Students in the Field
Mussels of the Little Miami River
Dr. Michael Hoggarth and his Field Biology students are in the second year of a two-year reassessment of the mussels of the Little Miami River. Dr. Hoggarth performed the first systematic survey of the mussel fauna of this river system in 1990/1991. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife and Little Miami River Incorporated (LMI) are funding the work. The group has found a decline in species richness and mussel abundance. On the brighter side, they discovered four species never before reported from Symmes Creek.
See the 2007 Life Line newsletter for the full story.
Fossil Reefs in the Dominican Republic
During the summers of 2006 and 2007, Dr. Lescinsky traveled to the Dominican Republic with Otterbein students to study 6,000 year old fossil reefs in the Enriquillo Valley and to compare them with living reefs in Belize. Superb preservation of the fossil corals is allowing the Otterbein team to reconstruct the Dominican reef's growth history and the proportion of the reef coral that was alive at a particular time in the past. The goal is to develop a baseline in geological time that can then be used to interpret the crash in live coral cover in the Caribbean that has occurred over the last two decades, from human impacts.
Turtle Research
This past summer a new group of rising seniors got started on an exciting field project. We received a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to study the effects of a non-native invasive plant, Phragmites, on painted turtle diets. This plant forms thick dense stands in wetlands where painted turtles are found. We hypothesized that in the presence Phragmites, turtles would have difficulty foraging for invertebrate prey items and would become more herbivorous. These students spent much of their summer wading around in wetlands, up to the bellies in thick, stinky muck. Gotta love field work!
See the 2007 Life Line newsletter for more details about turtle research at Otterbein.
Adventures in Costa Rica
During spring break 2006, ten students traveled with Dr. Jeff Lehman to Costa Rica. Lehman has been conducting field research projects in Costa Rica on the biotic, physical, and cultural forces that affect tropical biodiversity.
During their stay, they studied enthobotany in the rainforest with the Bribri Indians and community-based agriculture at a locally-operated pineapple cooperative and agricultural sustainablity and education at Earth University, a biological conservation/preservation at Monte Verde Biological Reserve.
See the 2006 Life Line newsletter for the full story.
Invertebrate Zoology Class Traveled to Duke Marine Laboratory
Six Life Science students accompanied Dr. Michael Hoggath during the winter of 2005 to Duke Maine Laboratory located in Beaufort, North Carolina to study native species in the field.
The area has a mix of tropical species, north temperate species and some species unique to North Carolina. Although dominated by soft bottom habitats and their associated infaunal organisms, nearby there are salt marshes, hard substrates (such as piers, sea walls, etc.), oyster beds, eel grass beds, mud flats, sand flats, and ocean beaches.
See the 2006 Life Line newsletter for the full story.
