessica Schul (Mensinger)
Determining the Abundance of Bacterial Ammonia Oxidizers in Lake Superior Picoplankton Samples, Matthew Stuart (Hicks)
Hair Depth, Lindsay Taute (Moen)
Joanne Itami is serving as the UMD Commission on Women grant committe chair during 2008-09. Several grants of up to $1000 are awarded to individuals or organizations seeking assistance in providing programs or activities which directly benefit a broad group of women in the UMD community each year. Large grant applications ($301-$1000) have two deadlines: Nov. 14, 2008 and April 17, 2009. Small grant applications (up to $300) will be evaluated as they are received
