Through a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) project funded by the National Park Service (NPS), students and faculty at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) recently collaborated with NPS staff to research and write original articles about national park sites that have played important roles in the history of various scientific disciplines. The articles will provide the first content for a new “History of Science” public website on nps.gov.
Nine graduate students, led by UMCES-AL faculty member Katia Engelhardt, completed their research during the fall semester, while enrolled in MEES 608W: Classic Readings in Ecology. Students from the University of Maryland-College Park, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science-Appalachian Laboratory participated project. Their findings were recently presented at an end-of-semester Graduate Student Symposium.
UMCES-AL student presentations can be viewed by clicking the following links:
Juliet Nagel, a Ph.D. student in the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science program, gave a presentation titled Lessons from warblers in Acadia National Park: coexistence, niches, and hypothesis-driven ecology.
Nagel gave a summary of the work of Robert MacArthur, who studied population ecology of warblers.
Annie Carew, a masters student in the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science program, gave a summary of R.H. Whittaker's work.
Her presentation is titled "Forest Dimensions and Production of the Great Smoky Mountains."
Jake Hagedorn focused on Rocky Mountain National Park with his presentation titled, "Ecosystem Responses to Nitrogen Deposition in the Colorado Front Range."
He gave a summary of Jill Baron's work of the same title.
To learn more about the project and to view student presentations, visit the Chesapeake Watershed CESU website.