A blog highlighting undergraduate research in the LeRoy Lab at Evergreen

Tag: Collaborators

Last Day Huge Collaborative Thank YOU!!!

We have been so lucky to work with so many awesome individuals in the field and in the lab over the past five years. Our NSF-funded research at Mount St. Helens has involved collaborators from the US Forest Service, Science Museum of Minnesota, Missouri State University, UW Tacoma, and Desert Research Institute.  

We have created research opportunities for over 25 undergraduate students at The Evergreen State College. Undergraduate students work collaboratively on this research from the very beginning of experimental design all the way through the final stages of publication!  

We would like to thank the National Science Foundation for our funding, the US Forest Service for in-kind support of Shannon Claeson, and the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument for our permit to do research on the volcano. We thank The Evergreen State College for logistical support and for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program for students. We thank the Mount St. Helens Institute for coordinating opportunities for science outreach 

USFS Ecologists Shannon Claeson and Charlie Crisafulli

Spirit Lake. Photo by Charlie Crisafulli

Our lab has collaborated with numerous scientists while working across the Pumice Plain of Mount St. Helens. We have had the honor of working with USFS Ecologists Shannon Claeson and Charlie Crisafulli! Shannon is an aquatic entomologist and has co-led the stream surveys across the Pumice Plain since 2015.

USFS Ecologist Charlie Crisafulli has worked on Mount St. Helens since the eruption and helps us understand the willow stem boring weevil Cryptorhynchus lapathi. Photo by Carri LeRoy

Charlie Crisafulli has worked on Mount St Helens since the eruption in 1980 studying the initial and long-term responses of communities and ecosystems to large disturbances. A portion of his work focuses on the nonnative stem-boring weevil colonization and its influences on plant succession!

USFS Ecologist Shannon Claeson has collaborated on stream surveys at Mount St. Helens since 2015, but has worked on the mountain for over 10 years. Photo by Carri LeRoy

In working with Shannon and Charlie, our team members have been able to learn more about stream evolution across the Pumice Plain as well as the stem-boring weevil and its influences on MSH willows. In fact, our team has even identified that weevils prefer female over male willows across the Pumice Plain!

Society for Freshwater Science: Mount St Helens Research!

The joint ASLO-SFS conference was planned for early June of 2020. Our lab would have had a strong showing! 

Every year the Society for Freshwater Science holds an annual conference where scientists around the globe meet to share research done across a vast variety of aquatic ecosystems. Our lab had the honor of presenting our MSH research in June 2019! We submitted 8 abstracts to present in 2020, but the conference was canceled.

Undergraduate students Iris Garthwaite and Victoria Cowan present the results of our research projects at the Society for Freshwater Science conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, 2019. Photo by Carri LeRoy. 

Evergreen undergraduate students Iris Garthwaite and Victoria Cowan presented at the SFS 2019 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah! Their project focused on the effects of nitrogen addition and herbivory interactions that alter litter chemistry and in-stream litter decomposition at Mount St Helens!

A trip to the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City as part of the Society for Freshwater Science conference in June 2019. It was a Marks-LeRoy-Best Lab reunion! 

Conferences are great opportunities to see old friends and make new connections. This is a joint Marks-LeRoy-Best lab reunion dinner at the Red Iguana. Stay tuned to learn more about our lab members who submitted abstracts for the 2020 Annual Conference!

Dr. Deb Finn – a Hyporheic Dynamo!

Evergreen Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) students Angie Froedin-Morgensen and Iris Garthwaite had opportunities to work with Dr. Deb Finn from Missouri State University in summer 2019. Photo by Carri LeRoy. 

Collaborator, Dr. Deb Finn (@streambug), Assistant Professor at Missouri State University, has provided many assets to our research program, far more than strictly field work. Connections like these provide Evergreen students with unique networking opportunities.

Dr. Deb Finn, measuring hyporheic depth in a shirt that matches the beautiful monkey flower in Forsyth Creek in 2019. Photo by Carri LeRoy. 

Working with Dr. Finn on the Pumice Plain means we had the opportunity to study the hyporheic zones of new streams at Mount St Helens! Undergraduates learned how to install and monitor hyporheic wells along the streams.

Evergreen undergraduate Iris Garthwaite checking hyporheic height in a well on the Pumice Plain of Mount St. Helens in 2019. Photo by Carri LeRoy.  

Assessing hyporheic zones generated a lot of data for our team to better understand the novel watersheds at MSH. It turns out that 40 years isn’t long enough for most hyporheic zones to develop but we gained insight into up and downwelling and the potential for hyporheic habitat development!

Collaborators- involvement outside of Evergreen!

USFS collaborator Shannon Claeson explaining aspects of the eruption to an undergraduate student. Photo by Carri LeRoy  

Here are a few of the fantastic collaborators that we’ve been fortunate to have on our team!   

Shannon Claeson (USFS Aquatic Ecologist; @ForestServiceNWhas been working at Mount St. Helens for over 10 years and collaborating with us for the past five years. She brings expertise in aquatic insect taxonomy and ecology to the team.  

Dr. Debra Finn (@streambug) is an assistant professor at Missouri State University (@MissouriState) and collaborates with us on hyporheic flows, stonefly secondary production, and invertebrate genetics. She received an NSF-ROA extension grant to collaborate with our team! 

Joy Ramstack Hobbs is a limnologist from the Science Museum of Minnesota/St. Croix Watershed Research Station and is senior personnel on the NSF EAGER grant. Joy provides expertise in phycology, statistics and undergraduate training and been a great collaborator the past 2 years! 

 

It’s hard work hauling well pounders and hyporheic wells out to the field site. Dr. Deb Finn collaborated on hyporheic zone studies in summer 2019.  
Laying out hundreds of litter bags for installation in Geo-West Creek, on the Pumice Plain of MSH. Collaborator Joy Hobbs and undergraduate student Victoria Cowan tied bags onto string. Photo by Carri LeRoy