John boat loaded up for an afternoon of water sampling and gillnet setting in
Southeastern CT.

Photograph provided by Lily Twining, Environmental Studies '11.

 

 

 

 


Environmental Summer Internships, 2009

Brandon Berger, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisors - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science) and Ron Smith (G&G)
Public Opinion and Renewable Energy Infrastructure: The Island of Culebra
(8 weeks, Culebra, Puerto Rico)

Jacob Berv, Molecular & Cellular Biology '10, Faculty Advisors - Gisella Caccone (E&EB) and Rick Prum (E&EB)
Genetic Differentiation of Avifauna Due to Climate Induced Geographic Isolation
(12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Christopher Chau, Environmental Studies and Psychology '10,John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science) and Glenn Schafe (Pyschology)
Environmental Sources of Carbon Monoxide and the Neurological Effects of Chronic Exposure in an Urban Setting (8 weeks, Shenzhen, China)

John Good, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Ellen Brennan-Galvin (F&ES)
Suburban Centers, Activity Nodes, Edge Cities: Transportation and Land Use Relationships in the Denver and Kansas City Metropolitan Areas
(4 weeks, Kansas City, KS and 4 weeks, Denver, CO).

Rachel Harris, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Cynthia Horan (Political Science)
Miami21: National Ideals Meet Local Demands in Urban Form (12 weeks, Miami, FL)

Kathy Hughes, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Oswald Schmitz (F&ES)
How Does Habitat Structural Complexity Influence the Strength of Predator Prey Interactions? (15 weeks, Yale Myers Forest, CT)

Brittney Kajdacsi, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology '11, Faculty Advisor - Gisella Caccone (E&EB)
Extinction may not be Forever: Rescuing Lonesome George Lineage
(8 weeks, New Haven, CT; 2 weeks, Galapagos)

William Kletter, Political Science '10, Faculty Advisor - Graeme Auld (Political Science)
Corporate Social Responsibility Asia - Bulldogs Program in Singapore
(8 weeks, Singapore)

Peter Lu, Economics '11, Faculty Advisor - Paula Resch (English)
The Economics of Sustainable Farming at the Bilsa Biological Station, Ecuador
(12 weeks, Ecuador)

Julia Lurie, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - J. Gustave Speth (F&ES)
Indian Youth Climate Network - Climate Solutions Project (8 weeks, New Delhi, India)

Nisa Marks, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology '10, Faculty Advisor - David Skelly (F&ES)
Gene Flow and Temperature Dependent Development in Wood Frogs
(16 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Julia Meisel, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
Yale Dining Services and Sustainable Food Project (12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Jennifer Pan, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - Rob Bailis (F&ES)
A Study on Algae Biofuel: Internship with the National Resources Defense Council
(10 weeks, New York, NY)

Maclovia Quintana, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - Melina Shannon-DiPietro (Yale Sustainable Food Project)
Practical Permaculture for Sustainable Farming and Gardening in New Mexico course at the Permaculture Institute (3 weeks, NM)

Matthew Ramlow, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - Mark Pagani (G&G)
Hydrology of the Palocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Aaron Reiss, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - James Scott (Political Science)
How Can Ecovillages Become More Accessible Living Options for U.S. Communities?
(3 weeks, India; 5 weeks, Ithaca, NY)

Christopher Shirley, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisors - Carol Carpenter (F&ES) and Sandra Luckow (Theater Studies)
Bike Collectives: A New Radical Model for Change (8 weeks, New York, NY)

Adrianne Smits, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology '10, Faculty Advisor - David Skelly (F&ES)
Urban/Suburban Proximity as a Possible Cause of Sexual Deformity in Amphibians
(12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Denise Soesilo, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - Thomas Graedel (F&ES)
Cell Phone Recycling in the European Union under the WEEE Directive
(12 weeks, Germany)

Peter Thompson, Undeclared '12, Faculty Advisor - David Post (E&EB)
Applying Eco-Evolutionary Mechanisms to the Morphology and Foraging Behavior of Bluegills in the Lakes of Southern New England
(12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Michele Trickey, Physics '10, Faculty Advisor - Ron Smith (G&G)
Precipitation Dynamics on the Dry Ecuadorian Coast (2 weeks, Ecuador)

Rebecca Trupin, International Studies '11, Faculty Advisors - Jordan Peccia (ENVE)
Pasha Moto: Biogas for Better Cities (10 weeks, Tanzania)

Cornelia (Lily) Twining, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - David Post (E&EB)
A Study in the Mechanism of Eco-evolutionary Feedback in Freshwater Systems
(12 weeks, New Haven, CT)

Chun Ying Wang, Environmental Studies '10, Faculty Advisor - John Wargo (F&ES and Political Science)
An Economic and Environmental Analysis of New York City Community Gardens
(10 weeks, New York, NY)

Dana Wu, Architecture '10, Faculty Advisor - Bimal Mendis (Architecture)
Rebuilding Sichuan Sustainably: Drawing Upon Vernacular Architecture and Landscape Strategies (8 weeks, China)

Jiaona Zhang, Economics '10, Faculty Advisor - Gordon Geballe (F&ES)
The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Green Energy Lending in Asia
(8 weeks, Beijing, China)

Charles Zhu, Environmental Studies '11, Faculty Advisor - Gordon Geballe (F&ES)
A Field Assessment of Chinese Motivations and Opinions Regarding Private Car Ownership and its Environmental Consequences (8 weeks, China)

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A Study in the Mechanism of Eco-evolutionary Feedback in Freshwater Systems
Cornelia (Lily) Twining, Environmental Studies '11

This summer the Environmental Studies Fellowship for Research and Study gave me the opportunity to work for the Post Lab in the Yale Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  The Post Lab under PI David Post, Yale professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, works on community level ecology and studies the mechanism of eco-evolutionary feedback in freshwater systems.  This entails looking at the effects that alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), a keystone species have on their environments.  To look at the effects that alewife have, the lab samples lakes without alewives, lakes with anadromous alewives that migrate back and forth from the ocean to spawn annually, and lakes with landlocked alewives that live in them year-round.  The different lake types are then compared to see what effect, if any, alewives have on the other organisms in the lake community.  Alewives are a keystone species, meaning that their presence or absence structures the rest of the lake food web.  The original work that the Post Lab worked on was based on Brooks and Dodson (1965) study of the interaction of alewife, a planktivorous fish, and the zooplankton community.  Their research is now expanding to include competition interactions between alewife and other planktivores, and predation interactions between larger piscivorous fish and alewife. 

I had great experience doing a broad array of tasks both out in the field around Southeastern Connecticut and inside the lab in OML.  In the field I participated in both core lake sampling and the 13-lake survey.  Core lake sampling consists of sampling six lakes every other week and is done year-round to establish a long-term baseline of data for the lab.  At each core lake we took water samples for chlorophyll and nutrient analysis, measured dissolved oxygen and temperature from the surface to the bottom of the lake, determined water clarity with a Secchi disk, took zooplankton hauls for identification and stable isotope analysis, and collected algae off of rocks for paraphyton analysis.  On the 13-lake survey we did all of the above during the afternoon daylight hours and also caught fish with gillnets, electroshocking and purse seining in the middle of the night.  Each fish caught was measured and many were also weighted, tissue-plugged for isotope analysis and stomach flushed to collect stomach contents. 

In addition to fieldwork, I also spent a lot of time in the lab learning to do the standard tasks that keep the lab running.  I entered lots of data that will now be analyzed and acid washed hundreds of plastic nutrient bottles that the lab will use throughout the year.  I also did chlorophyll analysis of the water samples we took and counted daphnia and chaoborus under the microscope. I felt like I developed very useful lab skills this summer that I can continue to use as I pursue my studies here at Yale and beyond.  However, the best part of my experience the fact that the research assistants, grad students and post-docs were all very excited about their research and were happy to explain anything and everything to curious undergrads!

 

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YALE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM

CHAIR, JOHN WARGO
DUS, PAUL SABIN
PROGRAM MANAGER, DEBBIE BROADWATER
Address: Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, Room G04, New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: (203) 432-9868
Fax: (203) 432-5442

 

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