Successful Funding Raising for Seal Research

SML recently hosted Igniting Streams of Learning in Science, a program led by Dr. Dennis (Denny) Taylor, a long-time SML faculty member. For six days in early August, Denny and his team of leaders from Hiram College, Kent State University, and Case Western Reserve University introduced thirty Pakistani high school students to marine science. (Many had never been on a boat before!) Featuring intertidal transects and trawling aboard the R/V John M. Kingsbury, Denny expertly led a full array of SML activities. Water conservation was a central focus of the program's environmental awareness message (Pakistan is currently facing a water supply crisis) and Appledore Island was the perfect platform to expose the participants to real-world sustainability efforts. On the final night of the visit, the Pakistani students presented "Cultural Night"! Halal food, traditional Pakistani song and dance - resulting in huge smiles all around. We were sad to see them go, but excited to hear about the positive environmental changes these students will spread half a world away!

This summer SML added a fabulous new course: Coastal Habitat Research Methods, taught by Dr Gregg Moore (UNH). This intensive field course exposed students to quantitative habitat assessment techniques, such as Geographic Information System (GIS), field mapping, percent cover, transect and quadrant methods, among many others. Focused on the terrestrial plant communities of Appledore Island, students quickly mastered the identification of flora of the island while creating SML's first digital terrestrial habitat map of the island and establishing permanent monitoring sites. Much like SML's well-known intertidal transects, these terrestrial transects will be surveyed each year to monitor habitat stability, detect change, identify rare or invasive species, and inform management. Creating powerful datasets like these provides students with access to useful ecological data sets with which they can explore data patterns and trends to suit their research or professional interests. Dr. Moore designed this course to prepare students for graduate-level research and jobs in environmental assessment. We are happy to report that he will be offering this course again next year!

10 years of Sustainable Engineering Internships!

Each summer, four undergraduates in engineering programs across the country spend weeks researching how to improve various aspects of SML's infrastructure and facilities: electrical production, water conservation, energy usage, and more! This unique internship emphasizes the initiatives that SML has pioneered not only to reduce our carbon footprint and operating costs, but also to provide a sustainability model for other communities. Our 2015 SEI interns, Chelsea Kimball (UNH), Dylan Masi (UMass Amherst), Susan McGrattan (Cornell Univ.), and Marisa Zellmer (Tufts Univ.), presented their research on July 25th at the Annual Sustainable Engineering Internship Symposium. SML's newly upgraded green energy grid was this year's highlight. The 'Green Grid' features a 56 kW solar array with panels crowd-funded by dozens of amazing SML alums and supporters! We are very proud of the work our interns accomplished and the critical data they were able to collect. On August 20th, SML will host a Sustainability Celebration with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newest solar panel array!

In closing,

 

As always, I welcome your valuable input and support to ensure that SML continues to be a vibrant place and extraordinary experience for our students.    

  

With deep appreciation and warm wishes,

Jennifer Seavey, Ph.D. 

Kingsbury Director of the Shoals Marine Laboratory