Berkley Adrio, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Ann Camp (F&ES)
Seeds of Success Seed Banking Initiative with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (8 weeks, Washington, DC)

Todd Anderson, Environmental Engineering '09, Faculty Advisor - William Mitch (CENG/ENVE)
Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment (4 weeks, Kikoo, Cameroon)

Brandon Berger, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Gordon Geballe (F&ES)
An Investigation into the Effects of Development and Succession on Interactions Between Andean Bears and Humans with Fundación Zoobreviven (8 weeks, Alto Choco Reserve, Ecuador)

Jacob Berv, Molecular & Cellular Biology '10, Faculty Advisor - Arie Kaffman (Psychology)
Global Vision International Wildlife Conservation Project (5.5 weeks, Venetia-Limpopo Nature Reserve, South Africa)

Katherine Boronow, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '09, Faculty Advisor - David Skelly (F&ES)
Investigating the Physiological Responses of Fence Lizards, Sceloporus undulatus, to Red Imported Fire Ants, Solenopsis invicta (14 weeks, Marianna, AR, Andalusia, AL & State College, PA)

Isabel Chen, Anthropology '10, Faculty Advisors - Karin Gosselink (English) and Stephen Stearns (E&EB)
Organization for Tropical Studies / Duke University's Field Tropical Biology Course (5 weeks, Costa Rica)

Kevin Currey, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Susan Clark (F&ES)
Deciding to Drill: Managing the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska in the Common Interest (8 weeks, AK)

Christine Ellman, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
The Energy Research Institute's Transboundary Water Project (8 weeks, New Delhi, India)

Katherine French, Chemistry '09, Faculty Advisor - Mark Pagani (G&G)
Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (16 weeks, Umbria, Italy and New Haven, CT)

Bente Grinde, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Jeffrey Park (G&G)
Plastics in the North Pacific: Summer 2008 Semester at SEA, Woods Hole (8 weeks, Woods Hole, MA, Honolulu, HI, San Francisco, CA)

Kevin Hickenbottom, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
Day Use in North Cascades National Park (10 weeks, North Cascades National Park, WA)

Alison Hoyt, Environmental Engineering '09, Faculty Advisor - William Mitch (CENG/ENVE)
Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment (4 weeks, Kikoo, Cameroon)

Sarai Itagaki, Undeclared '11, Faculty Advisor - Paul Anastas (F&ES, Chemistry, and CENG)
Developing a More Environmentally Friendly Mitsunobu Reaction: Internship with the Yale Center for Chemistry and Green Engineering (10 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Kathleen Knighton, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
Historical Analysis of the Impact Aesthetic Judgements have had on the Appearance of the Landscape Along the Blue Ridge Parkway (4 weeks, Blue Ridge Mountains, NC & VA)

Elyse LeeVan, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Durland Fish (EPH)
An Eco-epidemiological Approach to Chagas Disease at the University of Buenos Aires (12 weeks, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Tse Yang Lim, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '11, Faculty Advisor - Suzanne Alonzo (E&EB)
Signaling Behavior and Parental Care in Courting Male Three-Spine Stickleback (7 weeks, British Columbia, Canada)

Davis Lindsey, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Julie Zimmerman (F&ES/CENG)
Conservation Grasslands and BioEnergy: How to Sustainably Produce Bioenergy from Conservation Land in Southeastern Minnesota (8 weeks, Minneapolis, MN)

Elizabeth Mandeville, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '09, Faculty Advisor - David Post (E&EB)
Intraspecific Variation Across a Landscape of Isolated Landlocked Alewife Populations (12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Elizabeth Marshman, Biomedical Engineering '10, Faculty Advisor - William Mitch (CENG/ENVE)
Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment (4 weeks, Kikoo, Cameroon)

Julia Meisel, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Blake Harrison (History)
Yale International Bulldogs Program: Internship with the Secretariat UN Convention on Biodiversity-Technology (8 weeks, Montreal, Canada)

Ariel Patashnik, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - David Post (E&EB)
The Effects of Wetland Drainage and Restoration on Endangered Suckerfish in the Klamath River Basin: Internship with The Nature Conservancy (8 weeks, Klamath Falls, OR)

Jonathan Russell, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '11, Faculty Advisors - Paul Turner (E&EB) and Graeme Berlyn (F&ES)
Promoting Sustainable Management of Forest Resources by Incorporating Analog Forest Methods into Neighboring Farms: Internship with the Monte Saino Natural Resource Conservation Center (9 weeks, Esmeraldas, Ecuador)

Irene Scher, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - Ben Cashore (F&ES)
Internationalization and the Canadian Boreal Conservation Campaign with Pew Charitable Trusts (2 weeks, Canada)

Matthew Smith, Physics '10, Faculty Advisor - John Harris (Physics)
Environmental Policy and Field Biology Research in Patagonia: Internships with Global Vision Internation and Fundacion Bioandina Argentina (8 weeks, Patagonia and Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Laura Zatz, Environmental Studies '09, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
French Women Don’t Get Fat or Do They?: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Policies Designed to Address Environmental Determinants of Obesity with the French National Institute of Medical Research (9 weeks, Paris, France)

Top   |   Student Research   |   Previous Year

Seeds of Success Seed Banking Initiative with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Berkley Adrio, Environmental Studies '09

This summer, I spent eight weeks interning with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the national office in Washington, D.C.  Through the generosity of the EVST Summer Internship Program and the mentorship of Peggy Olwell, BLM Plant Conservation Program Lead, I was able to get an inside look at the United States native plants development programs.  The BLM is the largest seed-buying entity in the country, and uses these seeds for restoration in fire-damaged public lands in the American West. 

Over the past few decades, invasive species (among other factors) have shortened fire return intervals by as much as 100 years in some systems.  After the record-breaking fires of 1999 season, Congress directed the BLM to construct a seed banking initiative.  In response to this directive, the BLM created the “Seeds of Success” (SOS) program in 2001.  This summer, SOS signed a memorandum of understanding with their partners that officially named them the national seed banking initiative.

Seeds of Success strives to increase the number of native plants available to buyers, particularly for use in restoration of BLM lands in the western United States. SOS partners with botanical gardens and other NGOs across the country.  These partners send out collections teams to harvest, collect, and catalog seeds from targeted native plant communities.  Collected seeds are sent to one of several processing facilities where they are cleaned, tested, and some accessions are placed in long-term cold storage.  SOS also manages the United States’ contribution to the Kew Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 

SOS is essentially the first program of its kind.  While many other seed collection and storage agencies exist worldwide, none take on the same breadth of tasks as SOS.  Seeds of Success covers an incredibly large number of diverse ecotypes.  It also aims to make seeds readily available to buyers, rather than just banking an accession to protect the genetic content of the species.  I worked with Peggy Olwell, Plant Conservation Program Lead, to evaluate SOS, research other programs with similar goals, and finally, to consolidate, organize, and analyze annual seed buy data.  I hope to continue work on this project into this academic year and possibly into my master’s degree as well.  There is much to be done, and Seeds of Success has the foundation and resource access to tackle some of the most important goals in native plants development in the United States.

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Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment
Todd Anderson, Environmental Engineering '09

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An Investigation into the Effects of Development and Succession on Interactions Between Andean Bears and Humans with Fundación Zoobreviven
Brandon Berger, Environmental Studies '10

This past summer, I spent June and July in the Intag Valley, in the northwest of Ecuador, working with Fundación Zoobreviven, a small nonprofit that manages several private nature reserves throughout the country.  At the Alto Chocó reserve, a group of volunteers work on predator monitoring, reforestation, and local development.

My attraction to the this project was the reserve’s star protected species, the Andean bear, the only ursine species in South America, and one about which very little is positively known.  This valley and reserve has appeared several times in literature about the species, most of which is natural history based, about the investigation of the habits, diet, and habitat of the bear.  The attraction of working with this program was that many of the problems facing these bears are issues of land use, arising at the collision of ecology and politics.  I had recently written a paper on land use, development, and ecology in the American suburban grid, and I wanted the chance to see these challenges from the perspective of a nature reserve in a developing country.  The valley has many human inhabitants, who tend to be poor andindigenous (Quechua) farmers. Raids by bears on cornfields have often made the relationship between the human and ursine inhabitants of the valley very tense (as is common in all five countries where the bear is found).

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Global Vision International Wildlife Conservation Project
Jacob Berv, Molecular & Cellular Biology '10

This summer, I spent an incredible six weeks volunteering as a research assistant for Global Vision International’s (GVI) Wildlife Research and Conservation Project in South Africa on Karongwe Game Reserve. With the substantial support of the Environmental Studies Internship Program, I was able to play a key role in several of GVIs ongoing and long terms projects aimed at investigating the behavioral ecology and impact of large predators within a small, multi-predator system. These ongoing projects
include careful monitoring of the predator and prey populations with specific regard to lion, cheetah, hyaena, leopard and their territorial interactions with prey species. The long-term goal of this research is the establishment of sustainable and effective management policies for the future conservation of game reserves in Africa.

To track the study animals, UFH/VHF radio telemetry tracking was combined with traditional tracking methods. Twice daily the GPS locations of each focus animal were recorded and inputted into ArcView, a piece of software that creates a topographical map showing movement patterns and population distributions. Any other interesting sightings were also recorded, such as matings, births/deaths, dartings/relocations, intraguild interactions and interesting kills. In addition to creating a visual guide to the predators’ territories, creating this GIS map allowed us to deduce variables that influence predator movements, home range, and kills. Changes in one leopard’s territory allowed us to deduce the presence of an unknown leopard on the reserve. The health status of each focus animal was also collected on a daily basis. This became extremely important on two occasions, when we assisted in the rescue of an injured infant rhinoceros and the darting and relocation of a leopard that required oral surgery.

Some other large mammals of interest on the reserve included rhino, elephant, and water buffalo. The elephant monitoring and vegetation-mapping project on Karongwe was of particular significance because of the exponentially rising populations of elephants in Southern Africa. The implementation of outdated conservation practices led to mismanagement of elephant populations over the last thirty years, and there are currently far too many elephants inflicting an unsustainable amount of damage on the ecosystem. Hormonal contraception is in the process of being tested, and frequent vegetation surveys are conducted to determine elephant utilization of plant resources.

On Karongwe, I was given the chance to play a small but important role in the ongoing conservation effort of some incredible animals that have helped to define Africa as a continent and as a participant in the effort to minimize humanity’s impact on the Earth. In looking back on the whole experience, I gained a real understanding of what sustainability means. In an extremely practical sense, sustainability is about making sacrifices, and thinking intelligently about cause and effect. It’s about understanding a problem in multiple dimensions, and making decisions based on the goal of minimizing interference while still maintaining a balance that allows for every player to benefit far into the future.

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Investigating the Physiological Responses of Fence Lizards, Sceloporus undulatus, to Red Imported Fire Ants, Solenopsis invicta
Katherine Boronow, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '09

Invasive species often alter community dynamics by out-competing or predating native species. Frequently, native species are not adapted to the specializations of the invader, such as their toxins. In these cases, native species must evolve mechanisms to avoid exposure to the toxins or increased tolerance following exposure if they are to survive invasion. Over the summer I investigated one such system: invasive fire ants and native fence lizards.

Red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, were introduced to North America in the early 1930s via Port Mobile, Alabama, and have since radiated across the southern United States. They are an economic, ecological, and public health concern. Fire ant venom acts on the neuromuscular system and is used in mound defense and prey capture. One vertebrate which co-occurs with the fire ant across its invasive range is the eastern fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus. Fire ants and fence lizards share similar habitats and often encounter each other during foraging. Previous research on this system suggests that lizards are evolving both behavioral and morphological traits to cope with fire ants. The current research examined whether fence lizards are evolving physiological mechanisms of tolerance by characterizing the whole-body and cellular consequences of fire ant venom in two populations of lizards with different invasion histories.

I spent eight weeks conducting field work in Marianna, Arkansas (not yet invaded) and Andalusia, Alabama (invaded 70 years ago), and 6 weeks at Penn State University conducting laboratory work. Lizards were caught via noosing. The hemolytic activity of fire ant venom on lizard erythrocytes was measured using spectrophotometry of partially lysed blood samples. Whole-body performance following venom exposure was assessed with three ecologically relevant fitness measures: bite force, righting ability, and sprint speed.

The hemolytic activity of fire ant venom on fence lizard erythrocytes did not differ between sites (t(22)=0.16, p=0.88). Interestingly, fire ant venom did not behave like most other venoms, which yield a dosage-response curve in which increased venom quantities correlate with decreased locomotor performance. Rather, fire ant venom appears to have a threshold effect in which the lizard experiences either no decrement in locomotor performance, or death. It seems that the behavioral and morphological avoidance of fire ants is less costly than physiological tolerance. However, the apparent threshold effect makes it difficult to ascertain differences between the populations without determining the threshold itself (e.g., the LD­­50). This was not investigated for ethical reasons.

This was an extremely valuable experience in terms of the level of responsibility I took for my research. It required both creativity and patience to troubleshoot unanticipated methodological problems without becoming frustrated. Regardless, field work is the most enjoyable aspect of any environmental investigation and I had a great time doing research in the South this summer.

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Organization for Tropical Studies / Duke University's Field Tropical Biology Course
Isabel Chen, Anthropology '10

The Organization for Tropical Studies Tropical Biology Field Course allowed me to spend a month in Costa Rica studying biodiversity and conservation biology at four separate biological stations and introduced students to a wide variety of plant, animal, and insect taxa in different ecosystems. The program also explored themes in conservation biology and their effects on diversity in Central America.

The program was academically rigorous and I particularly enjoyed the innumerable hours spent in the field collecting specimen and data. At each biological station, an independent research project was conducted under the supervision of a special visiting professor. The projects explored topics such as insect biodiversity in distinct ecosystems, changes to avifaunal migration patterns in marshland areas, impacts causing herpetofaunal decline, and reproductive patterns of ground-dwelling birds.

The most memorable research project was conducted under the guidance of Professor Mahmood Sasa from the University of Costa Rica. The experiment was conducted at La Selva Biological Station and the research question came after having read a recent study indicating that reptiles and amphibians appear to be suffering a significant population decline. Costa Rica’s forests are fragmented and contain a variety of primary and secondary forests. The study analyzed the herpetofauna biodiversity in primary and secondary forests at La Selva. In addition, we used two different sampling methods (leaf litter plots and visual encounter survey) to examine what method may yield better results for long term herpetofauna monitoring. We hypothesized that leaf litter dwelling herpetofauna will show greater biodiversity in secondary forests due to disturbances. The group surveyed the herpetofauna of using two different methods at each site, leaf litter plots and visual encounter surveys (VES).

The study compared two different sampling methods, the leaf litter plot and VES in attempt to determine whether or not a difference in biodiversity exists between the two habitats. The two sampling techniques have individual strengths that depend on the experimental conditions. The leaf littler plot is also a better method in our study at La Selva because this technique has been applied in herpetofaunal studies since the 1970s, thus providing data that can be compared to previous research in the field. The comparison between our two test sites indicates that secondary forest contains greater biodiversity and confirms our initial hypothesis. This conclusion does coincide with research indicating greater herpetofauna biodiversity in secondary compared to primary growth forests but does correlate strongly with the adaptability of the species that inhabit each area. Extant information on the observed species in our samples mostly exhibit generalist behavior; they are capable of living in diverse humid and lowland environments. The Oophaga Pomilio species, for example, prefers habitats with logs, plants, and leaf crevices and these requirements are satisfied in both of our sites in primary and secondary forests. In addition, this species of frogs is found throughout Costa Rica in elevation ranges from sea level to 900 m. This generalist behavior must be considered when evaluating the biodiversity in each habitat. 

The implications of our findings may have an impact on conservation efforts at La Selva. Based on the Shannon-Weiner Index, areas of greater or less herpetofaunal biodiversity may isolate specific areas to preserve. The gradual decline in herpetofauna diversity at La Selva requires specific attention and conservation efforts must be considered in the near future.

The program was an unforgettable experience and I would highly recommend it to any students interested in Tropical Biology who would like to explore the subject in one of the most beautiful settings in the world. The context in which the subject of conservation was taught profoundly affected the concepts of sustainability, education, and awareness. I look forward to returning to Costa Rica in the near future to visit the Biological Stations and to learn more about the region’s biodiversity.

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Deciding to Drill: Managing the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska in the Common Interest
Kevin Currey, Environmental Studies '09

With the generous support of the Environmental Internship Program, I spent eight weeks this summer studying the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.  The 23-million acre NPR-A is the largest tract of federal land in the United States and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  The broad goal of my research is to investigate whether the NPR-A is being managed in the common interest.  I focused my research on the 4.6 million acre northeast section of the NPR-A, because the management of this area has been most contentious. 

This summer, I tried to understand the social process surrounding the dispute over the northeast NPR-A’s management and the decision process used by the federal government, purportedly to resolve that dispute.  My work is guided by three main subsidiary questions: What groups are involved in the environmental impact statement process, and with what outcomes and effects?  What demands do they make, based on what values and expectations?  How does the BLM incorporate different perspectives into its analysis and management decisions?  To answer these questions, I used a theory and methodology known as the policy sciences, a set of contextual, problem-oriented, and multi-method approaches to understanding the policy process.  To obtain my data, I conducted about 40 semi-structured interviews and preformed a literature review.

I lived in Anchorage for most of the summer, but I made occasional trips to surrounding cities and also spent several days in Fairbanks.  Although I did some library research, I spent most of my time in Anchorage interviewing participants in the NPR-A policy dispute.  I talked with government officials from several agencies, as well as with representatives from oil companies, conservation organizations, and native corporations.  

I devoted the final two weeks of my time in Alaska to traveling across the Arctic.  I first visited Prudhoe Bay, where I learned about the area’s history and current industry practices from workers and operators.  I then spent a week in Nuiqsut, a small native village of approximately 450 mostly Inupiaq Eskimo residents.  I toured many of the town’s facilities.  I also hired a local translator and interviewed five of the village’s respected elders.  They helped me understand how the Inupiaq culture has changed over time and offered a variety of explanations for and reactions to those changes.  On my last night in Nuiqsut, I was invited to participate in an 18-hour oogruk (bearded seal) subsistence hunt in the Arctic Ocean.  I saw first-hand how subsistence hunting works in the Arctic, from spotting and killing the seals to preparing and eating the meat.  Finally, I spent several days in Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States and the borough seat of Alaska’s North Slope Borough, where I met with several members of the Borough Wildlife Department staff.

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The Energy Research Institute's Transboundary Water Project
Christine Ellman, Environmental Studies '09

With the generous support of the Environmental Internship Program, I spent part of my summer in New Delhi, India working with TERI, The Energy and Resource Institute, on several projects related to climate change and water resources in South Asia.  The vision of TERI is to “work towards global sustainable development, creating innovative solutions for a better tomorrow.”  TERI has proven to be dynamic and inspiring in the ways it tries to find solutions to global problems in the fields of energy, environment, and development. 

I first conducted research for a year-long project called Blue Skies.  The Blue Skies Project aims to study changes in the structure and processes of federal governance in India with regard to the challenges posed by climate change.  I conducted a literature review on a bottom-up approach to climate change governance in India.  In this research, I understood that India is especially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change for several reasons.   Continental countries with long coastlines, dense population, and rapid urbanization of coastal areas are most vulnerable to sea level rise.  India has coastline of 7500 km and a population of over 1.1 billion people.  The problem of vulnerability is further confounded by the fact that agriculture is the largest contributor to India’s GDP and 3/5 of all Indian crops are rain-fed and thus dependent on monsoon.  The already poor peasant cultivators and agricultural laborers with low financial and technological adaptability are the most vulnerable to climatic and economic changes. 

I also helped write a background paper for a TERI-Stimson Center conference entitled “Climate Change and Water: Examining the Interlinkages.”  For this, I completed a comprehensive literature review of recent international and relevant national water reports and conducted several open interviews with key stakeholders.  I focused on the following areas:  1) the current state of water in India and South Asia; 2) how water and climate change are transnational phenomena; 3) the nature and scope of climate change impacts on water bodies in South Asia; 4) climatic and non-climatic parameters that lead to gaps in water supply and water demand; 5) the social and economic impacts on vulnerable sectors and communities; 6) the linkages between water and development; 7) how this all impacts the Millennium Development Goals; and 8) how the politics of climate change needs to change. 

It was my intention to write my senior thesis on water security in South Asia with a hypothesis as the following: with scarcity comes implicit mistrust and conflict, but the environmental threat of water scarcity is a common resource threat and thus, a possible trigger for long-term cooperation.  However, the major impediment to this research is whether there even is data and if so, whether this data is publicly available, as there is so much sensitivity in water issues. 
Nonetheless, my time spent in India was extremely worthwhile and educational.  It was a truly eye-opening experience to a new and exciting culture.  Also, for a short time, I became a mini-expert in water security in South Asia.  I can combine this with my knowledge of water security in the Middle East, which was the topic of my senior prospectus, and the state of water in North America, from when I worked with the Commission of Cooperation in Montreal, Canada in the summer of 2007.  In each of these learning experiences I have learned over and over again that freshwater is an indispensable natural resource and socio-economic good.  With so many conflicting sector uses and conflicting theories in allocating water and no way to measure all its costs and benefits, there is conflict in practice.  As such, sustainability in long-term water management can be difficult.  Mismanagement of water can lead to water stress and water scarcity, which threatens the sustainability of the natural resource base, affects all social and economic sectors, and undermines human security by reducing the access and quality to a key resource that sustains livelihoods.  With this, I plan to position my interests in water security on another location and research away.

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Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum
Katherine French, Chemistry '09

In the summer of 2007, the world witnessed the largest areal reduction of Arctic sea ice, and even greater ice volume loss is projected for the summer of 2008. These dramatic events are clear indications of rapid climate change. While a number of factors influence climate, current research suggests that the rapid injection of anthropogenic carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and oceans will increase global temperatures. In order to predict future climate response to the current carbon dioxide input, paleoclimatologists study ancient hyperthermal events. These events are characterized by a rapid carbon dioxide spike that induces a period of global warming. This summer the Environmental Internship Award made it possible for me to began developing a paleotemperature record for my senior research project on a specific poorly-resolved hyperthermal event called the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ca. 41-42 Ma).

The MECO has been observed at high latitude sites in the southern hemisphere. My project seeks to demonstrate the global nature of this hyperthermal event by using two low latitude sites in the northern hemisphere. Previous work conducted on the MECO used carbon and oxygen isotopes to characterize the hyperthermal event. My project seeks to generate a low latitude sea surface temperature record using the Tetraether Index of 86 Carbon Atoms (TEX86) proxy and a terrestrial temperature record using the Methylation Index of Branched Tetraethers (MBT) proxy. For this purpose, I targeted two sites in Italy, the Contessa Highway section and the Alano section, to collect samples for this work. The Contessa Highway section is an outcrop along a highway in the Umbria region of central Italy.  The Alano section is an outcrop in a river bed in the Venetian Alps in northeastern Italy. These two sites were selected for their easily accessible and remarkably complete geologic record of the MECO.

In preparation for the fieldwork and sample collection, some important preliminary work was required. I needed to determine the abundance of organic content in the sediments from these two sections. This was necessary to estimate the mass of material required to generate a strong signal by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) and thus viable temperature data. I extracted the organic material from five samples from each site. Using column chromatography, the tetraethers were isolated before LCMS analysis. The preliminary work demonstrated that the organic abundance in both the Contessa and Alano sections varied but was overall lower than expected. Additionally, the methylated branched tetraethers needed for the MBT terrestrial paleotemperature record were not observed in the preliminary samples from either site. This observation could be due to a low terrestrial input in this region during the MECO, but further work up on the collected samples is required to confirm this observation.

While in Italy, I collected eighty samples from both sites at high resolution intervals in order to capture any anomalous trends within the climate event. According to the preliminary work that I had conducted at Yale, 500 g of material was needed for each sample at the Contessa site and 750 g of material was needed for each sample at the Alano site. The samples from both sites varied from softer shales to carbonates. After the fieldwork was completed, I carefully labeled, packed, and shipped over 100 kilograms of rock back to Yale to process during my senior year.                      

The Environmental Internship Award enabled me to travel to Italy for my first geology fieldwork experience. This summer, I learned the importance of preliminary preparation for a successful field expedition. This valuable experience was further enhanced by working with other international students in paleoclimate while I was in Italy. Consequently, I gained a broader perspective of the paleoclimate field and am more familiar with the research problems that are currently being studied in paleoclimate across the world. I am grateful for this opportunity and would certainly recommend it to another student.

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Plastics in the North Pacific: Summer 2008 Semester at SEA, Woods Hole
Bente Grinde, Environmental Studies '09

My time aboard the Robert C. Seamans in the Pacific taught me quite a lot about the ocean and how it works and it also taught me quite a lot I didn’t expect to find out about life on the ocean.

The ocean is all there is out there. Nothing exists but the sounds of wind and water and the creak of the ship’s beams, the hum of the generator and the shouts of the First Mate, the clamor of the kitchen and the songs and whispers of shipmates. It’s hard to remember what it feels like to stand on solid ground. The world is 135 feet long and skimming the surface of an incomprehensible deep, from which one can sometimes pull a familiar tuna. The only personal time is that which is stolen for sleep. The only personal place is that six-foot-long rack where I lay.

This summer, I had the chance to experience some elements of what it must have been like to have lived a life at sea during the Golden Age of Sail. I learned how to set and handle sails, plot the ship’s course on navigation charts, calculate the ship’s location on the earth’s sphere using observed elevations of celestial objects, and conducted research on the abundance of microscopic plastic particles that find their way into the Pacific Ocean.

Our research showed that there are few methods for determining which small particles are made from plastics and which are wood, dust, plankton, crustaceans, and other flecks of material such as ship’s paint. Nevertheless, small plastic pellets between 1 and 5 mm, occurring in a multitude of colors, were found in nearly every sample taken from the waters between Hawaii and the California Coast. The general conclusions are that plastics of all sizes, shapes, and colors exist in the ocean; some large synthetic objects actually provide a substrate on which miniature ecosystems establish themselves; plastics of all sizes may be a threat to animals, particularly birds, fish, and jellyfish, which confuse plastic with prey; and since there are already laws prohibiting the dumping of plastics in the world’s oceans, there may be little that can be done in terms of cleanup, owing to the sheer scale of the affected areas.

I learned a great deal on this trip about an ecosystem I have never had the opportunity to study and about a blue ocean sailing culture I had only heard of in the abstract. While I don’t plan on pursuing ocean studies, I now recognize that all environmental studies are deeply tied to ocean studies: climate, ecology, evolution, global trade, geography. It is impossible for me now to overlook the significance of the ocean, and that is the most valuable thing I could have hoped to glean from this experience as an Environmental Studies major concerned with big picture patterns of environmental systems.

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Day Use in North Cascades National Park
Kevin Hickenbottom, Environmental Studies '09

This summer I conducted a survey of the backcountry permit system in the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. North Cascades National Park is located in north central Washington and is a paradise for anyone interested in hiking or climbing. I lived at the ranger station in Marblemount, Washington and went out on hiking/survey   trips for as long as nine days at a time. When one wants to stay overnight in North Cascades National Park they have to obtain a backcountry permit from a ranger station in the park. This system is then enforced by backcountry rangers that go out on patrol in the park. Due to dwindling funding the ranks of the rangers are small and with only a few able to be out on patrol at any one time it’s been very hard for them to gauge people’s levels of compliance with the current permit system. Furthermore many people believe that switching to an online system is the way to go. The convenience of printing out a permit online is undeniable but most park employees believe that without the ranger middleman to lay out the park’s rules and regulations it would be chaos.

The goals for my survey were to help the rangers get a better idea of compliance in the park, gauge user interest with an online permit system and gather general survey data including approximate age, size of group, weather, stock, pets, length of trip and where they were camping that night.  I would go out backpacking for an average of a week at time talking to every group that I saw.  I would talk to people on the trail, at camps I was at and I sat at key trail junctions for multiple days as well. As I was only a volunteer with the park I had no uniform and only carried a radio that I checked in on twice a day. The experience of carrying a radio into the woods was an interesting one – talking into a little box when you’re by yourself at 8000 feet and its dark out is more then a little eerie.  My initial conclusions are that compliance in the park is very high. I only talked to seven groups without permits and most everybody was doing what they were supposed to out there. I also talked extensively with people about the online system and although everyone’s gut reaction is that it’s a great idea there are some significant problems with it – most notably the absence of a ranger checking you over to see if he’s going to have to rescue you - that need to be addressed before it can seriously be considered.        

I had an amazing time this summer and I still can’t believe that I was able to spend three months outside in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Working for the National Park Service was a great experience and I would do it again in a second. My main piece of advice for anyone considering something similar is to try and do it with someone else. Although solo hiking can be great being able to share such wonderful experiences with someone else makes it truly special. One of my favorite memories of the summer was running into an off duty ranger out on the trail and hiking with him for the next two days through some brutal ups and downs, sharing our food and laughing the whole way.

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Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment
Alison Hoyt, Environmental Engineering '09

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Developing a More Environmentally Friendly Mitsunobu Reaction: Internship with the Yale Center for Chemistry and Green Engineering
Sarai Itagaki, Undeclared '11

This summer I worked with Dr. Toby Sommer at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale studying the aqueous Mitsunobu Reaction. The Mitsunobu Reaction is a useful oxidation-reduction condensation reaction which links together a nucleophile and an electrophile with the loss of a water molecule.  It is most commonly used to react an alcohol and a carboxylic acid to form an ester with stereochemical inversion of the alcohol. The Mitsunobu is widely employed by the pharmaceutical industry in organic syntheses despite the fact that it is decidedly not environmentally friendly for a number of reasons: the use of harmful organic solvents (either halogenated or aromatic), the need for stoichiometric (versus catalytic) quantities of the reagents, the associated dangers of said reagents (an azo and a phosphine compound), and the need for multiple purification steps to separate the product from the side products. The project strove to address the first two of these concerns by carrying out the Mitsunobu in aqueous solution while using hydrogen peroxide in place of the azo compound as a greener oxidizing agent.  

However, the first step was to synthesize a suitable starting material on which to perform the aqueous Mitsunobu, a task which turned out to be more difficult than initially anticipated.  The starting material needed to have a rigid structure with a carboxylic acid and a secondary alcohol with a stereochemical "handle", so that the reaction would proceed intramolecularly and with detectable inversion. The original plan was to synthesize an ideal starting material from dihydrodicyclopentadiene via oxidative cleavage of its double bond followed by additional reactions to give a carboxylic acid at one terminus and a secondary alcohol at the other.  After two different attempts to cleave the double bond using ozonolysis failed to give the desired intermediate, most likely due to over-oxidation at the methine position, a different synthesis procedure relying on silica-supported potassium permanganate was tested.  While the permanganate route did give the expected product, the extremely low yield made the synthesis impractical to conduct on a larger scale.  Finally, it was decided to try using a less ideal, but more obtainable starting material that could be synthesized by hydrolyzing the lactone product resulting when methyl dihydrojasmonate is subjected to a Baeyer-Villiger reaction.  Once a small test synthesis of the new starting material had been conducted successfully, the procedure was scaled up and an aqueous Mitsunobu was conducted.  The crude product was then filtered several times and finally flash chromatographed in order to separate out the phosphine oxide side product.

Initial NMR data of the product confirmed the presence of the lactone product, but further examination was needed to distinguish whether the product was primarily the cis or trans isomer. Cis would show the stereochemical inversion typical of the Mitsunobu reaction, demonstrating that it had proceeded as expected, while trans would indicate that the starting material had simply reformed the Baeyer-Villiger lactone.  Further 2D NMR study is needed to make the designation, so the project will be continued into the fall semester.

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Historical Analysis of the Impact Aesthetic Judgements have had on the Appearance of the Landscape Along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Kathleen Knighton, Environmental Studies '09

The Environmental Studies Fellowship Program allowed me to travel along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia in order to conduct research for my senior project in the major.  The experience taught me many lessons about the nature of independent research and was an extremely valuable addition to my academic career.  Through a combination of interviews, site visits, and trips to the park’s archives I obtained rich information about the historical roots and current implementation of scenic management of the landscape along the parkway.

The Blue Ridge Parkway connecting Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was conceived as a New Deal project that would revitalize Virginia and North Carolina’s economy while providing a scenic, recreational drive for a growing population of American motorists.  In order to create a 469-mile road, the National Park Service was faced with the task of developing an ideal aesthetic to provide proper scenic value to entice visitors.  Through my research, I found all the original land use maps that show in detail how the parkway was to appear based on the accepted notions of landscape design in the 1930’s.  These maps provide rich information for my project and help situation me in the intent of the parkway’s design. However, throughout the course of the parkway’s history, several changes to the landscape, most significantly the encroachment of development along the road, have irreversibly altered the land and has limited the ability of current managers to follow the original design. 

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An Eco-epidemiological Approach to Chagas Disease at the University of Buenos Aires
Elyse LeeVan, Environmental Studies '09

Due to the generosity of the Environmental Internship Program, I was able to perform a Chagas disease related research project in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The project began with a trip to the Chaco province in the northeastern region of the country. There, Chagas disease affects more than 40% of the rural population. A laboratory team from the eco-epidemiology lab at the University of Buenos Aires had been monitoring re-infestation activities of Triatomine vectors following an application of deltamethrine, a common pesticide. I accompanied this research team to perform these surveillance activities and gather information from the local inhabitants about insect populations and their interaction with the community.

Over the course of the next five months, I designed and carried out an experiment to provide further insight into the relationship between the commonly used pesticide and the target Triatomine population. The experiment tested deltamethrine’s function as a repellant. The data I collected suggested that deltamethrine did not act as a repellant. This information may be important in the exploration of the re-infestation phenomenon, and affect the decision to continue with the current control methods.

Though the experiment targeted a very specific aspect of the Chagas transmission cycle, I learned a great deal about other environmental factors contributing to the spread of disease. The unique forest ecosystem, which provides a habitat for the disease vectors, experiences heavy logging. Both commercial and local actors contribute to this rapid deforestation. The forest provides indigenous populations with their only source of firewood. Many of the disease vectors are introduced into human communities when this firewood is carried into close proximity. As a result, I came to understand that to comprehensively control the disease, it must be placed it in the greater environmental context.

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Signaling Behavior and Parental Care in Courting Male Three-Spine Stickleback
Tse Yang Lim, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '11

The three-spine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, has for decades been used as a model organism for behavioural studies thanks to its complex mating behaviour. Male stickleback construct a nest and then perform elaborate courtship rituals, involving prominent displaying of their bright red mating colouration, to attract females. Females spawn in the nests and leave; the males are left to fertilise and care for the eggs, by guarding them from predators, fanning them, etc.

Male courtship in stickleback is a form of sexual signalling. It is not known whether male signalling is honest, i.e. a reliable indicator of the direct (genetic) and indirect (e.g. parental care) benefits a male will provide as a potential mate and parent. This question is highly relevant to the study of sexual selection. The honesty of signalling affects the ability of females to choose high quality mates, which has ramifications for conflict between the sexes and may affect the structure of a species' entire mating system. The maintenance of honest signalling also has implications for the evolution of male ornament and female choice.

This summer, I spent several weeks starting a six-month long experiment to investigate this issue, under the supervision of Dr Suzanne Alonzo (E&EB) and her PhD student Natasha Kelly. The key to this experiment is controlling the condition of males through diet manipulation, and observing the effects of condition on both signalling and parental care to determine if any correlation exists. As far as we are aware, a manipulative experiment of this nature has never been carried out on stickleback before, so this experiment may provide strong new evidence for any correlation.

In order to carry out this experiment, an entire generation of fish has to be raised in the laboratory under controlled conditions, from eggs to sexual maturity. The main part of the summer’s work was spent collecting fish from our field site in the Sechelt Peninsula, British Columbia, and artificially crossing them to produce eggs, which were then raised in the laboratory. We also attempted to take some preliminary behavioural observations in the field.

Note that as the stickleback take 3 months or more to reach sexual maturity, the actual behavioural observations in the laboratory have not yet been carried out; diet and condition manipulation is only just starting at the time of this writing. There is thus no data yet available. I will be continuing to work with Natasha and Dr Alonzo over the fall semester through when the fish are ready for observation; results will therefore start to be available later in the fall. Existing field studies indicate that signalling in G. aculeatus may not, in fact, be honest (i.e. signalling effort and parental care in males are not positively correlated). However, the very reason for our experiment is the existence of many confounding factors affecting these field observations; so it is difficult to predict based on field studies which way our results will turn out.

While much work still remains to be done on this project, my summer experience doing fieldwork in Canada was an extremely fruitful experience in itself. I developed a useful set of fish handling, dissection and catching skills that could be utilised in future research (and is important to the rest of this project). I also experienced firsthand several of the difficulties associated with fieldwork – including having to deal with unexpected bad weather, the complications arising from moving live samples across long distances and international borders, and the constraints of working on a schedule which the study organisms do not necessarily follow (as we discovered several times when we attempted to conduct field observations on nesting males, only to find none of the males in the lakes were nesting yet). Spending time with experienced stickleback researchers familiar with the field sites also yielded some interesting and disturbing observations – for instance that the timing of the sticklebacks’ breeding season seemed to be changing (possibly due to changing weather patterns), or that an apparent desynchronisation of breeding timing was decreasing the mating success of the fish, a bad sign for the future of the population.

This exciting summer experience would not have been possible without the support of the Yale Environmental Summer Internship programme, for which I am immensely grateful to them. I greatly enjoy doing biological fieldwork, and the internship allowed me to combine that with my interest in animal behaviour in a way that few other programmes at Yale allow. I would highly recommend this programme not only for anyone interested in environmental work, but also anyone who wants to do summer research on ecology, behavioural ecology or evolutionary biology.

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Conservation Grasslands and BioEnergy: How to Sustainably Produce Bioenergy from Conservation Land in Southeastern Minnesota
Davis Lindsey, Environmental Studies '09

For my Environmental Studies Internship Award, I spent 8 weeks in Minneapolis, Minnesota and worked with ecologist Joe Fargione and the Nature Conservancy.  In Fargione’s paper “Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt,” he poses future sustainable biofuel production from the grasslands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to contradict current unsustainable energy practices from corn.  Fargione also correlates the increase in corn ethanol production, and the greater demand for corn in the U.S. to recent mass conversions of CRP land to cropland.  As a result, he calculates a potential “biofuel carbon debt,” or carbon dioxide calculation, from the conversion of grassland to agricultural production.  Consequently, I decided to conduct open ended interviews with landowners of the Conservation Reserve Program to collect data for my senior thesis.  I hoped to correlate people’s interests in the Conservation Reserve Program to their willingness to participate in bioenergy projects.  Additionally, I aimed to find a more specific carbon calculation based on refusal to reenroll in CRP. 

I spent my summer conducting field research in Southeast Minnesota.  I targeted SE Minnesota because of the recent construction of a Cogeneration Power Plant called Koda Energy which hopes to use grasslands and other products to power its plant.  Koda Energy, located on site with an established malting company, hopes to use malting byproducts, wood waste, and grassland to fuel the malting facility and a nearby Indian reservation 365 days of the year.  Consequently, I targeted CRP landowners within a 50 mile radius of the plant. 

After spending the first two weeks collecting information on CRP and searching for contacts of CRP landowners in the 4 counties around the plant, I finally persuaded the state FSA office to give me names and addresses of CRP landowners in the 4 counties: Carver, Scott, Sibley, and Lesueur.  Thankful for my obnoxious persistence, I began to realize the heavy governmental regulations on the Conservation Reserve Program and other governmental privacy endeavors that make field research difficult.

In the meantime, I had created a survey that would serve as a guide during my interviews.  With help from Joe Fargione and other associates in the Nature Conservancy, I posed questions such as: “How much CRP do you have? When does your CRP expire? When your CRP expires, will you reenroll it into grassland? If not, what payment would you want to keep it in grassland? Why did you enroll into CRP? What aspect of CRP do you value the most? Would you be interested in harvesting your CRP grassland for bioenergy? What payment would you demand to breach such an endeavor?”
 
I randomly selected a pool of participants and after looking through several phonebooks for their numbers, I began cold calling to schedule interviews.  By the end of my research, I conducted 50 open ended interviews.  Because I had to cold call my interviewees, there is some bias in my responses.  I also sent out a survey to 750 out of the 1,250 CRP landowners in the four counties, asking similar questions to my open ended interviews.  My hope was to get a more exact number of CRP landowners not reenrolling the program.  I have received a 25% response rate. 

After conducting my interviews, I recognized that the majority of the people interested in harvesting their grassland for bioenergy were the people who had a wildlife intent with their CRP land.  The CRP landowners who mostly valued wildlife for hunting or aesthetic purposes also tended to have larger tracks of grassland, less concern for economics, more educated, and greater knowledge for future bioenergy initiatives.  The people less interested in harvesting grasslands for bioenergy were usually enrolled in CRP for economic reasons and tended to be the average farmer in the area.  It is also important to note that many were contracted to a nearby corn ethanol plant within 30 miles of their farm. 

In addition to conducting interviews with CRP participants, I also interviewed local NGOs, government officials, and biofuel operators.  Some of these people included wildlife experts from Pheasants Forever and the Department of Natural Resources; biofuels experts at the Department of Natural Resources and local Ethanol plant; and policymakers in Washington D.C. such as Minnesotan Congressman and the foremost policymaker of CRP. 

In conclusion, my research and senior thesis work was a very valuable experience.  I got to spend my days with rural farmers and wildlife enthusiasts.  I spoke to them about all walks of life and learned a lot about myself and rural, farming communities.  I also got to spend most days walking around landscapes and observing grass and prairie lands which had great future energy potential.  I am contemplating to continue my research in grassland heavy areas such as the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri to broaden my research pool and help initiate future policy incentives for conservation grassland programs for bioenergy. From a broader scope, my research has provided me with valuable experience in the alternative energy field that I hope to pursue as a career. 

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Intraspecific Variation Across a Landscape of Isolated Landlocked Alewife Populations
Elizabeth Mandeville, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '09

Natural populations of a single species are not continuous and uniform across the entirety of their range; instead, populations exist in a geographic mosaic, where ecological variation between sites corresponds to phenotypic diversification of populations. The concept of an adaptive landscape has been suggested to explain this variation, since it suggests that there is no single fitness peak (and thus no single “best” morphology) for a species. In the adaptive landscape model, each individual population across a variable landscape moves to a different peak in the adaptive landscape. Thompson, Benkman, and others have suggested that the geographic mosaic of variation is driven in a large part by coevolution of coexisting taxa.

There is ample evidence that alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus, fish) operate as a keystone species in lakes, radically restructuring the zooplankton prey community upon introduction (seasonal or permanent) to a system. The alewives’ disproportionate ecological impact as keystone predators changes their surroundings and resource availability to the point where the alewives’ own ecological effect impacts subsequent alewife evolution. Different zooplankton communities introduce differing selection pressures on alewives in different populations. These altered selection pressures in turn affect alewife evolution, creating an eco-evolutionary feedback. Since morphological traits related to feeding are both easily measurable and likely to be sensitive to changes in the size of zooplankton prey available to the alewives, comparison of these traits form the backbone of my study.

We wished to learn how population-level intraspecific variation (of both physical and ecological traits) in Alosa has shaped the variable evolution of nearby but genetically isolated populations. The important factor here is that the strength of the alewife impact, and therefore of the eco-evolutionary feedback, will most likely vary across the landscape in a geographic mosaic. The question I address is:
How does intraspecific variation between landlocked alewife populations affect ecological variation, and to what extent does the strength of eco-evolutionary feedbacks vary across the landscape?

I hypothesized that morphological variation in different populations of landlocked alewives corresponds to ecological variation in the lakes, and that there will also be considerable variation in the strength of the link between ecology and evolution of these fish.

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Yale Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Water Project: Phase II Implementation & Phase III Assessment
Elizabeth Marshman, Biomedical Engineering '10

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Yale International Bulldogs Program: Internship with the Secretariat UN Convention on Biodiversity-Technology
Julia Meisel, Environmental Studies '10

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is one of the three UN Conventions signed as a result of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.  Since then, 191 countries have ratified this binding agreement that aims to conserve biological diversity and promote its sustainable use.

My internship (through the International Bulldogs program) was at the Convention’s Secretariat.  The Secretariat, located in Montreal, Canada, supports the role of the CBD, coordinates with other international bodies and organizes the meetings and workings of the Conferences of the Parties.  My internship dealt specifically with the program of Technology Transfer.

The objectives of the Convention are “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.”  In order to achieve these objectives, countries must be able to access and transfer environmentally-friendly technologies that can help protect and conserve biodiversity.

One component of the program of technology transfer is the CBD’s information database.  The CBD cannot hope to database every technology related to biodiversity, but in combination with interoperability projects with other organizations, the database can serve as a resource to direct Parties to technologies that they seek.  One of my main projects was adding technologies to the database.

The technologies appropriate for the database are wide-ranging.  The most important points are that they be specific, adoptable technologies and that they protect and conserve biodiversity.  With respect to the former, this would exclude, for example, news articles mentioning a forthcoming technology that provide no valuable direction to potential adopters.  It also excludes technologies that are evolving very rapidly and will quickly be replaced by better versions.  The latter point, about biodiversity, serves to distinguish these technologies from generally “environmentally friendly” technologies.  For example, a group such as the Food and Agriculture Organization is a source of many sustainable technologies for increasing food production.  However, a narrow focus on increasing production might run counter to protecting biodiversity, as in the case of a hybrid crop variety that would be adopted to the exclusion of native crop species.

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The Effects of Wetland Drainage and Restoration on Endangered Suckerfish in the Klamath River Basin: Internship with The Nature Conservancy
Ariel Patashnik, Environmental Studies '09

This summer I spent two months in Klamath Falls, Oregon interning with The Nature Conservancy. I was working on a sampling project aimed at measuring the habitat use of two species of endangered fish, the Lost River sucker and the shortnose sucker.  The plight of the suckers came into the public eye in 2001, when a Biological Opinion by the Fish and Wildlife Service warned that low water levels caused by intensive irrigation would threaten the survival of the species, and a battle over irrigation ensued.

The dust has settled somewhat since then, but serious concerns about water in the Klamath Basin and the fate of the suckers remain.  The Nature Conservancy has worked with state and federal agencies as well as private companies to purchase and restore the Williamson River Delta Preserve, an area that  historically had been wetland (which is crucial nursery habitat for suckers), but was drained and dyked for farming in the 1940s.  In October 2007, habitat restoration began with levee breaches to reinundate part of the delta.  My work this summer was to help monitor the larval fish using this new habitat.

The basic questions that The Nature Conservancy’s fish sampling effort is trying to answer is whether endangered suckers are successfully rearing in the restored delta, and what types of habitat within the delta they prefer.  Sampling has been going on for several years at two test-restoration sites in the preserve and at one site on the shore of Upper Klamath Lake.  We continued sampling at these sites, but every other week sampled exclusively in the newly restored area.  Once the data has been organized, it will be interesting to see how sucker abundance, length, and gut fullness compares between the new habitat, the test restoration sites, and the lake site.  It will also be valuable to compare this data to results from previous years to see if there is any discernable effect of the new habitat on, for example, the proportion of suckers found at the lake site.  Our findings about the preference of suckers for different habitat types (deep, shallow, vegetated, non-vegetated) will be important as well, because more solid data is needed on the ecology of larval suckers.

In addition to fish sampling four days a week, I was able to do my own research into the history of the sucker/water controversy in the Basin.  I also learned a lot about the fascinating process by which The Nature Conservancy was able to begin its restoration project.  It wasn’t until the end of the summer that I realized how helpful it had been to actually be on location in Klamath Falls and immerse myself in this particular conservation issue.  I will continue to investigate the history and status of the suckers for my senior project, and will certainly always have soft spot in my heart for the two species.  I would absolutely recommend an internship like this to students who are thinking about pursuing an internship to gain fieldwork experience.  I had never done anything in the field before, and it was wonderful; I really became invested in the conservation effort.  I can’t wait to get my hands on our data!

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Promoting Sustainable Management of Forest Resources by Incorporating Analog Forest Methods into Neighboring Farms: Internship with the Monte Saino Natural Resource Conservation Center
Jonathan Russell, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '11

With the help of the Environmental Studies Summer Fellowship, I worked for 2 months this summer as part of volunteer group on a conservation project in the coastal Esmeraldas province of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian-based conservation group Ecociencia sponsored the volunteer program as one of multiple projects across the country. I lived and worked at the Monte Saino Reserve, a small section of remaining coastal rainforest on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador. The reserve sits at the intersection of two ecosystems known for their biodiversity and abundance of endemic species, specifically the heavily intervened “El Chocó” region that runs through Coastal Ecuador. It is uniquely positioned to have a dramatic impact on the conservation of one of the world’s ecological “hotspots.”        

Monte Saino is working to build this sustainable model in a variety of ways. Specifically, the project is trying to regenerate forest cover by reintroducing native fruit species to partially or heavily intervened areas.  The main problem with destructive agricultural practices is the tendency to clear the natural biodiversity and replace it with a profitable monoculture. Not only is this damaging to the local ecosystem, it is also done in direct contradiction to the evolution of cacao, which has evolved to grow in the shade of the rainforest. On the Reserve, a variety of fruit tree species including Borajo, Calade, Cocoa, Tagua that are native to the coastal rainforest. With the introduction of these species, the project has begun to build layers of shade using tree species that have themselves inherent value. In this way, the project extends beyond the cacao tree and seeks to integrate a large array of alternative methods to corroborate the economy of the local community. Seeds from the Tagua tree – nicknamed vegetable ivory – are widely used in handicrafts. Certain seeds can be harvested, used, and sold each year for roughly $30, while the timber of the respective tree might have only yielded $10 in profit. Thus, the Monte Saino project focus on ways to introduce new methods of cultivation to local community that are both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable.

What I found most encouraging about this project was its approach to interacting with the community of local farmers. The essence of the interaction was not “Your ways are wrong, let us show you how to farm correctly.” This would be immediately disagreeable, disengaging, distancing to a community of prideful farmers. Instead, the approach of Monte Saino was to build a successful cacao farm, reach out and invite local farmers to visit and participate in workshops. If they liked what they saw, the project would go out of its way to help the farmer and his farm, bringing seeds, planting trees, building nurseries. The biologists were brilliant in this respect, to acknowledge that conservation is not a stationary or solitary thing, but instead must thrive and spread to be successful.

This experience has been invaluable to me and I would immediately recommend this exceedingly well run program at the Monte Saino Natural Resource Conservation Center to all of my fellow students, especially those interested in Environmental Studies, Forestry, and Biology. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the Environmental Studies Department for their support in funding my experience this summer. It was so phenomenal to live and experience an entirely different culture and environment for 8 weeks. I learned so much from the people and plants I worked with and lived among. It is an experience unlike any other. It would not have been possible without your generosity and the course of my education and life will be greatly influenced by my time in Ecuador.

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Internationalization and the Canadian Boreal Conservation Campaign with Pew Charitable Trusts
Irene Scher, Environmental Studies '09

My summer research was an attempt to determine why recent protections in Canada’s Boreal Forest have been enacted, and to understand the role of transnational actors from the US (primarily) in these recent protections. My research question was: “Despite international and domestic pressure on Canadian policy makers and firms to increase resource extraction from the Canadian Boreal Forest, why has the number of strictly protected and certified areas in the Boreal increased dramatically over the last decade?”  I spent my summer working in the International Boreal Conservation Campaign’s  (IBCC) Seattle office. My funds from the summer internship program allowed me to travel to Ontario and Vancouver in order to meet with knowledgeable people about my research. I met with leaders in the ENGO community, consultants to the ENGO community, Government officials in Canada, and an industry official to try to obtain a wide and balanced range of data with which to analyze my question through extended personal interviews.

I started out with the hypothesis that transnational actors were primarily responsible for recent land protections in Canada’s Boreal Forest. I initially hypothesized that these protections could be explained by “Internationalization,” a framework that describes the processes by which transnational actors influence domestic policy changes (Bernstein and Cashore, 2000).  According to the framework, internationalization occurs via four pathways: market dependence, international rules, international norms, and access to the domestic policy making process. My research this summer has shown me that the role of a transnational influence varies from one protection to the next, in kind and measure.
My interviews unveiled many interesting facts and new layers of complexity to my research. The new information that has become available to me has forced me to question the assumptions inherent in my research design, and have broadened my understanding of how the various internationalization pathways can affect change across borders.  For example, I assumed that the market dependence pathway could explain recent Forest Stewardship Council protections in Canada because campaigns in the US would affect the purchasing habits of US consumers, leading them away from Canadian products.  While this has some truth, the Market Dependence pathway also has a weighty effect on policy. The Canadian Government wants to protect the forest products industry in Canada, and help it to continue its lucrative trade agreements with the US. As such, when foreign investors become uncertain about the environmental sustainability of Canadian forest products sector, the government may issue new conservation initiatives in order to increase foreign investor confidence in Canadian domestic markets. I have made similar progress on understanding the way in which other pathways of transnational change have affected policy changes in Canada.

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Environmental Policy and Field Biology Research in Patagonia: Internships with Global Vision Internation and Fundacion Bioandina Argentina
Matthew Smith, Physics '10

I set out this summer to explore environmental policy in northern Patagonia, especially around the proactive conservation of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus).  I first participated in the condor liberation efforts of a local Argentine organization, Fundación Bioandina Argentina, to reintroduce the condor to the Patagonian coast, and then I volunteered with a British NGO, Global Vision International, helping local scientists conduct research in the Andes.  During my eight week stay, I aimed to gain experience conducting field biology research, to examine the policy structure of cooperative conservation in Patagonia, to look at the perspectives of resident and indigenous populations in the conservation areas, and to improve my Spanish.

My first two weeks with FBA in Sierra Paileman near San Antonio Oeste found me bouncing around in a dilapidated pick-up with the other volunteer, picking up dead sheep to shoulder up to the top of the sierra, or monitoring condor activity using a radio transmitter.  Arguably the largest flying bird, the Andean condor can live as long as 65 or 70 years, but only lays an egg every three or four, so the population is reasonably vulnerable.  The birds once inhabited northern Argentina and much of Patagonia, but have retreated toward the mountains and become extinct on the coast.  The juveniles released on the coast are tracked using radio markers clipped on the wings.  Because the last liberation took place almost a year before, I only encountered two birds (once as close as five feet!), but still fell into the project’s routine.

With FBA I gained a truly local perspective on the conservation effort.  Much of my work involved interacting with the neighboring estancias, where we got supplies for ourselves and the condors, news, and often dinner in the form of delicious authentic asados.  Many of the families were Mapuche Indian.  The help of these generous people was crucial to the success of the liberation project.
Directly east in the southern Andes, I joined GVI’s expedition where we collected data to help Argentine condor expert Sergio Lambertucci anticipate the plight of the main South American condor population.  The research consisted of censuses at condoreras, or roosts, dramatic jagged cliff faces where dozens of the birds would unite overnight.  We also walked parallel transects, counting all raptors we saw along the way.  The transects served to examine the influence of the invading black vultures (Coragyps atratus)on the condor population.  Though much smaller, black vultures out-compete condors and increasing human influence has brought them in droves.  The condors also face danger from lead poisoning, poisoned animals intended to kill pumas, and locals that incorrectly assume that condors prey on their livestock.

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French Women Don’t Get Fat or Do They?: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Policies Designed to Address Environmental Determinants of Obesity with the French National Institute of Medical Research
Laura Zatz, Environmental Studies '09

This summer, I spent 9 weeks in Paris, France. Since France has one of the lowest rates of obesity, despite a diet famous for “unhealthy” foods, such as wine, bread and cheese, I was interested in exploring cultural differences regarding obesity and the food environment. The primary focus of my project was to examine the regulation of food marketing in France and compare it to regulations in the United States. I wanted to determine the factors that facilitated the enactment of stricter regulations in France and compare these factors to the barriers which exist in America.

During my stay, I had several objectives: improving my conversational fluency; studying the French culture; investigating policies designed to address obesity; and, examining the food environment. I used various methods to accomplish these objectives: sociology courses with French faculty; observation of the food environment; the collection of food advertisements; and, daily interactions with French citizens. Other data came from informant interviews that I conducted with French students, university professors, adults, a researcher from INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherché médicale) (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), and program managers from the EPODE obesity prevention program (Ensemble prévenons l’obésité des enfants), (Preventing Child Obesity Together).

I noticed several important cultural differences which may contribute to a lower prevalence of obesity in France. For the French, the meal is a sacred ritual that is guided by specific rules. Compared to other European nations and the United States, the French have one of the most regulated eating styles—an eating style that is inherently linked to the commensality of meals. The French are willing to accept regulatory measures to address obesity because the rituals surrounding food are critical to the French identity. The universalistic nature of French society is another important factor affecting attitudes towards obesity policy. I hypothesize that the absence of a strong lobbying presence in France is one of the main reasons that the French government was able to enact restrictions on food marketing.

Immersing myself in the French culture helped me to identify many differences between American, French, and European cultures. While I learned a lot about the French people, I also learned a lot about myself and the problems of conducting international research. It was more difficult than I had imagined coordinating international research opportunities, and unexpected events affected well thought-out plans. I am extremely grateful to the Environmental Studies Summer Internship Program for providing me with the opportunity to research in France this summer. This research provided me with a solid foundation from which to begin my senior thesis. Furthermore, I now have established research contacts in France, which will be valuable for future collaborative efforts. I hope to continue exploring this topic by helping with a 2-year YSPH study which aims to examine public opinion about obesity, government regulation and media portrayal of the obesity epidemic. I also plant to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship after the completion of my Master’s program so that I can continue researching with Mr. Basile Chaix at INSERM.

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