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I spent my summer working with the Biological Control Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island, investigating the newly emerged issue of native versus non-native Phragmites autralis.

Phragmites australis (common reed grass) has become widely distributed throughout the Northeastern US, bordering ponds, marshes, and roadways. The dense stands of the plant, with its tall stalks and bushy heads, are considered by many to be a nuisance. It has been determined (by Kristin Saltonstall of Yale’s EEB department) that this ‘pest’ species is actually a non-native of European origin. In its new environment, it has out-competed not only other plant species, but also strains of Phragmites that are native to North America. The exotic strain has been so successful in comparison with the native that at present the majority of Phragmites stands we see are of the European origin.

Since the distinction between the native and exotic was discovered, scientists and wetland managers we have been attempting to find remaining sites of native Phragmites. Thus far, only a handful have conclusively found, ranging across the country from Maine to Washington State. My research this summer thus was to try to find such stands in Rhode Island.

Looking back, I realize that my research methods were fairly haphazard. I was given quite little guidance, and I think that my excitement to begin looking refrained me from creating an organized approach. I began by making countless contacts with people statewide that might be able to give me direction and advice. Once I had a list of potential sites, I set out on daily trips to the sites – driving, hiking – out to fresh, brackish or saltwater sites that ranged from well-protected to extremely disturbed. Once I had found four sites that seemed promising (based on their morphological characteristics), I brought samples down to Yale where I spent two days with Kristin in the lab. Using the PCR/RFLP processes she developed, we tested these samples to know conclusively if they were in fact native. They were not. Still, I found those days working with her extremely educational.

By the end of the summer, I had traversed a good deal of the state, hiked to some amazing areas and walked through beautiful beaches, but I never found a site of native Phragmites. This fact is frustrating. My consolation is that I feel that the experience taught me the realities of working in a lab, as well as how not to do research.

I doubt that other Yale students would be interested in following the same path that I took this summer. I would not recommend it anyway. But the issue of native and exotic Phragmites is an extremely interesting and burgeoning one about which I would highly suggest students learn, particularly for future senior research. And of course, I highly recommend that if students are establishing their own project within a lab (and therefore are given little direction), they must be formal and forward-thinking at the start so as to assure the most scientifically sound results.

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Study of the Luminous Life and Fluorescent Proteins in Cnidaria of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
Geoffrey Chaiken, Economics '04

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Internship with Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), Washington, D.C.
Noah Chesnin, Humanities `04

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Population Density Dynamics and Foraging/Basking Behavior of Bataguridae Turtles in Careyes, Mexico; Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Lance Ching, EEB `03

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Investigation of Weather Patterns and Rate of Tree Growth in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.
Kyla Dahlin, EEB `03

This past summer, with the help of a Thoreau research fellowship from the Environmental Studies department at Yale University, I lived and worked at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in the White Mountain National Forest, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. HBEF is a beautiful, fun, and interesting place where researchers live and work together with enthusiasm.

HBEF was established by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service in 1955 as a center for hydrologic research. Since that time researchers from centers around the northeast (primarily Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Syracuse University, Yale University, the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES) and the U.S. Geological Survey) have used the forest for major ecological research and experiments. In 1987 HBEF was awarded a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) grant from the National Science Foundation, making it the longest running LTER in the country.

The forests in this area are composed primarily of northern hardwood species and Hubbard Brook is no exception. The most commonly found species are sugar maple (Acer saccharum), beech (Fagus grandifolia), and yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis), with red spruce (Picea rubens) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) in the higher altitudes (the watershed ranges from from 222 to 1,015 m). With the exception of a few experimental areas, the forests have remained uncut since around 1916, when the land was bought by the Forest Service. The Hubbard Brook watershed has been carefully mapped and divided into smaller catchments, allowing for research within small topographical regions. Different treatments have occurred in five of the main watersheds over the past 30 years, from clear cutting to calcium deposition to composition studies, while watershed 6 has remained the “control” watershed, untouched except by researchers looking for baseline data.

In 1970 watershed 4 was divided into 25 meter wide lateral strips and between 1970 and 1974 the entire area was clear-cut. All trees 5 cm in diameter at breast height (DBH) were felled, and a logging contractor removed all products of commercial value using a rubber-tired skidder. Since that time the watershed has been allowed to regrow, making its oldest trees just over 30 years in age.

For my Thoreau research project Professor Tom Siccama (Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) and I extracted 0.34 cm cores from sugar maple, beech, and yellow birch trees in watershed 4. We took at least 10 cores from each species, noting their DBHs. Tree corers remove a pencil-sized cylinder of wood, from bark to pith, allowing tree rings to be counted and measured. These measurements can then be used to calculate growth rates, as well as to infer years of drought, years of heavy rain, etc.

When I return to Yale in January (I am spending this fall semester in New Zealand, studying restoration ecology), I will measure the rings in these cores, then compare them to cores from watershed 6 trees, which are near 100 years old. The objective of this comparison is to look at how fast young trees grew in the early 1900s as compared to the current rates of growth for new trees. It has been suggested that growth has been arrested by new environmental pressures, such as pollution and acid rain. The results comparison will either support or refute this claim. If the results are conclusive, I may present this research at the next HBEF annual meeting, to be held in July of 2003.

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Is Coral Bleaching Adaptive?
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Melissa Garren, MCDB `03

This summer I spent eleven weeks in Panama doing a study of coral bleaching at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. I worked with Oliver Balmer of Yale University, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Professor Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The goal of the project was to evaluate two competing hypotheses regarding the recovery of bleached corals.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals under stress lose their symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that normally inhabit the coral. The loss of the zooxanthellae leaves the corals more vulnerable due to deprivation of valuable nutrients provided by the symbionts. There are two different hypotheses explaining how stony corals are recolonized after bleaching by different species of zooxanthellae. One hypothesis is that bleaching is an adaptive strategy whereby corals expel their zooxanthellae in response to altered environmental conditions thereby allowing a better suited species to colonize. An alternative hypothesis is that corals bleach under stress and that the recolonization occurs in a specific progression of species starting with the same pioneer species, regardless of environmental conditions.

The hypotheses will be evaluated by studying which zooxanthellae species recolonize the stony corals after bleaching. Two months after bleaching and then again one year after bleaching samples of zooxanthellae will be taken and genotyped. Once all of these genotypes are known we will be able to evaluate the validity of each hypothesis.

During the course of this summer, the groundwork was laid for this evaluation. We determined the original genotypes living in each sample colony and bleached them so that in a year we will be able to evaluate the change in zooxanthellae taxa.

While I was working on the coral bleaching project, Dr. Nancy Knowlton invited me to do a separate project as my senior research. I collected the samples I will need while I was there and brought them back to Yale to analyze in Dr. Gisella Caccone’s lab.

The Bocas Del Toro region of Panama has never been surveyed to see which genotypes of zooxanthellae are found in which species of coral and how those distributions may correlate to environmental conditions. So, I collected samples of three species of stony coral at the full range of depths in which they each grow at 10 different reefs that are representative of the variety of environmental conditions found in Bocas Del Toro. (i.e. in open water, near freshwater inlets, protected lagoons, heavily visited, very little human traffic, different parts in the current patterns, etc) Over the course of this year, I will assess the genotype of each sample using restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Once the genotypes are established the depth, species, and location data will be evaluated for correlations.

I would highly recommend a fellowship or internship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama for any Yale student. It was a well-organized institution with many great mentors on hand to guide a student. For me, it was a priceless opportunity to try marine field biology that combined my molecular and ecological interests. Learning to work underwater opened my eyes to the vast differences between recreational scuba diving and scientific diving, which I had not anticipated. My suspicions that this is a field I would like to pursue were confirmed, and I am excited that I have the opportunity to do so over the course of the next year.

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Strategies for Sustaining Tropical Ecosystems and Organic Farming Methods in Costa Rica, School for Field Studies
Philip Gerhardt, Environmental Engineering `04

The Henry David Thoreau Internship Grant allowed me to spend one month this past summer in Costa Rica performing field research under the guidance of the School for Field Studies. As I pursue a B.S. degree in environmental engineering, this experience was a great opportunity to begin a career in the research of methods to protect the environment.

Costa Rica has developed an economy predominantly driven by agriculture and eco-tourism, making it a perfect place to explore the viability of organic farming in place of traditional farming. The local community is largely based upon coffee farming, and the local coffee cooperatives are very active in the research and efforts of SFS to investigate organic coffee costs, marketing, pest management, and species diversity. Currently Costa Rica is facing many common problems due to traditional farming practices, putting much of the biodiversity and natural resources at risk, in part because of water contamination from pesticide use, and soil erosion. Therefore, while organic farming appears to be a promising alternative, the costs and risks associated with this drastic change must be evaluated before it can be implemented on an agriculturally dependent economy.

The course was taught by three teachers in the subjects of economy, ecology, and natural resources of Costa Rica. In addition to regular class work on campus, each professor led his own field trip to various parts of the country including the costal regions and rainforests where we performed research in their subject. These frequent trips provided an excellent opportunity to experience the culture of Costa Rica while at the same time setting an educational atmosphere. These research projects included analyzing insect populations in bromeliads as indicators of rainforest health, examining the relationships between the national parks and the local communities through surveys, and an analysis of best land management practices for private owned parks. After each research assignment, the class of twenty eight students was broken into groups to write up lab reports on our results and conclusions, which were then presented in class. The teachers also assigned weekly reading assignments, which was necessary to gain a greater understanding of the material and field research. All topics covered in class, the readings, and the field research was tested in a final exam after the third week of the course.

The final week of the course consisted of a directed research topic, led by one of the three professors. The topic I chose was using macroinvertebrate diversity and population size in pristine streams as a determinant of water quality and ecosystem health. Pristine streams were used since the ecosystem was healthy there, and then from these results we can derive what populations a healthy stream should have. This topic was examined by using a fine netting to capture insects present on rocks and in the sediment of two streams. The process of collecting and identifying the insects was performed with a group of six other students and our professor, but then this group was separated into pairs to derive our own conclusions from the results. My partner and I examined the viability of using predator orders and their prey as indicators, because of the dependent relationship which the predators have on their prey. From this we identified members of the order Odonata as the best indicators due to their consistently high populations throughout the seasons in a variety of microhabitats and consistent prey. Research in this topic is going to continue at the school over the next five years, so that at the end of that period we may have a baseline standard with which we can compare other streams and account for variances in seasons.

In addition to this research, other trips were led to organic and conventional farms where we compared practices and the results of these methods. We explored a variety of different parks, from community owned, national, and private, and the positives and negatives of each. While much of the course revolved around the effects of ecotourism, these other trips presented the opportunity for us to examine other critical aspects of a developing agricultural economy.

Overall, I found this to be an extremely valuable experience for many reasons. This was my first chance to perform research outside of the lab, which I found very interesting and exciting, and has opened me up to a career in research. In addition, I was also given the great opportunity to experience a new culture. We were given many chances to practice our Spanish, whether it was through conducting interviews or simply interacting with people in town. Finally, the course allowed me to interact with other students from all over the country, and faculty from all over the world, and since then we have been keeping in close touch. I would absolutely recommend this course to any other Yale student interested in the environment.

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Researching Health-Related Environmental Policy with the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, State Department, Washington D.C.
Lauren Gold, MB&B `03

As an intern with the U.S. State Department Office of International Health Affairs (IHA), within the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) this summer, I wore the hat of research assistant, note-taker, ambassador to other offices, and odd-job manager of the office itself, and I think I learned as much as I contributed.  I saw firsthand U.S. government action, programs, research and initiatives to combat the epidemic and those ignorant to its reach.  I learned that the role of the office is to coordinate U.S. foreign policy on health issues, the major health issues today being HIV/AIDS as well as tuberculosis and malaria.  Through meetings, briefings, and interagency preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, I saw the vital intersection of health issues with security, agriculture and food supply, economics and development, demographics and social structure, and I saw the vital work done in by the OES bureau.

As the State Department’s arm for all scientific and environmental international issues, OES deals with air and space, biotechnology and genetic engineering, science and technology cooperation, health, and environmental issues.  Climate change, toxic chemicals and pesticides, biological diversity, forest loss, and ocean depletion are the most common environmental issues dealt with by the State Department in partnership with the EPA, the World Bank, the UN, NGOs, CBOs, and the private sector.

Likewise, IHA brings together executive, legislative, and educational departments in partnership to deal with health issues.  IHA provided major contributions towards the structure, support basis, and litigation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.  A non-political and non-UN affiliated funnel for individual, national, and collective funds for government and NGO-sponsored programs in developing countries, the Fund is currently reviewing its second annual round of applications and has already promised over 400 million to projects in 40 nations. GFATM represents a major international step in the fight against infectious disease worldwide, and the U.S., as the largest contributor to the Fund, is dedicated to its success.

I learned that the State Department often functions as a microcosm of the controversy and competing interests and agendas of the U.S. itself, and that a major role of the office I worked in was promoting interest and commitment to health issues among the various regional bureaus which coordinate bilateral and regional relations. To this end, every member of OES serves a specific regional area, updating country officers within the State Department as well as negotiating directly with health and environmental ministers and national officials worldwide.

Members of OES also serve as ambassadors in various multilateral fora. A major part of my work was spent researching health issues in preparation for the U.S. delegation to the WSSD, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held this August in Johannesburg. More than just "Rio+10," a reaffirmation of the goals and progress since the Earth Summit, delegates to WSSD set out to broaden support, commitment towards, and understanding of sustainable development as well as concrete and quantifiable action.  In addition to the Platform for Action reminiscent of each UN-sponsored international conference, WSSD embarked on a mission to coordinate “Type II” intra- and international partnerships to act on the goals in health, energy, water, oceans, biodiversity, and agriculture.

The concept of partnerships, I learned, was not left for the international agenda. Much U.S. action on health and environmental issues was geared towards moving responsibility out of the hands of government and into the private sector. "Public-private partnerships" are underway throughout Washington and the nation as a key strategy towards tackling infectious disease.  To this end I helped coordinate and research for a conference on Public-Private Partnerships in Sustainable Development, at which Secretary Powell spoke to CEOs and government officials eager to work together to meet the goals of WSSD.

A multi-sectoral approach, as I became aware, is the only realistic way to fight HIV/AIDS and the only way to fight for sustainable development.  OES is committed to promoting a broadened understanding of the ramifications of health and environmental issues and to prioritizing these issues within current U.S. policy.  To do this, we must begin to understand issues of sustainable fisheries, or transboundary water issues in the Middle East, child labor, community-based forests, climate change in the arctic, HIV/AIDS, and national security as intertwined and interdependent.  The issue is no longer whether to treat or to prevent AIDS, to eliminate pesticides or to promote biodiversity.  The issue now is how we can integrate programs and foster real partnerships.  As Dr. Zedillo and Dean Merson stressed at Yale’s own briefing on the Barcelona Conference on AIDS this past week, creative and sustainable approaches to these issues are no longer optional, as they have touched and will continue to touch us all.

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Tropical Ecology in Costa Rica, Organization for Tropical Studies
Scott Goldberg, Economics and Studies in the Environment `03

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Investigation of the Epiphytic Relationships of Orchid Species Growing in Costa Careyes, Mexico; Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Andrew Hamilton, Undecided `05

For my field project I originally had hoped to study the local orchid population of Jalisco, Mexico, cataloguing the species present in the tropical semi-deciduous forest, studying their preferred substrates, tree partiality, light requirements, or perhaps population density. However, after two weeks of trekking through the topical semi-deciduous forests in the vicinity of Costa Careyes, I realized much to my dismay that the local orchid population, though significant in certain areas, was too inaccessible to feasibly study. Determined to not put my weeks of neck craning to waste, my focus changed to the remaining populations of epiphytic plants: the bromeliads and tillandsias.

Both bromeliads and tillandsias are commonly found tropical and subtropical plants of a monopodial habit that commensally inhabit the branches of many trees and shrubs throughout the forest. They are of varied size and structure but most commonly possess multiple fleshy lanceolate leaves, often with a serrated edge, arranged in a radially symmetric pattern around a central apex of growth. Though anatomically quite similar their principal taxonomical difference lies in the manner through which they epiphytically affix themselves to a tree’s branches. While bromeliads have strong wiry roots that tightly wrap around the exterior of a branch, tillandsias have no visible roots, bearing only a rhizome that attaches each subsequent year’s growth to the previous one. Ultimately the tillandsias are of a vine-like construction and drape themselves across the branches of a tree creating net-like clumps that tangle with the tree’s branches to securely fasten themselves into the tree while bromeliads are more often found as individual plants tethered to the top and sides of branches.

As I began to study these other species, I found that they lived in a broad range in altitude in the forest canopy; some fell at eye level while others soared more than a dozen meters in the air. As I trained myself to distinguish between bromeliads and tillandsias, I wondered if the two kinds of plants were found at interchangeable ranges and shared a common habitat or if due to their varied anatomical structures the plants had different potential needs and occupied two stratified levels in the tree’s branches. As such I designed a field project that intended to survey and analyze the heights of bromeliads and tillandsias throughout the forest in the hope of better understanding their habitat distributions and resource requirements.

Ultimately I am both pleased and satisfied with the results of my project. Given the restriction of the allotted time, I feel my study capably demonstrated the clear existence of a relationship between the heights of bromeliads and tillandsias and even went as far as to provide a basic structure for that relationship. The data I collected illustrates that bromeliads and tillandsias do occupy two different habitats and that most likely this is the result of resource partitioning. The study failed to define the confines of these habitats, but clearly showed that this relationship merits further examination. I am confident that with an increased sample size of five hundred individual trees a more distinct and defined trend would exist in the data. Coupled with more powerful mathematical tools and techniques, this extended study would create a more substantial data set in which outlying data points could be reliably distinguished and removed from the data set so as to further solidify my data and would also perhaps elucidate a causal relationship between the habitat of the bromeliad and that of the tillandsia.

Additionally, in this restructured study I would attempt to find a better way to sample the population. Though in the confines of this study the sampling method was adequate, in a more advanced study I would devise a way to randomly sample specific trees over a greatly increased area, perhaps taking into account a broader variety of forests requiring a stratified random sample , or find a logical way to randomly select one epiphyte of each variety from a tree until five hundred data points apiece were collected . I would also only sample trees in which both bromeliads and tillandsias were present as through the results of this study I demonstrated that there was a distinct and direct relationship between the heights of the bromeliads and those of the tillandsias in which the bromeliads continually preferred the higher habitat. Ultimately I would find a laser measuring device to replace the geologist’s measuring tape, as all of my calculations were based upon my distance from the tree’s base and not the exact position of each individual epiphytic specimen, as this level of accuracy was impossible to acquire with the very basic tools I had available to me here in the field.

If after conducting this study a distinct range in habitat height could be produced from the data, I would then extend the project once more to form a study in which species of tree and epiphyte would be taken into account. Only with this information could the study produce information with a broader scope useful for locating specific species of bromeliads in certain areas within a forest. Without the tree species, or even the bromeliad or tillandsia species, the practical applications of the study are greatly reduced as the data fails to address particular species or individuals within the forest. However given sufficient time, research, funding, and technology, I would not be surprised if a correlation could be proven between epiphytic growth and certain species of trees of a particular height and stature. This information would provide invaluable insight into the epiphytic plants’ selection process for host substrates and would allow invaluable knowledge of the intricate workings of the population dynamics of the tropical semi-deciduous forest’s ecosystem as a whole.

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Research and Development of Policy on the Preservation of Ecosystems and Endangered Species with the United States Department of State, Bureau Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs,
Washington D.C.
Emily Hurstak, EEB `03

The Environmental Studies Fellowship allowed me to pursue an internship and independent research while working for the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) at the United States Department of State. OES develops foreign policy in the areas of US policy on the environment, international development, terrestrial conservation, global climate change, marine conservation, emerging infectious diseases, and science and technology. This summer I aided the office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation (ETC) in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). My principal assignment was to prepare research binders and working/speaking notes on key subjects for the participants at the CITES 12th Conference of the Parties (COP-12) to be held in Santiago Chile in November.

Illegal logging and the international trade of mahogany are important issues for the upcoming COP-12. Since early February, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has withheld millions of dollars in shipments of mahogany from Brazil due to concern over the validity of CITES export permits and legal origins of the wood. Several US veneer corporations are currently suing APHIS and the US government due to the detainment of such shipments. OES contributed research and advisory position directives for the handling of this case. I was able to read through the legal case documents and identify certain mistakes or missing information on CITES licenses and/or permits as well as incorrect reading of the Convention documents in general. I also completed research on the current support for the proposal to list mahogany under Appendix II of CITES, thus offering it more protection under the Convention. Other tasks included preparing working notes or talking points on key issues for WSSD and CBD. One of the highlights of the internship was attending a hearing before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during which the Assistant Secretary of State John F. Turner (OES) presented information on the implementation of environmental treaties.

My internship with OES was very instructive and I was able to learn about many key environmental issues while also seeing how the government functions in relation to foreign policy and the environment. My office encouraged me to pursue topics and projects that I found intriguing and gave me the flexibility to attend hearings and other interesting meetings. Although I found that the research I completed didn’t necessarily aid in my senior project as directly as I had previously thought it would, I still found the experience very edifying and helpful for future career deliberation. Unfortunately, my clearance was not processed until midway through the summer even thought I had prepared and submitted my paperwork several months before the due date. Although the intern office informed me that this year was particularly slow for the processing of security clearance, I understand from other students that this has happened to others in the past as well.

Fortunately, I was able to find another unpaid internship with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the time that I waited for my clearance to be processed. At PAHO I worked in the HIV/AIDS Division for a Dr. who specialized in infectious diseases and specifically on behavioral research on HIV/AIDS. I researched and wrote a paper that was presented at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona in July. My paper summarized and presented all of the large-scale behavioral surveys/studies on sexual behavior that have been completed in Latin and South America over the past 5 years. This data was presented in order to clarify and highlight some sexual norms and general population knowledge of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Latin America. It was intended to emphasize the areas that have not been focused on in the past and to motivate greater sexual education for the general population. I also worked on a database that will be linked the PAHO website and present all of the published behavioral studies in Latin America.

My internship at PAHO was very flexible and allowed me to work very independently on my own project. I was also able to attend conferences on global health and environmental health issues as PAHO hosted a speaking series in celebration of its 100th Birthday. Although my internship didn’t focus on environmental health, I think the Environmental Studies Fellowship should support future research opportunities on environmental health with PAHO. It was a wonderful place to work and I found the experience very worthwhile and gratifying. As for the State Department, I think it is a wonderful place to work granted they make some guarantee to future interns that they will process clearance before the summer has started. I know they didn’t even start on my file until June, even though it had been submitted in February. Unless they develop a better system, it doesn’t seem like an appropriate internship for motivated students considering other exciting options in environmental studies. I was lucky enough to find another good opportunity, but others might not be so fortunate. I really appreciate the opportunity the Environmental Studies Fellowship provided me with. I was able to pursue two exciting unpaid internships while living in Washington D.C., an experience that would have been impossible without the Fellowship’s support. My future career aspirations and education goals have developed further as a result of these experiences.

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Finca Loma Linda Agroecology Internship:
Coto Brus, Costa Rica. 
Judith Joffe-Block, History or EP&E `04

My Thoreau Internship allowed me to spend 8 weeks in a coffee growing community in the Coto Brus valley in Southeastern Costa Rica. My internship was with the research farm Finca Loma Linda and Programa Pueblos, a brand new organization that was founded in 2000 in Agua Buena, Costa Rica. The program’s aim is to work with both the coffee cooperative in town, Coopabuena R.L., as well as community farmers on an individual level to transition to sustainable farming methods as well as more equitable (more profit for the farmer) methods of distributing their coffee.

The Programa Pueblos Internship stemmed out of a pre-existing relationship between UC Santa Cruz and Darrell Cole, the director of the internship. Cole is an American-born farmer and researcher who runs Finca Loma Linda, a research farm devoted to the goal of reducing chemical use in Agua Buena. It was the collaboration between Cole’s Finca Loma Linda and the head of Coopabuena R.L. that brought about Programa Pueblos. Before the inception of Programa Pueblos, undergraduates from UC Santa Cruz would come to the Agua Buena area to assist Cole with his research in organic growing techniques and soil nutrition on his research farm, Finca Loma Linda. Undergraduate interns continue to do home-stays during their internships, which range from 7 to 10 weeks. There are about half a dozen families in town that regularly host students, and the majority of these families are farmers who have already began to utilize sustainable methods on their personal plots.

Currently, undergraduates involved in the program focus their time on the projects of Programa Pueblos which are: education and outreach to the community about organic and sustainable farming, reforestation of the hillside surrounding the village, and direct marketing of the coffee from Coopabuena R.L. directly to contacts in the U.S.

I decided to focus on the education and outreach element through working at the demonstration site in the center of town. The site was established by former interns, and includes an organic vegetable garden (no chemicals are applied, but it would still not be certifiable as organic because of other synthetic inputs and chemical residues), a greenhouse, a compost battery, and a demonstration in sustainable livestock is in the works. I spent most of my time tending to and extending the demonstration vegetable garden. No synthetic chemicals or fertilizers are added to the garden crops, and the garden is intended to demonstrate the principles of rotation, diversity, and organic soil nutrition. I spent a lot of time digging beds in the garden, which was a long process as in order to create a rich substrate for the vegetables to grow in, each bed was made by first digging out soil, then laying out a layer of sod on the base, and then alternating soil layers with broza--decomposed coffee berry husks, which is a waste product of the coffee production process. I also participated in collecting data in the greenhouse for an experiment in the production of radish, corn, cabbage and beans in soil-less substrates. The aim of the demonstration site is to serve as an outdoor classroom to farmers in the community who are interested in learning new techniques that do not involve pesticide use, as well as educate the youth in the community as the plot is directly across the street from the elementary school. The focus of the site is vegetable production rather than coffee because given the crisis in coffee prices, it is in the best interest for coffee farmers to diversify from coffee monoculture and produce vegetables on the side for household consumption or possibly the market as well.

Besides learning economical techniques in sustainable agriculture appropriate for the rainy tropics, perhaps the other most fascinating element of the internship was the ability to see a movement toward sustainable development in such a young stage. Many farmers in the region still do not know about goals of Programa Pueblos and there is still much of the program that has yet to be defined. It is clear that there is much to be done by the way of educating the entire community about the program, and gaining more involvement and input from the farmers themselves.

I am very grateful to the Environmental Studies Internship because my experience in Costa Rica was incredibly rich, and I never would have been able to go had it not been for the monetary assistance I received. I learned a tremendous amount in the field about organic growing techniques and scientific procedures for research. Furthermore, I was able to view agriculture and global trade from a new perspective. My project of working with Programa Pueblos was especially intense because it combined science and a concrete education in sustainable agriculture techniques with the political and sociological element of being in the middle of an effort that ultimately is hoping to change the way farmers in the community grow and sell their crops.

As a history major, part of my goal was to try and understand the reasons that farmers had for transitioning to sustainable techniques. Through informal interviews with a number of farmers who had stopped using chemicals on their plots, I learned that their answers ranged from the economic benefit of not buying agrochemicals, to a religious obligation to nature. I also learned that most conventional coffee cooperatives in Central America cannot survive with the current coffee prices, and that either fair-trade certified (this cooperative, Coopabuena R.L., qualified as fair trade—but it was still only a small percentage of their coffee that received the fair trade premium) or organic-certified coffee is the only way for a cooperative to produce coffee profitably in the current market. Therefore, this project of attempting to get the members of the coffee cooperative to transition to sustainable methods as a whole is not only about the environment and health, but also about the need for these producers to adapt to a new coffee market.

My experience with this project has made me want to continue researching in this field for my senior essay. I am interested in pursuing research to see what other coffee growing communities in Latin America have done in the wake of the coffee crisis. I am still in touch with people from the village that I stayed in, and they are in the process of making arrangements to have their coffee be available to be marketed directly to the U.S. I plan on working with these friends in Costa Rica to find contacts in the U.S. who are interested in purchasing coffee from Coopabuena R.L. at a price that is cheaper than what a distributor would charge, and the farmers would still get more profit because no middle men are involved. Such a program will hopefully allow some money to come back into the community and encourage new advances in sustainable techniques on a larger scale in the Agua Buena area.

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Internship with the Sierra Club on Reducing Suburban Sprawl around Washington D. C. 
Andrea Kanner, EEB and Anthropology `04

This past summer, I worked with Sierra Club, a grassroots organization focused on various environmental issues, in Washington, D.C. Although Sierra Club focuses on many different issues, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office was focused on a clean air campaign to improve air quality throughout the metropolitan region. Currently, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region is known for having some of the worst air quality in the nation. The goal of the clean air campaign is to inform citizens about the state of the air quality and ways in which it can be improved.

Our main goal over the summer was to reduce the construction and expansion of highway lanes. Although people have a tendency to think that widening roads will solve traffic and air quality problems, it actually only perpetuates them. When a new road is built, people perceive less traffic, so they decide not to carpool or use mass transit, and the new lanes merely fill up again. Additionally, new roads allow businesses to push out into rural areas, since the news roads make it easy for people to patronize the business. This additional driving causes the release of more emissions into the atmosphere, and increases the health problems in the area. Sierra Club wanted to highlight these problems, and promote more mass transit.

My job focused on two different areas of the Clean Air Campaign. The first was to promote the construction of the Purple Line metro line on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The bridge is currently being expanded to include more lanes of highway to service the growing population in the area, as well as HOV lanes, which are high-occupancy vehicle (carpool) lanes. Although this does promote carpooling, which reduces the emission of nitrogen oxide compounds (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), it is a temporary solution. Sierra Club wants a long term solution, so since the Department of Transportation is already widening the bridge, Sierra Club also wants them to plan for the future, and provide cost-effective metro service which can transport as lanes of traffic during rush hour.

The second aspect was to inform non-traditional allies about the health problems resulting from more driving and more emissions. My job was to coordinate presentations of an air quality video that highlighted the health effects of widening lanes and increased driving, like lowered immunity to respiratory problems and decreased lung function, and listed ways to improve air quality, such as reinvesting in metro-accessible areas and clustering businesses around metro stops. The target groups of non-traditional allies included civic associations, parent- teacher organizations, and senior centers. By informing people about how air quality affects them (or, particularly, their children and parents), people are more likely to stand by a cause. Sierra Club realized that it can’t merely use environmental reasons to reduce sprawl. Instead, they have to focus on how sprawl affects people. People in general may be in support of a clean environment, but they aren’t going to change their daily routine overnight without good reason.

This facet of the internship took the majority of my time. Since the video had only recently been finished, my job was to organize the presentations from scratch. I had to create handouts and an information packet for local volunteers to help them make the presentations throughout the metropolitan region. I also had to create a database of potential places to present the video, and contact people from the group to set-up times to present the video. Since my job was only the beginning in a year-long effort to promote clean air education, it is difficult to summarize the result. However, most of the groups that we made the presentation to supported our campaign, and many were willing to sign-on to a letter that Sierra Club is sending to the Governors of Maryland and Virginia. The campaign has started out well, but many target groups were on hiatus over the summer, so Sierra Club hopes that once they get the opportunity to make the presentations to these groups, they will also be responsive.

Overall, this internship was worthwhile. Not only did I have a concrete job responsibility, I was also able to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at a grassroots organization. For instance, Sierra Club was in a lawsuit with the EPA over the fact that the EPA gave the metropolitan region an illegal extension to meet clean air standards highlighted in the Clean Air Act. Sierra Club won the lawsuit, forcing Washington leaders to formulate new ideas to meet the stricter regulations imposed on the area. It was very interesting to be able to go to those meetings, and hearing the ways the region hopes to improve air quality. Whereas other interns can feel that they were performing trivial labor, I really was thrown into the thick of things, and was able to hold a specific responsibility and complete it my own way. I would recommend those interested in the environment to apply for an internship with Sierra Club. Sierra Club gave their interns real responsibilities and flexibility as to how they were to perform their tasks. Additionally, I learned about how the government works with the environment, and what needs to happen in order to improve the environment through legislation.

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Tradeoff Analyses of Different Combinations of Mixed Crop and Livestock Systems with the International Potato Center at La Molina in Peru.
Hanan Karam, Environmental Engineering `03

Funding from the Environmental Studies department at Yale helped me cover the expenses of my twelve-week internship at the International Potato Center (known as CIP, its Spanish acronym) located in Lima, Peru. CIP is a nonprofit scientific institution that works to bring about sustainable increases in the production and utilization of potato, sweetpotato, and other roots and tubers in developing countries. It is one of the 16 centers worldwide under the umbrella of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which is primarily sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations.

I interned in the Department of Production Systems and Natural Resource Management at CIP, under the supervision of the head of the department, Dr. Roberto Quiroz. During the first eight weeks, I learned about using remote sensing, and particularly satellite images, in natural resource assessment and monitoring. I learned the techniques used in processing satellite images and statistical methods used in analyzing spatial patterns in these images.

I worked specifically on a satellite image of the Peruvian Altiplano. The Altiplano, in southern Peru, western Bolivia, and northern Chile forms one of the world’s highest and largest plateaus, second only to Tibet, with an average elevation of 12,000 feet. Livestock production is the mainstay of the population in the harsh environmental conditions of the Altiplano. Remote sensing has very important applications in monitoring the condition of rangelands over the large area of the Altiplano, especially because of the high temporal and spatial heterogeneity over the region due to the effect of natural variations in climate and soils, in addition to variation in management.

I traveled for two weeks to Puno, the capital of the Peruvian Altiplano located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. I worked with colleagues in the department and with members of rural communities around Puno to carry out ground-truthing of portions of the image. The processed image that we produced is being used by the department within research and development projects targeting the region and its people.

In the final four weeks, I worked on the assignment of writing a literature review about the developments in research on overgrazing. Overgrazing occurs as a result of inadequate management of grazing in pastoral systems leading to a decrease in the productivity of rangelands. It is especially prevalent in arid and semi-arid environments.

The review will contribute to a research/development project aimed at increasing the productivity and sustainability of livestock production systems in mountain agroecosystems, with benchmark sites in the Andean Altiplano, the Tibet plateau, and the Ethiopian highlands.

My internship experience helped me develop a research project for my senior thesis. I will make use of and continue to build on the skills and knowledge I acquired in processing and interpreting satellite images, as well as my understanding of the dynamics of arid and semi-arid environmental systems and the effects of different forms of resource use and management on these systems. My senior project will consist of studying changes in landscape patterns in the arid and semi-arid regions of Syria over time, using satellite imagery, to understand their association with biophysical factors and human use.

In the bigger picture, my internship at CIP helped me gain confidence in the field of natural resource management, which I have always been interested in but had not had the opportunity to pursue during my first three years of coursework at Yale.

I strongly encourage people who are interested in natural resource management, agriculture and rural development to pursue an internship there. The department has many ongoing projects and there is a lot of opportunity for interns to learn and contribute. Their work is rigorous scientifically and advanced technologically and involves a lot of modeling of different production systems and environmental processes. The department’s primary focus currently is working on agricultural and livestock production systems in mountain agroecosystems, with partners in Tibet and the East African Highlands within the Global Mountain Program

CIP in general provides a great working environment. The other departments in CIP include integrated pest management, genetic research, development of food processing technologies, peri-urban agriculture, and conservation of biodiversity. I strongly encourage you to check out the website: www.cipotato.org and write to the supervisors of the projects you’re interested in.

You don’t need to know Spanish to intern at CIP, but if you’re learning Spanish, it’s a great opportunity to practice it. There is a lot to see in Peru, and working at CIP allows interns to learn more about the country than the average tourist would. I had no problems with safety there.

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American Crocodile Conservation; Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Taylor Larson, EP&E `04

With the grant I received from the Environmental Studies Department I was able to fund my participation in Yale’s Field Ecology of Mexico class, which took place during the summer of 2002 in an area along the Jalisco Coast of Mexico. This experience was one of the most unique and interesting of my life and certainly a major highlight of my Yale career so far.

The class had eight students and was led by Yale Professor Theodora Pinou. For approximately two and a half weeks the class took trips every weekday to study nearby ecosystems. This area of Mexico is home to an extraordinary array of biological diversity, both in flora, fauna, and the ecosystems as a whole. During these excursions we listened to lectures by Professor Pinou and by many local experts who took time to speak with us. We collected animal and plant samples for later study, and all the while we were required to keep detailed field notes, which were later transcribed into field notebooks and turned in.

At the end of this time each student transitioned to his individual field project. My project was to estimate the population of the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in the mangrove swamps that occurred in a nearby piece of property. Before I began, however, an unexpected opportunity presented itself. I was able to spend four days living and working with a pair of local crocodile biologists who were on a trip studying other nearby populations of C. acututs, during which I had the opportunity to learn to count and capture crocodiles in the field.

Upon returning to the class, I borrowed a small boat and electric motor from a local man and recruited classmates to drive the boat. Each night, roughly between the hours of nine and 12, I entered the nearby mangroves to conduct my population study. I navigated the boat in a straight line through the narrow bodies of water, marking each turn I made as a waypoint on my Global Positioning Satellite device. I scanned the water with my headlamp, looking for the reflection of the crocodiles’ eyes as they floated just beneath the surface. Once a crocodile was spotted, I approached it as closely as possible to estimate its size. I then recorded the time and its location and size.

My results revealed a large and healthy population of C. acutus in the region, and I concluded that the reason for this health was that the land had been undeveloped and isolated from poachers. My directive for future action was simply that the land be kept undeveloped.

In this course I learned a great deal about tropical ecology, but what I value even more is the opportunity I had to conduct my own research project. It was through this endeavor that I learned not only about a creature that fascinates me but also about research methods that will be valuable to me in the future.

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Recolonization of Bird Populations in a Tropical Shrub Forest; Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Michelle Lee,  EEB `04

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An Introduction to Sustainable Development Projects In and Surrounding Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar
Madeleine Meek, Environmental Studies `04

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Nesting Behavior and Conservation of Green Sea Turtles; Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Damon Nakamura, EP&E `04

The 2002 Thoreau Fellowship enabled me to take part in the Yale Summer Programs Tropical Ecology Seminar in Mexico from July 9 - August 10. The month long summer program was located the town of Careyes in Jalisco, Mexico. Careyes is an extremely small pueblo, of population no more than 100, and set directly across from our residence, Hotel El Careyes. Our group of eight students also had some household accommodations along with nightly dinner with a local family, the Peña's, who graciously accepted our class into their lives as both clients and friends. The experience had three significant components: formal academic work, independent research projects, and exposure to new cultural and social systems.

Academically, the first two weeks of the class were spent learning about the general ecological and geological makeup of the region. We took a number of significant field trips to accomplish this purpose. One afternoon was spent visiting an area called Teopas Beach, where we saw standard coastal ecology and the surrounding mangrove inlets along the estuaries. Another was spent looking at the tropical deciduous forest, located at the Chamela Field Station run by UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). We also visited a nearby coastal town called Tamarindo, which displayed the majestic, tropical palm forests, an area that more closely typified what I expected the tropics to look like. Finally, we studied the effects that clear cutting areas of trees had played on the ecosystem in a local farmland called Rancho Sarco. Though hectic, this initial study of the area was useful to understand the components before beginning our research projects.

The final two weeks was devoted to my independent project, an examination of the nesting behavior of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea). Assisted by Alejandro Peña, the local caretaker and naturalist, I adopted a nocturnal schedule and learned how to locate, handle and protect the egg clutches of females who nest nightly from the end of July through November. From July 22 through August 6, forty two turtle nests were found over four beaches, each with clutches ranging from 68-120 eggs. In eight of these cases, the female turtle was spotted, and measured. The actual data that I collected, which consisted of situational variables, most importantly GPS coordinates, were all compiled into a study looking for correlations between relative nest placements. The preliminary results did show some patterns in nesting locations along certain portions of the beach, leaving interesting questions about the year to year nesting habits of sea turtles and their memory and tracking capabilities.

The location and format of this program really made the experience. The act of living together as a class of eight diverse individuals and a professor was on the one hand a challenge and on the other hand an extremely reward social situation. Of course there were personal differences and conflicts in living habits, but as a whole, we all had the chance to participate in a stimulating environment. Over the month we snorkeled, sunbathed, toured, relaxed, argued and subsisted together. We spent a weekend on an organic farm. We attended the town’s first communion and local party. We frequented the local disco. We learned Spanish together. We caught crocodiles. And of course, we studied ecology. It wasn’t always perfect. It wasn’t always pretty. But looking back, it certainly was valuable.

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Community Forestry Research with the Tata Energy Research Institute in India
William Parish, EP&E `04

I am extremely grateful to the sponsors of the Thoreau Internship fellowship for giving me the opportunity to carry out my Hindi language study and community forestry research project in India this past summer. With no previous study of the language, by the end of the summer I was able to have a wide range of basic conversations in Hindi. This allowed me to interact with and get to know many non-English speakers, and was particularly useful on the field visits I took for my research. In the research component of the project, 1) I learned strategies for conducting independent social science research, 2) I became knowledgeable about forestry (and particularly community-based forestry) in India, and 3) I produced a 20 page report on my findings, which I submitted to the NGO I worked for and many officials in the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

I began the summer’s project with a three-week intensive Hindi language course in a hill town 5 hours north of Delhi called Mussoorie. I took four hour-long, one-on-one classes every day with very good language teachers and spent evenings doing homework, reading and listening to language tapes. I lived with a wonderful family in the town with whom I ate all my meals, had many conversations and spent a lot of time. I learned reading, writing, essential grammar and basic conversation skills at the school, and just began to appreciate and understand some of the complexities of the culture by living with the family.

I spent the remaining eight weeks doing research on Joint Forest Management (JFM) with an environmental NGO called the Tata Energy Research Institute that Gus Speth, Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, recommended to me. JFM is a twelve-year-old program designed to protect and regenerate government forestland (97% of India’s forests are government owned) with the active involvement of local communities. Deforestation is a major problem in India for any number of social and environmental reasons, and since the JFM program covers 20% of India’s forests and appears to be working very well in some areas, I thought it was an important topic to try to understand.

For my research I a) reviewed existing literature on JFM, b) conducted 22 individual 30-100 minute interviews with JFM experts working with a variety of government and non-government organizations, and c) visited JFM projects in three different states. My final report examined nine key issues in JFM and offered methods of dealing with some of the primary challenges facing the program and ideas about several promising opportunities for the future. I made a presentation for the Forestry Division of the Tata Energy Research Institute and submitted my report to the officials I had interviewed in the Ministry of Environment and Forests. I am attaching my final report, which contains the conclusions I drew from my research.

My experience this summer was not only wonderful and interesting, but it was also very important for me in figuring out what I want to study and possibly even what I want to do with my career. Before the summer, I was majoring in EP&E and focusing on environmental studies. I am now trying to create my own major to study sustainable development, and have broadened my perspective on what are the most important problems that need to be addressed in both the developed and developing world. I gained a much better understanding of the perspective of people in developing countries, and began to appreciate the connections between poverty and environmental degradation, healthcare/education and poverty, etc. I am taking Economics of Developing Countries and Economics of Sustainable Development this semester, and am considering doing my senior essay with a focus on India.

There are few recommendations I would make to improve the fellowship program. For me, although I received little guidance from my sponsoring organization, the experience of doing independent research was extremely rewarding. It was also useful for me to learn that I am less interested in research than more directly focused action – either from a policy, journalistic or NGO perspective. Overall, it was an extremely valuable experience for me, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to other students.

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A Case Study of the Lower Colorado River: Evaluating the Effectiveness and Rationality behind Major Streamflow Diversion as a Possible Solution to Water Shortages
Adam Schempp, EP&E `03

My Thoreau Internship Grant supported my summer research of Lower Colorado River water allocations in Washington, D.C. I found it to be a tremendously enlightening experience and vital to the foundation of my senior thesis work. I plan to use the information that I gathered from human and literary sources while there to write my senior essay, which is intended to provide a concise but detailed understanding of the entirety of the issues surrounding the Lower Colorado River Basin and evaluate the rationality of such a solution for future water shortages.

Upon reaching Washington, D.C., I contacted Christine Karas of the Bureau of Reclamation, which is a division of the Department of the Interior. Throughout her career, she has been involved in many Lower Colorado River Basin projects, making her a wealth of knowledge about the many interests on the Colorado River. Her specialty is environmental protection, so she was able to explain many of the ecological concerns facing the Lower Basin.

My next pursuit was to find maps of the Lower Colorado River Basin. I was fortunate to find and copy a map of the Lower Basin that contains all the current and proposed water projects of that region. The map was created by the Bureau of Reclamation and included their projects as well as those of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy, and many more. I also found a map of the principal power facilities in the Western United States and the power grid that connects interconnects them. The map was created by the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and neatly displays the intended destination of the bulk of the power production from these power plants due to the capacity of the lines and what cities they extend to. This information can be very useful for determining the value of energy production, not per megawatt hour, but by the industrial production of the areas that rely on it.

After having found good visual resources, I wanted to find answers to my more technical questions. I had arrived in Washington knowing what information I was unable to find in Yale libraries and on the Internet. I searched the Library of Congress’ database for all resources pertaining to the Lower Colorado River Basin and found quite a lot of information. I spent several days skimming those books that appeared to be of greatest benefit to my study. Three resources in particular answered many of my questions, provided me with many quantitative estimates, and filled some gaps in my understanding of the Colorado River system.

In addition to the knowledge that I gained while in D.C., my research established new areas of concern for me to pursue and the contacts and resources necessary for that end. Few studies concentrate on more than one issue on the Lower Colorado River, let alone approaching the entire system holistically, which leaves me with a lot of new territory to cover and a lot of research do. My senior thesis could never be as comprehensive as it will be without spending time in D.C.

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Analyzing the Viburnum dentatum Complex for Ecological, Morphological, and Molecular Patterns
Benjamin Smith, EEB `03

This summer was an adventure in plant collecting. Throughout the months of June, July and August, I embarked on several plant collecting trips, looking for the mysterious Viburnum dentatum species complex, and learning the techniques of field collection, culminating in a 4- week trip down the coast from New Haven, into the Southern states. Dentatum is a species rich in morphological variation that presents itself drastically as you drive along the North-South cline of North America.

“Collecting plants?” I thought at the beginning of the summer, “that’ll be a cinch.” I soon found out that I was quite wrong. I drove down to South Carolina, where I was to start my coastal journey, spent a night with a friend, and set out on route 17, South, looking for my plants This summer was an adventure in plant collecting. Throughout the months of June, July and August, I embarked on several plant collecting trips, looking for the mysterious Viburnum dentatum species complex, and learning the techniques of field collection, culminating in a 4- week trip down the coast from New Haven, into the Southern states. Dentatum is a species rich in morphological variation that presents itself drastically as you drive along the North-South cline of North America.

“Collecting plants?” I thought at the beginning of the summer, “that’ll be a cinch.” I soon found out that I was quite wrong. I drove down to South Carolina, where I was to start my coastal journey, spent a night with a friend, and set out on route 17, South, looking for my plants on the sides of the roads. After 10 stops that day without a hit, I finally found some of the desired plants, right before it got dark. Being in a completely different ecosystem than the ones around campus had thrown me off, and I had lost my sense of where Viburnum would grow. I collected a few samples, felt a little better about myself, and bunked down for the night only to be devoured by voracious mosquitoes.

The next week, I started to get a sense of the local surroundings. The South was amazingly different than what I was used to complete with weird vines, mud chiggers, and strange accents. But the local environment started to grow on me. I learned that the plants I was looking for grew in only the wettest of places in the South, and I started to recognize the indicator species for this type of environment. I got better and better at finding my plants, stumbling upon them on an intuitive hunch and excitedly running back to my car to get my plant collection materials.

I drove down from South Carolina, through Georgia and into Florida, West through the Jungle-like diversity of the Apalachicola river basin and the Gulf of Mexico, and north through Alabama and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, and the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. I had variable success along the way, as I waded through disparate ecosystems sometimes finding my plants exactly where I thought they would be, and sometimes going for quite a while without finding anything. However, my missed attempts at finding the plants were just as beneficial to my learning process as my successes. The action of driving 4000 miles up and down the North-South axis of the country, searching for one species group in particular, and observing the total changing surroundings in general, was extremely helpful for my sense of how ecology, species distribution, and individual plant morphology all change with large distances.

Immediately after crossing the Virginia border from North Carolina, my car, an old one, sputtered to a halt and refused to start up again without serious repair. I camped out for 4 days in Virginia Beach, waiting for the car to be made operational, and finally resigned myself to the abandonment of my samples, and took a 20-hour bus ride home to New Haven, arriving just in time for school to start. I then traveled back down to pick up my car the following weekend. When I arrived back home with my samples, I had 60-odd individual samples of various shapes and appearance. This fall, I will analyze the samples for quantifiable morphologic variation, and attempt to map out a phylogeny of the various samples.

I don’t know what I will find in the coming analysis of these samples, but the collecting journey I went on this summer is a wonderfully concrete way to ground the abstract nature of the lab portion of the experiment and hopefully this year will provide a wonderful way to extend the adventure and learning of the summer.

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Urban Agriculture in Bangalore, India with the NGOs Agriculture, Man, and Ecology, the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation, and the Women’s Dairy
Co-Operative, Sampark
Abhimanyu Sud, MCDB and Linguistics `03

I worked with the non-profit group Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi (Mythri) to develop an urban agriculture project in Bangalore, India. This project allowed me to work with a whole range of people I would not otherwise have even met, given that we were from different linguistic, cultural, social and economic communities. Despite these communal differences some very strong relations developed from which I learned a great deal about urban agriculture, ‘development’ projects and a whole range of other issues.

The notion of urban agriculture is currently not very prevalent in Bangalore and thus my primary purpose while there was to make it a viable activity. I did this in several ways. The first was the development of actual site for urban agriculture. An area of about 550 square feet was made into cultivatable land, where we grew sunflower, beans, peas, melons, squashes, potatoes and the like for local consumption. This may be called the physical aspect of the project. It is hoped that this garden site can be used as a model and inspiration for future projects in Bangalore and other cities.

Second is the social aspect, where the project was associated with other viable and vibrant social activities: the activities of a women’s group advocating for the safe and proper development of their living conditions and the waste management and labour organizing activities of Mythri. These groups are very interested in continuing a relationship beyond Bangalore as am I, so that we keep in close touch even now.

This contact shall allow for several things. Firstly, we can continue our discussions of urban agriculture in general as well as the specifically the development of the Bangalore site. Furthermore, it leaves avenues open for those in Bangalore interested in coming to Canada or the U.S. to develop an urban agriculture project here and also for future students (at Yale and elsewhere) and activist to return to Bangalore and work on the existing project there. I am eager to facilitate such an exchange, and will work primarily to make it a true exchange, instead of the one-way movement of people and ideas (from Canada/U.S. to Bangalore), which is predominant now.

This experience has given me a great deal. Immediately, I hope to use it as the basis for a senior project for the Biology major. The challenge for this is to incorporate the social and ‘activist’ nature of urban agriculture into the rational and experimental