Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

Faculty and Student Newsletter

December 2004

 

Previous newsletters may be seen at:

          http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~deenr/news.html

 

Presentations:

  • Dr. Jason Grabosky was a featured speaker at the 4th annual Great Southern Tree Conference (Dec 2,3) presenting on: “Growth coefficients for establishing parking lot tree canopy, and skeletal soil design for integrating trees and pavement.”   400 attendees from North America and Europe enjoyed great weather over the 2 day indoor-outdoor event in Gainesville, Florida
  • Dr. Steven Handel led a course on "Beyond Hydro-seeding: Restoration Ecology

after Remediation" for the US EPA, On-Scene Coordinators' annual training meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

  • Dr. Handel also gave a talk at Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, Dec. 3, "Constraints and possibilities for urban restoration."

He will be giving the same talk at Harvard U. Graduate School of Design on

Dec. 10.

  • Dr. Handel’s group has been asked to give ecological background and restoration ecology advice for the huge new Brooklyn Bridge Park, 1.3 miles of the Brooklyn waterfront, facing lower Manhattan along the East River.
  • Kinkade, M., W. Peters, A. M. Pohlit, and L. Struwe. 2004. Systematics of Tachia (Gentianaceae): speciation patterns in South America using GIS and phylogenetic data from morphology and DNA.  12th International Symposium on Undergraduate Research at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. 20 Nov, 2004.

(Matt Kinkade has worked in Dr. Struwe's lab as a NSF REU-funded undergraduate researcher. Matt Kinkade was selected as one of three undergraduates by Cook College to present his work during this conference as part of the Rutgers-Univ. of Sao Paulo undergraduate international collaboration).

  • Dr. Ming Xu presented a seminar on November 22, 2004 at Northwest A&F University, Yanyling, China titled  “Climate Change and Ecosystem Carbon Cycle: Where Are We?”

 

Papers Published:

  • Cox, Robert M.,  Stephanie L. Skelly,  and Henry B. John-Alder. (2005)  Testosterone inhibits growth in juvenile male Eastern Fence Lizards (Sceloporus undulatus): Implications for energy allocation and sexual size dimorphism. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (in press, scheduled for Vol. 78, No. 4).
  • Jordan, R.C., D.V. Howe, F. Juanes, J.R. Stauffer, Jr., and E.R. Loew. 2004. The role of ultraviolet radiation in foraging in a group of Lake Malawi cichlids. African Journal of Ecology 42: 228-231.
  • Kiviat, E., and K. MacDonald,* 2004.  Biodiversity patterns and conservation in

the Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey.  Urban Habitats (an online journal) 2,

Special Edition, The Hackensack Meadowlands: ecology and restoration of a

degraded urban wetland.  http://www.urbanhabitats.org/v02n01/index.html

  • J.C.F. Tedrow. 2004. Jacob G. Lipman. in Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment. D. Hillel et al. eds. Elsevier  pp358-364.
  • Li, Y., Xu, M., Zou, X., Sun, O. J. 2004. Comparing soil organic carbon dynamics in plantation and secondary forest in wet tropics in Puerto Rico. Global Change Biology (accepted).
  • Tang, J., Qi, Y., Xu, M., Misson, L., and Goldstein A. H. 2004. Effects of forest thinning on soil respiration in a ponderosa pine plantation in the Sierra Nevada, Tree Physiology (in press).
  • Liu, B., Xu, M., Henderson M. 2004. Observed trends of precipitation amount, requency, and intensity in China, 1960-2000. Journal of Geophysical Research (in press).
  • Liu, B., Xu M., Henderson M., Qi, Y. and Li, Y. 2004. Taking China's temperature: daily range, warming trends, and regional variations, 1955-2000. Journal of Climate 17: 4453-4462.

 

*Kristi MacDonald is a PhD Candidate in Dr. David Ehrenfeld’s lab.

 

Faculty Achievements and Activities:

  • Dr. Julie Lockwood was named the 2004 Georgia Southern University Biology Graduate Distinguished Alumnus.   This was the inaugural year of the award. Dr. Lockwood received her B.S. and her Master’s degree from Georgia Southern University. Dr. Lockwood visited GSU on November 15-16th and gave a talk titled, "The Biology of Nowhere: the loss of diversity through invasion and extinction".
  • Dr. Peter Morin has been recognized as a highly cited researcher in the area of Ecology and the Environment by ISI (see http://isihighlycited.com/). According to the web site, "ISIHighlyCited.com is the most recent in a series of projects at ISI and Thompson-ISI to identify and honor researchers whose collected publications have received the highest number of citations across the past two decades."

 

Student Awards, Achievements, and Activities

  • Jennifer Momsen, a PhD candidate in Dr. Jean Marie Hartman’s lab, received a National Garden Club Scholarship for 2004-2005 for $3500.

 

Transitions:

·        Amanda Dey, advisor Dr. Joanna Burger, successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis titled “The importance of spatial scale and non-forest habitats in predicting occurrence of area-sensitive forest birds.” on December 15th.

·        Shannon Nix Stohr, advisor Dr. John Dighton, successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis titled “Patterns and Dynamics of Phylloplane Fungal Communities of Vaccinium sp. In Response to Anthropogenic Disturbance.” on December 15th.

 

 

 


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