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.
Page | 7 Clemson University – Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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/
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.