Congratulations, Dr. Jonathan Doubek!

Congratulations, Dr. Jonathan Doubek!

Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Doubek in the Department of Biological Sciences, for passing his Ph.D. defense on Thursday, April 26, 2018 in Derring Hall. His dissertation seminar was titled “The effects of hypoxia on zooplankton communities in lakes and reservoirs”.

Jon joined the IGC program and the Carey Lab in Fall 2013, as a Ph.D. candidate studying freshwater biology. His primary research focus is quantifying how multiple stressors (e.g. land use changes, climate change, invasive species and nutrient loading) ...

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1
MAY
0

Accolades, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Student Spotlight, Water

Restoration from streams to wetlands: Can we restore and should we?

Restoration from streams to wetlands: Can we restore and should we?

Virginia Tech’s Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation hosted Dr. Margaret Palmer from the University of Maryland this morning as part of their Spring Seminar Series.  Dr. Palmer’s presentation, titled “Restoration from streams to wetlands: Can we restore and should we?” engaged a full auditorium to explore the impacts of temporary streams throughout natural, restored and agricultural environments, and to take a closer look at her team’s research differentiating structural versus ecological restoration techniques and evaluation for coastal streams ...

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2
MAR
0

Ideas, Other Sponsored Lectures, Research, Water

‘Dead Zone’ is largest ever in Gulf of Mexico

‘Dead Zone’ is largest ever in Gulf of Mexico

From National Geographic

A record-breaking, New Jersey-sized dead zone was measured by scientists in the Gulf of Mexico this week—a sign that water quality in U.S. waterways is worse than expected.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that this summer’s dead zone is the largest ever recorded, measuring 8,776 miles. This is more expansive than the nearly 8,200 square-mile area that was forecast in July. Since monitoring began 32 years ago, the average ...

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3
AUG
0

Pollution, Water

Hotchkiss awarded NSF funding to examine the consequences of warming in streams

Hotchkiss awarded NSF funding to examine the consequences of warming in streams

Congratulations to Dr. Erin Hotchkiss in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech.  Dr. Hotchkiss and her colleagues recently received research funding from the National Science Foundation. Their project will examine the consequences of warming for organic matter cycling in streams.

Title: “Headwater stream networks in a warming world: Predicting heterotrophic ecosystem function using theory, multi-scale temperature manipulations, and modeling”

Principal Investigators: J.P. Benstead (Alabama), V. Gulis (Coastal Carolina), A.M. Helton (University of Connecticut), A.D. Rosemond (UGA), E.R. Hotchkiss (Virginia Tech).

Summary: This project will ...

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29
JUN
0

Accolades, Water

Top 10 most endangered rivers in the US

Top 10 most endangered rivers in the US

From National Geographic

Water is life, yet climate change and certain public policies may be endangering its future in America, a nonprofit group warns in a new report. The stakes are high, with the current presidential administration having proposed budget cuts that may eliminate some safeguards for clean drinking water and rivers nationwide.

That’s according to American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, which released its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers ...

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18
APR
0

Climate Change, Water

Jon Doubek, GLEON Fellow, publishes in PNAS

Jon Doubek, GLEON Fellow, publishes in PNAS

Jon Doubek, a PH.D. candidate in Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, is a fellow in the Interfaces of Global Change Program and the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON).

Jon’s GLEON Fellowship Program trains small cohorts of graduate students from around the world to analyze large and diverse data sets, operate effectively in diverse international teams, and communicate science to researchers, the public, and managers. In addition to taking part in three international workshops, Jon ...

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11
APR
0

Accolades, Global Change, Water

Global water expert, Brian Richter to give GCC Distinguished Lecture April 7th

Global water expert, Brian Richter to give GCC Distinguished Lecture April 7th

From VT News:

Brian Richter, the chief scientist for the Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy, will visit Virginia Tech on April 7. He will give a 4 p.m. distinguished lecture entitled “Chasing Water in a Rapidly Changing World” at the Lyric Theatre, followed by a question and answer period and book signing.

The event, coordinated by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, is free and open to the public.

Richter has been a global ...

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4
APR
0

Global Change, Seminars, Workshops, Lectures, Water

Global Change Researchers help Water Authority maintain water quality

Global Change Researchers help Water Authority maintain water quality

From VT NEWS

Pumping oxygen into the bottom waters of Southwest Virginia’s drinking water reservoirs can reduce treatment costs and help fish and other aquatic life, according to an interdisciplinary research team with the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech.

The team has installed oxygenation systems in three reservoirs that serve Roanoke and surrounding county residents — Carvins Cove, Falling Creek, and Spring Hollow — and are monitoring them to see how increased oxygen levels ...

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27
MAR
0

Climate Change, Global Change, Water

Distinguished Lecture Series: Brian Richter- Chasing Water in a Dynamically Changing World

The Global Change Center Distinguished Lecture Series welcomes
BRIAN RICHTER
Chief Scientist, Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy
President, Sustainable Waters

“Chasing Water in a Dynamically Changing World”
Friday, April 7, 2017, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
The Lyric Theatre

Brian Richter has been a global leader in water science and conservation for more than 25 years.  He is the Chief ...

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13
MAR
0

Distinguished Lecture Series, Water

Toxic algae blooms are spreading

Toxic algae blooms are spreading

From National Geographic

When sea lions suffered seizures and birds and porpoises started dying on the California coast last year, scientists weren’t entirely surprised. Toxic algae is known to harm marine mammals.

But when researchers found enormous amounts of toxin in a pelican that had been slurping anchovies, they decided to sample fresh-caught fish. To their surprise, they found toxins at such dangerous levels in anchovy meat that the state urged people to immediately stop eating them.

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23
AUG
0

Climate Change, Global Change, Pollution, Water

Tony Timpano’s work in water quality research is at the interface of science and policy

Tony Timpano’s work in water quality research is at the interface of science and policy

Story by Cassandra Hockman
Fralin Life Science Institute

Along the Mississippi River there is one species many people who live there know well. Mayflies. These long, dragonfly-looking creatures live on the bottom of the river and burrow in the muck and sand. They grow and develop there before they come to the surface to fly away and mate.

When they fly away, they do it en masse.

“They come out in huge swarms so big they show up on Doppler radar,” said Tony ...

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21
JUL
0

Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Student Spotlight, Water

Watershed flood-control strategies aided by new mapping approach

Watershed flood-control strategies aided by new mapping approach

From VT News

It should come as no surprise that urban areas, with impenetrable rooftops and parking lots, contribute to flooding. But natural and manmade structures within the watersheds that serve urban and rural areas can influence the path and speed of water, for better or worse.

Landscape features, such as vegetative cover, soil type, and the steepness of hillsides, affect the magnitude and duration of only small floods, according to research by Beatriz “Tiz” Mogollón of Bogota, Colombia, who ...

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3
MAY
0

Global Change, Research, Water

Water professor Stephen Schoenholtz attends White House Water Summit

Water professor Stephen Schoenholtz attends White House Water Summit

From VT News

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tuesday is World Water Day, and the White House is bringing the issues of water to the public forefront at a special Water Summit. Stephen Schoenholtz, coordinator of Virginia Tech’s new bachelor’s degree in water: resources, policy, and management, will present the university’s commitment to water sustainability and security at the summit.

The event will be live-streamed beginning at 9 a.m. ET on March 22.

The White House Office of Science and Technology selected Virginia Tech ...

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22
MAR
0

News, Water

Jon Doubek receives NSF Doctoral Dissertation Grant

Jon Doubek receives NSF Doctoral Dissertation Grant

We are pleased to announce that IGC Fellow, Jonathan Doubek, has been awarded a prestigious NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant!

The grant will support Jon’s work in the Carey lab on zooplankton in freshwater lakes and reservoirs.  These organisms play a critical role in the food web and overall water quality in these ecosystems and a major factor in the negative impact of human activities.  The project is part of ...

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4
FEB
0

Accolades, News, Student Spotlight, Water

Castello, et al.: Hydro dams threaten a third of the world’s freshwater fish

Castello, et al.: Hydro dams threaten a third of the world’s freshwater fish

A new paper, published today in Science by Dr. Leandro Castello and his colleagues, was featured in the Guardian and at VT News.

Winemiller, K., McIntyre, P., Castello, L., and 29 other authors. 2016. Balancing hydropower and biodiversity in the Amazon, Congo and Mekong. Science 351: 128-129

From VT News:

BLACKSBURG — Advocates of huge hydroelectric dam projects on the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong rivers often overestimate economic benefits and underestimate far-reaching effects on biodiversity, according to an article published ...

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8
JAN
0

Global Change, Water

Castello & Macedo: Large-scale degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems

Castello & Macedo: Large-scale degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems

Castello, L., Macedo, N.M. 2015. Large-scale degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13173 pdf

From the Washington Post

When it comes to conservation efforts, few regions of the Earth have garnered as much attention as the Amazon. Considering that it’s home to the world’s largest remaining rain forest and some of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet, halting deforestation in the Amazon basin has been a major priority of environmentalists around the globe. But while ...

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29
DEC
0

Global Change, Water

Peter Vikesland explores new methods for detecting pollutants in the environment

Peter Vikesland explores new methods for detecting pollutants in the environment

From VT News

Rapid pollutant detection can prevent widespread outbreaks. While there are many existing techniques for detecting such contamination, they generally require highly specific instruments for each contaminant.

Peter Vikesland, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and Haoran Wei of Zaozhuang in Shandong, China, a doctoral student in environmental engineering, describe challenges related to deploying surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) used for detection in their paper published by Scientific Reports, “pH-Triggered Molecular Alignment for Reproducible SERS ...

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17
DEC
0

Pollution, Water

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