Robert F. Smith - Ecology Research, Outreach, & Education
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News about the Smith Ecology lab

The great thistle harvest of 2018

11/4/2018

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The field work for Brittany Lenze's research project on the effects of soil warming on the growth of Canada Thistle came to an end a little over 2 weeks ago when we harvested the plants that originally started out as rhizomes last June. This is the second phase of her research that included a greenhouse experiment last year. The preliminary results are, thus far, quite interesting. In addition to finding a potentially novel herbivore on this invasive plant species, we were able to demonstrate 1) that any system with pots above the ground won't mimic the amplitude of soil temperature variations seen in the surrounding soil and 2) that the the plastic sheeting (not temperature) resulted in increased plant biomass. We also found an interesting result (pictured to the right) where the roots of this species spread prolifically down through the pots, into the surrounding soil, and sprouted under the plastic. I am not an expert on this species, but our experience collecting rhizomes and the literature we reviewed suggested that root growth would be more modest. Great stuff!
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Congrats to my students who presented at the 2018 SUSQUEHANNA RIVER SYMPOSIUM

11/4/2018

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Brittany Lenze (Class of 2019, top) and Ruric Bowman (Class of 2020, bottom) presented their research on the effects of climate change on invasive plants and evolution of dispersal traits in stream insects at the 2018 Susquehanna River Symposium. While nobody brought home any awards, I was super proud of them both for putting together posters demonstrating their hypothesis driven, well thought-out research. I'm especially proud of Brittany whose Canada Thistle plots were harvested just a few days prior to the meeting. Learn more about the meeting HERE.
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piloting a white-tailed deer survey program to support student research

10/9/2018

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While I'm an entomologist at heart, I'm trained as an ecologist. Working at a small, primarily undergraduate institution, I find opportunities to work with great students who may not share my love of arthropods. For example, I'm piloting a long-term deer survey program as a means to support student interest in wildlife biology. Learn more about it on my Research page.
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Reducing Barriers to Teaching with R in Undergraduate Biology, a QUBES faculty Mentoring Network

8/26/2018

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I will be incorporating instruction on the R statistical program in my Fall 2018 Ecology course thanks to an opportunity to participate in the QUBES (Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis) Faculty Mentoring Network for 'Reducing Barriers to Teaching with R in Undergraduate Biology'. The ability to use the R statistical program is increasingly a requirement for undergraduate internships and employment in addition to being useful for undergraduate and graduate research. I'm excited to introduce this program to my students and hope to expand instruction on R at Lycoming College in the future.
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The 2018 summer field season is in full effect

7/14/2018

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We've been busy working on several projects this summer that include the second year of a student honors thesis work and the preliminary development of another undergraduate honors thesis. Ruric Bowman and Brittany Lenze are working this summer a research assistants with some additional help from new student Bailey Schwenk. We've been out catching adult insects in the Mosquito Creek watershed to determine if adult stream insects move into the forest canopy as adults and helping out on a bunch of other project examining forest communities and aquatic macroinvertebrates. The most exciting development is that Brittany Lenze's field experiment examining the effect of warming on Canada Thistle (and invasive plant species) is up and running. We'll be checking temperatures to be sure the black plastic is warming the soil as we hope, and we now have a full set of backup plants on the ready in case the thistles in the experiment fail to grow (which, itself, may be an important result). More to come as the field season moves along ...
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Congratulations to student presenters at the River symposium

11/21/2017

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Couldn't be more proud of my research students who presented posters of their summer research. They got great feedback, and it certainly helped my ego to hear my colleagues talk about how much they liked their posters. The entire CWI crew did a great job at the meeting.
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cwi at the Susquehanna River symposium

11/3/2017

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Several Lycoming students, including some from my lab, will be presenting work at the 12th annual Susquehanna River Symposium on November 10-11, 2017 at Bucknell University. The theme for this year's meeting is "The Spirit of Two Great Rivers: The Susquehanna and Delaware". Check out the details of the meeting HERE.
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    ​Here you'll find the latest news for the RFSmith ecology lab. Please contact me with any comments, questions, suggestions, or other thoughts about the activities of my lab.
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