Ecology Center studies the world
Ecosystems around the world are being studied by Utah State University’s Ecology Center.
The Ecology Center is sponsoring projects from the southern tip of South America to Alaska, director Martyn Caldwell said.
Caldwell described ecology as a science which folds together biology, land and soils, aquatic systems, prairies, forests and more.
“Ecology is a science where we’re trying to understand how ecosystems and everything in them operate,” Caldwell said.
The center is part of the university’s division of research, and integrates faculty and graduate students from three colleges and seven departments, according to the center’s Web site www.usu.edu/ecology/eco-cntr.htm
The center itself does not have its own faculty, but involves faculty from other departments affiliated with the center. The diversity of the faculty associated with the center can be directly linked to the center’s success during the past 33 years since its start, Caldwell said.
“There is quite a wealth of ecology faculty here and lots of specialization,” Caldwell said “We have some people studying birds, insects, invertebrates, vegetation all the way down to looking at things you find when you turn over rocks in a stream because everything plays an important role in how an ecosystem operates.”
Projects under the center are funded partly from USU but mostly from federal and state funding, Caldwell said. Faculty interested in doing a project submit proposals which compete across the nation for funding.
Wayne Wurtsbaugh, professor in the fisheries and wildlife department, is currently working on a project at Sawtooth Mountain in Idaho. The research is focusing on the water in the area and will look at how lakes absorb nutrients in the spring and slowly release them over the summer, how lakes reduce biological productivity downstream because nutrients are lost, and how lakes are solar collectors which increase the water temperature as well as the metabolic rates of organisms.
Research is also being done on the ozone in Tierra del Fuego, South America. The project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation of the USA, is investigating the effects of ultraviolet-B radiation on the ecosystems of Tierra del Fuego. This location’s ozone is important because outside of Antarctica this region has experienced the greatest change in UV-B radiation and ozone depletion. Those involved with the study hopes to find if the plant growth in the area and changes in the ecosystem are linked to the radiation levels.
The center also has a seminar series which brings in scientists in specific fields about once a month. Caldwell said the center also attracts graduate students because of the research opportunities. It is important for graduate students to do research, and the Ecology Center allows students to do a lot of research in the field, Caldwell said. The center coordinates graduate curriculum with different departments.
The center also has an aquatic station at Bear Lake about 50 miles from campus with research and teaching labs on campus for chemical analysis, fish culture research, stable isotope analysis, DNA sequencing, geographical information systems and a BLM National Aquatic Monitoring Center. The center also has a 30-acre ecology research compound near campus with animal-care facilities and storage buildings, according to the center’s Web site.
“We’re doing as much as we can to promote ecology as a discipline,” Caldwell said.