{"id":962,"date":"2013-06-06T10:43:03","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T15:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/?page_id=962"},"modified":"2013-12-19T13:37:25","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T19:37:25","slug":"march-2013-volume-11-issue-6-biomass","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/biomass-newsletter\/march-2013\/march-2013-volume-11-issue-6-biomass\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2013 Volume 11 Issue 6 Biomass"},"content":{"rendered":"
Contents<\/h5>\n

Senior Reflection – Erin Frankson<\/a><\/p>\n

Natural Lands Winter Photo Contest Winners<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior Reflection – David Skiba<\/a><\/p>\n

Climate, Phenology and the Natural Lands<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to frontpage<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Senior Reflection<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/a> By Erin Frankson ’13\"frankson\"While some students come to St. Olaf with a clear career goal in mind, I arrived at St. Olaf with little idea of what I wanted to do with my degree after I graduated.\u00a0 I knew that I wanted to major in biology; but beyond that, I had few plans.\u00a0 During the course of my study at St. Olaf, I experimented with several different routes and paths in the Biology Major.\u00a0 And now, I think I finally have a plan that satisfies me. While the process has been long and complex, it has taught me a great deal about myself.\u00a0 Ultimately, I am deeply thankful for the individuals and organizations both on and off of campus that have made my journey in biology such a fulfilling experience.I began my freshman year taking courses in chemistry, and while it came naturally to me, I didn\u2019t especially enjoy it.\u00a0 It was such a relief when I finally got to take my first biology course.\u00a0 No longer did I have to worry about pre-labs, calculations, or unpronounceable chemicals.\u00a0 As freshman year started to wind down, I began looking for summer job opportunities. I applied for several positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but was turned down.\u00a0 I became frustrated at the fact that I was highly unqualified for most of the positions out there.\u00a0 However, I was determined to find a job.\u00a0 I e-mailed every single family friend and neighbor who I could think of asking for advice on how to land a job in science.\u00a0 And luckily for me, I came across a friend of a friend who worked in the UW-Agronomy Department.\u00a0 Although he said the work wouldn\u2019t be glamorous, he offered me a job in his corn breeding lab for the summer.\u00a0 Finally, I had my foot in the door.I spent a great deal of that summer in the cornfield sweating to death and getting covered in pollen.\u00a0 However, I also got to learn about the process of corn breeding and had the opportunity to interact with numerous scientists who were working in genetics and crop science.\u00a0 \u00a0The job was my first foray into the field of real world science.\u00a0 And after that summer in the cornfields, I was hooked.I spent the next two summers participating in REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Programs at Iowa State University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.\u00a0 While I enjoyed the process of conducting research and collaborating with other scientists, I left the experiences feeling unsatisfied.\u00a0 I realized that I needed more direct interaction with people than this research offered me.\u00a0 So, this past year, I decided to channel my passion for biology into a new career path: teaching.I have wanted to become a teacher ever since I was in third grade.\u00a0 However, as I entered middle and high school, my dream of teaching got pushed aside as I encountered new subjects that I enjoyed.\u00a0 Ultimately, I am thrilled with my decision to return to teaching and I look forward to the idea of spending the rest of my life educating America\u2019s future generation of scientists.\u00a0 I have had some amazing professors during my time here at St. Olaf College.\u00a0 And I can only hope that one day I will be able to inspire students to learn about science, just as they inspired me.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Natural Lands Winter Photo Contest Winners<\/h5>\n

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Overall Winner – Kari Riley<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Close-up Winner – Erika Terwilliger<\/p>\n

\"landscape<\/p>\n

Landscape Winner – Kari Riley<\/p>\n

\"life<\/p>\n

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“Life in Winter” Aly Young<\/p>\n

\"snow<\/p>\n

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Snow Scene Winner – Dean Neuburger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Senior Reflection<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"David<\/a>By David Skiba ’13My journey as a biology major is one that began when I was quite young.\u00a0 I, like most children I would guess, was fascinated by the natural world.\u00a0 I would ask my mother to read me encyclopedias when it was time to fall asleep.\u00a0 I had a set of National Geographic VHS tapes that must have been worn thin by my constant rewinding.\u00a0 This fascination was only fed by the tall mountains and vast ocean that surrounded me while growing up in Seattle.\u00a0 The expansive forest behind my house became my favorite playground.\u00a0 Yet, somewhere along the way, in high school, I allowed myself to forget about how much I used to love natural systems.Coming to St. Olaf reinvigorated my love of biology in a dramatic and major way.\u00a0 This love was fostered by intelligent and helpful professors, the common love of the natural world I found in my peers, and my own spurring of it.\u00a0 The ability to customize the major to my own interests was something that I took great advantage of, most recently when I spent a semester in Australia.\u00a0 This semester was extremely formative in helping me decide what fields of biology I am most interested in, and a great example of what a St. Olaf education can provide.\u00a0 The ability to study the ecosystem I am most drawn to, coral reefs, on the Great Barrier Reef was an incredible privilege that few receive.\u00a0 In Australia I was able to see first-hand what I had only before seen in magazines and videos of exotic species.\u00a0 This connection to flora and fauna that I grew up being mesmerized by, created such a sense of purpose in what I have studied these past four years that it is hard to describe.\u00a0 I love studying the complex, yet innate, intertwining of living things; it gives me the rare sense of being able to describe how something is beautiful.Next year I plan to be begin\u00a0my Masters in\u00a0enology and viticulture at the University of California, Davis.\u00a0 Wine\u00a0is a place where I have found I can\u00a0combine my love of natural systems with my loves of conversations and\u00a0producing usable\u00a0items.\u00a0Thanks to my studies at St. Olaf through the biology department, I have found a life calling.\u00a0 I know that my work will always be easy if it involves the natural world.\u00a0 I get excited just thinking about how a system functions, how a species fits a niche, or how a sea star breathes.\u00a0 I want to know all I can about natural systems, and I have just begun down that road.\u00a0 St. Olaf provided me with an incredible head start.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Climate, Phenology and the Natural Lands<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
By Andrew Kaul ’13The large body of literature on trends in global climate change indicates that both globally and locally, climate patterns have changed since the turn of the 21st century.\u00a0 In Minnesota, one of the clear patterns scientists have observed is a shortening of winters, with higher average temperatures. Among a host of other interactions, climate change directly and seriously affects the timing of annual plant and animal life cycle events. Phenology is the study of these events and the change in their timing due to climate and seasonality. This discipline has been an important tool for documenting climate change to date, and has continued importance in the effort to predict what will happen in future years.In general, the primary climate drivers of phenological events are temperature, precipitation, and sunlight, but what exactly is affected by variation in these patterns? Many species in an ecosystem are highly co-evolved with others and are dependent on them for one or many ecological interactions. Climate change can alter phenology such that biological interactions including herbivory, competition, pollination, predation, and others are disrupted. In Minnesota, a major concern is the effect of climate on growing season length. With shorter winters and longer growing seasons, forests can sequester more carbon than before, and function as a negative feedback on climate trends resultant from atmospheric effects of rising carbon dioxide concentrations.Interestingly enough, we are in the tail end of a long and cold winter, perhaps one that will later be seen as an outlier in the trending changes Minnesota is experiencing. Data on a standout year such as this one can provide just as much, if not more information about how local flora and fauna are able to adapt to plasticity in climate, and thus phenology. On February 24th of 2012, the student naturalists observed leaves of false rue anemone sprouting up from the ground. On March 2, the big pond on the natural lands was thawed and mallards were feasting on algae and invertebrates. On March 30, eight different trees and herbs were noted to be producing active green leaves and shoots, with false rue anemone and bloodroot already producing flowers. As of today, March 21, 2013, the ground is covered in snow, the ambient air temperature is only 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and there is not a green plant to be found. When will the snow eventually melt and how far behind its \u201cnormal\u201d schedule will nature be? Will bees and flowers be asynchronous or be able to adjust? Will there be a mismatch in plant seed production and birds\u2019 nesting? The only way we can fully assess the effects of this long winter and late thaw is to collect detailed phenology data throughout the year.Fortunately, this is precisely what is occurring all over the state, nation, and even on a global scale. On the St. Olaf campus, each spring the student naturalists, faculty, and other curious students contribute to an open phenology observation board on the wall next to RNS 440. Additionally, ecology students conduct formal investigations into the phenology of specific species, the data from which are submitted to Project Budburst, a nationwide phenology database. Only time can tell what will happen this spring, but hopefully we can learn from it and use this valuable data to plan for a future where Minnesota likely experiences novel climatic patterns.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Contents Senior Reflection – Erin Frankson Natural Lands Winter Photo Contest Winners Senior Reflection – David Skiba Climate, Phenology and the Natural Lands Back to frontpage Senior Reflection By Erin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"parent":950,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-962","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/962\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}