Message from the Director
We have been delighted to see CEREO grow in 2014, both in terms of new faces among our staff, Executive Committee, and Affiliates and also in initiating new activities that promote interdisciplinary collaboration on environmental projects.
Our monthly CEREO Executive Committee meetings are now designed so that the final hour may be opened up to the broader CEREO community when we need to discuss ideas for new Requests for Proposals or other hot topics. CEREO Affiliates will receive an email announcement several weeks in advance when a topic is coming up for discussion. So if you haven’t yet signed up with Affiliates, please take a moment to do so (we have streamlined the Affiliates listserv so that you should receive fewer emails with richer content). And if you have RFPs you would like to discuss at one of our monthly CEREO meetings, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
In addition to our continuing work with BioEarth, WISDM, and NSPIRE, our December newsletter announced that CEREO selected a number of new projects to support through an open call for applications in 2014 which will broaden our activities to include conservation biology, communication on risks of non-point pollution, stormwater effects on aquatic organisms, and outreach through an innovative video collaboration. These projects also bring in new collaborators from WSU Vancouver and the Washington Stormwater Center, and we are looking forward to getting to know them better.
To this end, we’ve invited several WSU Vancouver colleagues – Professors Allison Coffin and Cheryl Schultz – to the Pullman campus to participate in our first semester of CEREO Seminars, and during their visits we can make opportunities for some face-to-face time to brainstorm big ideas! The CEREO Seminar Series will bring in some colleagues from afar, as well as showcase colleagues doing interdisciplinary research across the WSU system. This semester we partnered with the Honors College so that undergraduates can participate in the seminars for credit as well. We are always open to your ideas for speakers.
Although the NSPIRE IGERT funding from NSF came to an end in 2014, the NSPIRE students and faculty continue to collaborate in both research and teaching, and we are actively pursuing a sustainable pathway for maintaining all of the positive changes that the IGERT funding facilitated. As a shining example, IGERT student Jason Williams is leading a collaboration with the Murrow College to bring together graduate student researchers and undergraduate communications students in environmental video projects – we hope you can attend the informational meeting on Jan 21st, but don’t hesitate to contact us for more information if you can’t!
Here’s to a new year packed full of excitement at CEREO!
– Stephanie
Research Highlights
Dr. Jill Baron discusses impacts of nitrogen in Rocky Mountains ecosystems
The inaugural event in the CEREO seminar series hosted Dr. Jill Baron, a highly esteemed ecosystem ecologist with a joint appointment in the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado State University. She addressed the wider CEREO community on watershed-scale ecosystem processes in the Rocky Mountain region as they respond to atmospheric pollutant deposition and climate variability, and the diverse management and regulatory environment in which these ecological dynamics occur.
In particular, Dr. Baron’s talk placed special emphasis on the nitrogen dynamics associated with urban and agricultural non-point source pollution. Her work over the past 30 years in the Loch Vale watershed long-term monitoring program in Rocky Mountain National Park has provided insight into the impacts of nitrogen transport and deposition even in the country’s most protected environments, and has directly helped to motivate major changes to state and Federal regulations for reducing nitrogen loads over the past several decades. Dr. Baron’s research has spanned state, national and international initiatives, and she used these experiences to underscore the importance of creating active dialog among scientists, policy-makers and land managers. She shared stories about some of her successful local initiatives designed jointly by the National Park Service, Colorado State legislature and agricultural stakeholders in order to lower nitrogen loading to the Nation’s Parks, highlighting the importance of cross-sector collaboration in tackling and resolving environmental problems.
Dr. Jill S. Baron is an ecosystem ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and a Senior Research Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. In addition to being the founder and principal investigator of the Loch Vale watershed long-term monitoring program and creator of the Western Mountain Initiative, she also is actively engaged at the science-policy interface. She is the founder and co-Director of the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Earth System Science Analysis and Synthesis, the lead author on the Climate Change Adaptation Options for National Parks report and has testified before Congress on acid rain and climate change issues. She is also the Past-President (2014-2015) of the Ecological Society of America, a professional society of over 10,000 globally distributed members.
Other News
CEREO Spring Seminar Begins
The schedule of CEREO seminars has been announced. CEREO collaborates with the Honors College in this series, such that Honors students can enroll for credit in HON 499 and faculty and students from all fields are generally welcome to attend seminars whether or not they are enrolled.
2015 CEREO Spring Seminar Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1/14 | Jill Baron Ecosystem ecologist, USGS | Ecosystem ecology in support of the public good: a Rocky Mountain nitrogen story |
| 2/4 | John Parker Honors Fellow, Sociology, ASU | Comparing New Modes of Organizing Science: Traversing Disciplinary Borders and Bridging Professional Boundaries |
| 2/18 | Jeff Joireman* Marketing, WSU | Environmental Problems as Social Dilemmas: Social, Temporal and Biospheric Dimensions |
| 3/4 | Victoria Keener Climate Science, East-West Center | The Pacific RISA: Co-Production of Climate Research for Resource Management in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands |
| 3/11 | Allison Coffin Neuroscience, WSU | Environmental effects on the fish lateral line |
| 4/1 | Todd Norton Communication, WSU | Integrating psychological, social, and contextual dimensions into communication campaigns on water quality |
| 4/8 | John Petrie Civil & Enviro. Engineering, WSU | Flow and sediment in rivers: challenges and opportunities |
| 4/15 | Jan Boll* Water Resources, UI | Interdisciplinary Water Resources Education at the University of Idaho |
| 4/22 | Jeff Sanders Environmental History, WSU | Children and Environment in the Postwar West |
* Seminar will be held in ERTL 101
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
GENERAL OPPORTUNITIES
Spatial Statistical Stream Network Models training workshop – Register Now
A 3-day workshop (April 20-22, 2015) hosted in Boise, ID will provide instruction on how to use the new spatial statistical network model (SSNM), which better accounts for stream network topology (i.e., flow direction, tributary confluences) and offers significant improvements over traditional statistical techniques.
Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting– Abstracts due February 26, 2015
ESA is seeking abstract submissions for contributed presentations in talk, poster, and lightning talk formats. The 2015 Annual Meeting will be at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland from 9-14 August 2015.
Planning for Climate Change Conference Series– Register here
Held in Dublin (March 2015) and London (June 2015) this series will cover range of key issues relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for promoting sustainable communities and economies within the context of an increasingly changing climate.
FACULTY OPPORTUNITIES
Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI)– Proposals due January 22, 2015
The MRI program welcomes substantive and meaningful partnerships for instrument development that would be too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs, and welcomes partnerships between the academic and private sectors.
Long Term Research in Environmental Biology – Proposals due January 23, 2015
The LTREB Program supports the generation of extended time series of data to address important questions in evolutionary biology, ecology, and ecosystem science.
Ecosystem Science Program Director (NSF)– Applications due February 9, 2015
NSF is seeking candidates for Program Director in the Ecosystem Science Cluster (ES) within the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) in Arlington, VA.
Research Infrastructure Improvement Program– Proposals due February 20, 2015
The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is designed to fulfill the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote scientific progress nationwide.
Research Coordination Networks (RCN) – Proposals due March 2, 2015
The RCN program seeks to advance a field or create new directions in interdisciplinary and international research or education. Ideas for novel networking strategies, collaborative technologies, and community standards for data and meta-data are especially encouraged.
STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES
Young Leaders in Climate Change Internship– Applications due January 30, 2015
The Young Leaders in Climate Change (YLCC) program provides a paid internship for young people working on diverse issues related to climate change and its effects in national parks.
CEREO Newsroom Call for Project Proposals– Applications due January 31, 2015
CEREO is seeking proposals by graduate students who would like to have their own research profiled or highlighted in investigative journalism news pieces. This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to communicate their research to broad audiences and gain training in research communication and video production.
Boyd Evison Graduate Fellowship– Applications due February 13, 2015
Sponsored by the Grand Teton Association, fellowships of up to $10,000 per project are available to natural and social science researchers studying in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Alaska National Park 2015 Research Fellowships– Applications due February 16, 2015
Two research fellowships are available to students interested in conducting research in Denali National Park and Preserve and other arctic and subarctic Alaska national parks. Requests for funds can be up to $8,000 to be used over one or two years.
Bullitt Foundation Environmental Fellowship– Applications due April 1, 2015 The Bullitt Environmental Fellowship is a two-year, $50,000/year fellowship for graduate students interested in pursuing leadership positions within the environmental field.