Passport to Discovery: An IGC IGEP outreach day

Saturday, April 12, 2014:

Interfaces of Global Change Graduate Student Organization hosted a science outreach day at the SEEDS Nature Center* in Blacksburg, VA. The day of outdoor activities was titled “Passport to Discovery: a hands-on journey through the world of biological science and nature for children of all ages.”

Volunteers participating in this event included Interfaces of Global Change fellows, graduate and undergraduate students from the Hopkins and Belden labs, NRV Master Naturalists, and staff members from the SEEDS Nature Center. ...

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1
APR
2014

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Educational Outreach, GSO, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Outreach, Schools and science fairs

North Carolina Ash Spill: Regulations Meet Politics

Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged

North Carolina regulators say that under Gov. Pat McCrory, a weakened Department of Environment and Natural Resources has abandoned its regulatory role.

Read the complete article in the New York Times (from February 28, 2014):

http://nyti.ms/1fXJJR3

Below, an animated graphic by the Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University shows the aftermath of the coal ash pond rupture at ...

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1
MAR
2014

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Global Change, Pollution

If you see something, say something

From The New York Times:

OPINION: If You See Something, Say Something

Should we resist commenting on the implications of our scientific work? In the opinion of Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, climate scientists can no longer stay on the sidelines of the global warming debate.

“It is not an uncommon view among scientists that we potentially compromise our objectivity if we choose to wade into policy matters or the societal implications of our work. ...

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20
JAN
2014

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Opinion

Ignacio Moore’s research is featured in ScienceShots

A recent study by Dr. Fran Bonier (Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada and Virginia Tech, Virginia, USA), Dr. Cas Eikenaar (Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany), Dr. Paul Martin (Queen’s University), and Dr. Ignacio Moore (Virginia Tech) explores promiscuity trends across sparrows. Lower promiscuity rates among sparrows were observed at higher elevations. This is a pattern that had not previously been demonstrated across species.

Dr. Moore’s paper, “Extra-pair paternity rates vary with latitude and elevation in Emberizid sparrows”, was recently ...

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2
DEC
2013

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News, Research

New interdisciplinary graduate education program examines the effects of global change

The Interfaces of Global Change graduate program was recently featured in Virginia Tech News

From VT News:

Earth’s biodiversity is like a kaleidoscope made up of distinct plants and animals; however, with each year’s turn, unique and irreplaceable species disappear.

Habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, disease, and climate change are all to blame for the current rate of extinction, which is 1,000 times higher now than before human dominance, according to Bill Hopkins, associate professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of ...

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9
NOV
2013

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Global Change, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, News

IGC IGEP Faculty and Students Work in Coal Field Restoration

Dr. Jacob Barney and Dr. Stephen Schoenholtz were recently featured in a VT News article about the Powell River Project. This long-term environmental restoration project in Southwest Virginia is over 30 years old. Dr. Schoenholtz conducted his Ph.D. research there in the late 1980’s, and now his graduate student, Tony Timpano, is continuing ...

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9
NOV
2013

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Global Change, News, Pollution

Probiotics for Your Pipes

The research of Dr. Amy Pruden, a core faculty member in both the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP and the Water Interfaces IGEP, was recently featured in VT News:

“A team of Virginia Tech researchers is investigating the challenges presented by four often deadly pathogens that have been documented in household or hospital tap water. They propose fighting these opportunistic pathogens with harmless microbes – a probiotic approach for cleaning up plumbing.

Writing in ...

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4
NOV
2013

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Disease, Drinking water, Global Change, News

Moose Die-Off Alarms Scientists

Moose populations across North America are experiencing a sharp decline, and the exact cause is a mystery.

“What exactly has changed remains a mystery. Several factors are clearly at work. But a common thread in most hypotheses is climate change.

Winters have grown substantially shorter across much of the moose’s range. In New Hampshire, a longer fall with less snow has greatly increased the number of winter ticks, a devastating parasite. “You can get 100,000 ticks on a moose,” said ...

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16
OCT
2013

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Climate Change, Disease, Global Change, News

New Course: Biological Invasions

Fall Semester 2014

Dr. Jacob Barney, will offer BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS, PPWS 4604 and 5604G, during fall semester 2014. The course will explore the historical, conceptual, mechanistic, societal, and political components of invasive species. The course begins with Darwin and ends with the “Homogocene”, covering the invasion process from introduction to ecological or economic impact and all components in between.

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15
OCT
2013

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Invasive Species, New Courses

New course: Biodiversity Conservation

Dr. Paul Angermeier and Dr. Amy Vilamagna will be offering a new course in the upcoming spring semester. The course, Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Sustainability: Interfacing Ecological and Social Sciences, will examinee the history, theories, current status, and future prospects, given ongoing global changes, of biodiversity conservation as a societal enterprise.

The course will emphasize the study, practice, and scientific and socioeconomic contexts of conservation, especially as it relates to emerging goals for sustainability. It will synthesize ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural perspectives as it ...