Page | 1 Clemson University – Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science

Newsletter of The Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science, Clemson University (Summer 2014)

2014 Hobcaw Research Symposium

There are ten research scientists stationed at Hobcaw between the Clemson and University of

South Carolina labs. Over the last 5 years, the Baruch Foundation has approved about 80

research and academic projects with investigators from 31 different universities and

government agencies. That’s a lot of research!

To help the Hobcaw Research Community learn what everyone is doing, BICEFS and the

Hobcaw Foundation sponsored a research symposium on May 2 and invited everyone involved

in projects at the Barony to present their work. Response was tremendous! We had 30

presentations from scientists and students from 11 institutions. Topics ranged from trends in

fish and marsh bird populations, to carbon and nutrient cycles of coastal waters, to geology and

hydrology of the area, to customs in end-of-life commemoration, to science education. Dennis

Kyle traveled the farthest, coming from the University of South Florida to discuss his research

in collaboration with Isaure de Buron (College of Charleston) on fish blood fluke life cycles, a

project Dennis started somewhat by accident as a Clemson graduate student 30 years ago. John

Baden, one of the first Baruch Fellows, presented collaborative research on marsh vegetation

changes that he started in the late 1960s. Following the scientific presentations, short field trips

provided a chance for people to see the marsh and inlet systems at the USC Marine Lab,

abandoned rice fields, and Dr. Conner’s research plots in cypress swamps.

It may not be the first time an event like this was held at Hobcaw, but no one can remember the

last time. Feedback from the group was that this should be an annual event. In addition to

university and government scientists and students, we were happy to be joined by many of the

Hobcaw Foundation tour guides and volunteers. Together, the 80 of us all learned the answer

to, “Just what is going on in research at Hobcaw, anyway?”

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Summer has started!

It’s not just the temperatures that heat up in the summer, so does the level of activity at BICEFS. We

do not have many undergraduates involved in projects during the school year due to the distance from

campus, but summer brings students, and with them come a renewed energy at the Institute. This year

we have a bumper crop of student interns – 5. They are working to help revise and implement the forest

management plan on our Clemson-Pate property, and reconstruct the engineered wetland systems

behind our Bldg B. Attracting smart, motivated students this year was made far easier by having our

new John B. Harris Student Cottage (see last issue) and taking advantage of Clemson’s University

Professional Internship/Co-op (UPIC) program. UPIC pays half the students’ salary and helps place

students into internships that provide professional experience to build their careers. This year’s interns

are Trey Bailey, Logan Bell, Timothy Angermeier, Stanwood Partenheimer, and Ashleigh Hough. In

addition, we will also be hosting college and high school interns and they are Alexis Halyard, Ted

Murren, Chase Ison, Kathleen Geigley, Olivia Smithson, and Sam Short.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Dr. Anand Jayakaran for promotion to associate professor with tenure

Congratulations to Mr. Jun-Jian Wang for passing his qualifying exam and advancing to PhD

candidate

Congratulations to Amanda Voges, Binbin Li, Devin Schultze, Greg Edison, Hechu Zhu, Joshua

Hull, Renee Lyons – the student team of the Vanishing Firefly Project who received Honorable

Mention Award at the 10th

National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington DC on April 26-27, 2014.

Page | 3 Clemson University – Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science

2014 Vanishing Firefly

Project

Ready, set, glow! The annual Clemson University firefly census launched on May 31. The lightning

bug count will continue through the summer.

The census is part of Clemson University’s Vanishing Firefly Project that investigates the impact of

human activity on firefly populations. The researchers depend on “citizen scientists” to count the

fireflies and submit data via the website form or smartphone apps for Apple and Android. Participants

can view the “real time” data through a newly developed interaction map on the Clemson Firefly page

(http://maps.clemson.edu/firefly). For an overview of the project, there’s a YouTube video and the link

is http://youtu.be/hNWAOB1VD98. A new firefly field guideline can also be downloaded at

(http://firefly.clemson.edu/2014_Firefly_Field_Guide.pdf)

To keep up with the latest developments, follow:

Project site: http://www.clemson.edu/public/rec/baruch/firefly_project/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ClemsonFireflyproject

Twitter https://twitter.com/ClemsonFirefly

Exploring Rising Tides

in South Carolina

Under rising sea level and rapid urban expansion, low-lying coastal ecosystems along the

Southeastern US coast, from Texas to North Carolina, have been converting from freshwater

forested wetland to salt marsh or have been paved with concrete for housing development.

These forest-marsh and rural-urban transitions significantly alter vegetation compositions and

biogeochemical processes, eventually reducing the capacity of carbon sequestration and

deteriorating the soil and water quality of the coastal ecosystems.

In order to determine the impacts of these coastal changes, Drs. Alex Chow and William

Conner are collaborating with the EarthWatch Institute and are recruiting citizen scientists

worldwide to assist in their field studies in 2015. Citizen scientists will stay at Hobcaw Barony

to assist in field data collection, such as tagging and identifying tress, measuring water quality,

and counting the fireflies twinkling at night. By understanding these changes, the scientists can

recommend the best way to protect this critical wetland forest and others like it around the

world. Project site: http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/exploring-rising-tides-in-south-carolina#importance

Page | 4 Clemson University – Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science

Using Visualization to Help People Comprehend the Environmental Issues

By Dr. Bo Song

The value of visualization may best be summarized by the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Past, present, and future landscapes can be rendered as 3D views on a computer screen. Data contained in

histories or growth models can now be used to create scientifically valid representations of community

conditions. This helps us to have a clear vision of a dynamic community, both historically and prospectively.

The photorealism of this approach is maximized by including the following features, such as shrubs, herbs,

snags, logs, stumps (Fig. 1a and 1b), lakes (Figure 1c), roads (Figure 1a), and individual landmarks, such as a

power tower (Figure 1d).

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 1. Examples of visualization capability: a) snags and road; b) shrubs, herbs, snags, logs, stumps; c) a

lake; and d) a landmark, such as a power tower.

The following example illustrates our ability. Using 3D visualization, we can compare the forest from point to

point, before and after Hurricane Hugo (Figure 4). Three sets of animation stills are shown to compare the

damages in 1990 (one year after Hugo) to the exact same spot in 1976 (Figure 4I, II, and III). Because of

saltwater intrusion with the hurricane surge, many trees died (see the second column of Figure 4I, II, and III).

3D visualization allowed us to restore what this stand looked like historically, prior to the major disturbance.

1976 (Before hurricane Hugo) 1990 (After hurricane Hugo)

I

II

III

Figure 2. Comparison of Hurricane Hugo effect at Hobcaw Barony, SC. Three sets of animation stills

representing different views (I, II, and III) were shown to compare the damages in 1990, one year after Hugo in

1989, to the exact same spot in 1976, before Hugo.

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Our New Family Members

Christian Heaton

I got my BS in Environmental Science from USC in Columbia. I worked for the

SC Geological Survey as a Research Assistant after school. The study was on

sediment transport and isotopic tracking of sediment throughout the Broad River

basin. I am pursuing a MS degree in Forest Resources from Clemson University. I

am currently working on research for my master’s thesis with my advisor, Dr. Bo

Song. We are working on a long-term study to observe changes in species

composition and dominance in coastal forests that were damaged by Hurricane

Hugo. We will analyze the changes in forest structure using roughly twenty years

of data from fifty plots located throughout SC. This will help us to understand the

long-term effects that a catastrophic event like Hurricane Hugo can cause in forest

species composition.

Axel Acevedo Morales

I worked for APHIS-USDA in Puerto Rico, doing entomology lab work,

inspections in the airport and agricultural industries and entomology field work,

January-April 2012. Then I started my master’s program in forest resources at

Clemson University with Dr. Van Bloem. My thesis title is "Classification of tree

species leaf spectra from the Guanica Dry Forest using hyperspectral remote

sensing." I'm looking at how variations in leaf characteristics, like pigment

content, influence hyperspectral data in Guanica Forest in Puerto Rico. The forest

is a sub-tropical dry forest, and is one of the best preserved dry forests in the

Carribbean. It is home to 550 plant species from 85 families, 165 are species of

trees, 19 are endemic and 45 are in danger of extinction. The Guanica dry forest is

a state forest and is one of 20 core National Ecological Observatoty Network

(NEON) sites and also is classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Mary-Frances Rogers

I am originally from Walterboro, SC, and grew up spending my summers at Edisto

Beach, SC. Upon graduating from Clemson University with a B.S. in Biological

Sciences in 2010, I worked for Learning through Loggerheads, a science education

non-profit organization, and an ecotour company on Edisto Island, SC. In 2013, I

obtained a M.S. degree in Environmental Science from the University of Houston

at Clear Lake. I am in the Forest Resources Ph.D. program working under Dr.

Alex Chow on his USDA-NIFA grant investigating the impacts prescribed fires

have on coastal plain forest processes in terms of production of polyaromatic

hydrocarbons and dissolved black carbon. Additionally, we will examine

photochemical and biogeochemical processes from water samples collected in

watersheds located within the Francis Marion National Forest.

Josh Salter

I received my BS in Biology from Valdosta State University in 2006 while

monitoring gopher tortoise populations. I worked briefly as an intern for the Flint

Riverquarium where I dove with sturgeon and 70-lb striped bass daily. I also did

an internship with the Caldwell Zoo where I looked after birds and reptiles from

all over the world. My MS thesis was funded by a grant from GADNR to survey

blackbanded sunfish, topminnows, and pygmy sunfishes, and is entitled "Fish

Assemblage Structure in Lentic Vegetated Microhabitats in South Georgia.” I was

recently hired by Dr. Jamie Duberstein to assist with the Savannah Harbor

Expansion Project. My primary duties are collecting and analyzing vegetation and

hydrology data from Duberstein’s Savannah River and Dismal Swamp study sites,

but I will also be assisting with the research needs of Clemson Baruch

investigators wishing to use a 16’ outboard john boat for access their study sites.

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Logan Bell

My name is Logan Bell and I am from North Myrtle Beach, SC. I am a Forest

Resource Management major at Clemson University and I'm working as an intern

to reduce to the fuel load on the Wallace F. Pate Foundation Property.

Trey Bailey

I am a rising senior Forest Resource Management major at Clemson and I am from

Walterboro, SC. I am one of two forestry interns here at Baruch working on the

Clemson University Pate Foundation Property focusing on fuel reduction and

mitigation throughout the stand.

Alexis Halyard

Hello, I am Alexis Halyard – a rising junior at Yale University on the Pre-Med

track and majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. At school, I work in Dr.

Lieping Chen’s Immunobiology lab and I am actively involved with the Afro-

American Cultural Center – namely through Yale West Indian Students’

Organization and Yale Black Women’s Coalition. For the past month, I have been

in the Canary Islands, shadowing physicians there and practicing my Spanish.

However, my primary aim for my summer is to pursue research. Fortunately, Dr.

Chow has offered me a volunteer position within his lab and I look forward to

learning under his tutelage. As a Myrtle Beach native, I am beyond ecstatic about

the prospect of combining my love of my home region with my drive to explore

the realm of research, via the opportunity granted to me by Clemson’s Baruch

Institute.

My name is Chase Ison, I’m from

Greenville, SC, and love getting

outside and running, mountain

biking, and kayaking.

My name is Kathleen Geigley, I am

a rising senior at the Governor’s

School for Science and

Mathematics, and I am interested in

studying conservation and business.

My name is Olivia Smithson, I am

a rising senior at the Governor

School for Science and

Mathematics, and I am interested in

a career in biology.

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Fire Ecology Course by Mary-Frances Rogers

The POLYCOM (Smart) classroom is a useful resource that allows us to actively learn and participate

in Dr. Wang’s FOR 812 fire ecology course while not being located on campus. The course provides

information on the interaction between fire and ecosystems in terms of structure, composition, and

function. Intermittently, we travel to campus to partake in labs, which include learning how to conduct

fuel surveys, observing the effects of fire on vegetation, and learning to use equipment and software

related to measuring and modeling prescribed fires.

Marsh Evaluation by Jamie Duberstein

This past winter and spring have been primarily

dedicated to the Savannah River vegetation monitoring

project, a component in the Army Corps of Engineers

Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP). Plans for

SHEP involve deepening the harbor shipping channel

and constructing several flow diversion features within

the river. The SHEP permit requires monitoring the

fresh and oligohaline wetlands located within the

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, located

immediately upstream of the harbor. Data collected in

2014 will document the ‘pre-development’ phase of

SHEP, and Army Corps plans call for a four year

during construction’ phase of data collection.

In January an all-star team consisting of Dr. William Conner (Clemson University), Dr. Wiley Kitchens

(University of Florida), Dr. Zach Welch (South Florida Water Management District), and I did a reconnaissance

of the Savannah River National Wildlife Refuge marshes. We established 12 marsh areas that will be

monitored, and outlined an additional three forested areas to be more precisely located and inventoried later this

summer. All monitoring areas will be outfitted with water monitoring stations (Fig. 1) that have sensors to

record belowground/root zone salinity, surface/floodwater salinity, and water depth on an hourly basis. Water

monitoring stations were deployed to marsh areas in April 2014, with the remaining (forested area) stations to

be deployed this summer. Marsh and forest vegetation data will be used in community analyses, with

communities correlated to belowground salinity and flood depth; relationships between surface water salinity

and porewater (belowground) salinity will also advance. Finally, I have the pleasure of introducing Josh Salter,

the technician we hired in May 2014. Please see the New Family Members section of this newsletter for more

information about Josh, and extend a warm BICEFS welcome to him and his wife.

Job Shadow by Brian Williams

Ryan and I took part in the Work Shadow program through the Waccamaw Middle School. We worked with a

student named Deseray showing her some of the things our job entails. She got to walk along the boardwalks at

both Strawberry Swamp and at USC, which let her see the different environments on the property. We

explained some of the monthly work such as collecting leaf litter and measuring tree bands. She got to see the

litter traps in the field along with the bands around the trees and how they are measured. I also showed her

some examples of landscape visualization and GIS work. We talked about how math and statistics were needed

to understand and analyze data after it is collected in the field. Leah was able to take Deseray through the lab

and show her the details of working there.

Page | 8 Clemson University – Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science

Student Opportunities

PhD Research Assistantship – The Biogeochemistry and Environmental Quality Research Group

(http://people.clemson.edu/~ACHOW/) is seeking two highly motivated PhD candidates to participate

in a project recently funded by the Joint Fire Science Program to study impacts of forest fire on

drinking water quality. For further information regarding this position please contact Dr. Alex Chow

via email at achow@clemson.edu.

PhD Research Assistantship – The Wetland Ecology group is seeking one highly motivated PhD

candidates to participate in a project recently funded by USGS to study impacts of sea level rise on

coastal wetlands. For further information regarding this position please contact Dr. William Conner via

email at wconner@clemson.edu.

Smart classroom with smart teacher and

smart students

Director: Skip J. Van Bloem

Editor: Alex Chow

Cartoon: Tusn-Lam (Kelvin) Cheah (Waccamaw High School)

Contributors (listed as alphabetically by surname): Alex Chow,

William Conner, Jamie Duberstein, Mary-Frances Rogers, Bo

Song, Brian Williams, Skip J. Van Bloem

Contact Information

Mailing Address: PO Box 596, Georgetown, SC 29442

Phone: 843-546-1013

Fax: 843-546-6296

Web Site

http://www.clemson.edu/public/rec/baruch/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/bicefs

Physical Address:

Hwy 17 North – 130 Heriot Road

Georgetown, SC 29440

Direction:

From Myrtle Beach, take Highway 17 south about 35 miles.

Hobcaw Barony will be on the left one mile past DeBordieu.

From Georgetown, take Highway 17 north, Hobcaw Barony will

be on the right one mile out of Georgetown.