Embedded Files
2025-06-04 - Hotchkiss Lab & Collaborators at SUSE & SFS in Puerto Rico
2025-06-04 - Hotchkiss Lab & Collaborators at SUSE & SFS in Puerto Rico
Several members of our research group had the opportunity to attend the 7th Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE) and the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) in May 2025. Erin Hotchkiss co-led a SUSE workshop on modeling ecosystem metabolism in urban waterways with Dr. Jonny Behrens, presented results on CO2 dynamics in streams at SFS, and introduced the 2025-2030 SFS Strategic Plan at the SFS Members Business Lunch as a representative and incoming co-chair of the Long-Range Planning Committee. Carla López Lloreda helped organize the SFS meeting, co-chaired Spanish lightning talk sessions that were open to the public, and presented results from her work on carbon emissions from coastal Puerto Rican freshwater wetlands as a poster and a Spanish lightning talk. Katherine Pérez Rivera led the development of and co-chaired the Spanish lightning talk sessions, helped organize the SFS meeting, and presented results from her work on metabolism in Czech streams as a poster and a Spanish lightning talk. Both Carla and Katherine also served as mentors to undergraduate Instars Fellows during the SFS meeting. A current undergraduate, Alejandra (Andie) Flota, attended SFS as an Instars Fellow and presented a poster on the effects of dredging on nutrient removal in a retention pond. Emily Mulcahy, a 2024 VT BIOL graduate and current Master's student at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, also attended SFS and presented a poster from the project she led as an undergrad in our lab on the productivity of geographically isolated wetlands. A few photos from SUSE, wetland visits, and of current/past members of our lab at SFS are below!
Top left: members of the SUSE7 urban waterways metabolism working group in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bottom left: pictures (and sediment scoops!) from a visit to two of Carla's core wetland sampling sites in the Pterocarpus forest of Palmas Del Mar and near Playa Tortugeuro.
Right: current and past members of the Hotchkiss Lab at Virginia Tech at SFS 2025 - Emily Mulcahy (BSc 2024), Katherine Pérez Rivera, Erin Hotchkiss, Alejandra (Andie) Flota, Carla López Lloreda, and Stephen Plont (PhD 2023).
Top left: SFS poster presentations by Carla and Emily. Bottom left: SFS poster presentations by Katherine and Andie.
Right: Carla (top) and Katherine (bottom) presenting their research during a SFS Spanish lightning talk session.
2025-05-30 - Congratulations to VT 2025 graduates!
2025-05-30 - Congratulations to VT 2025 graduates!
We'd especially like to honor VT BIOL graduate Emma Lucier (pictured), an undergraduate member of our lab who collaborated on our Duck Pond dredging / Stroubles Creek water quality monitoring project for 1.5 years. Congrats to Emma and all spring 2025 graduates - we're excited to follow and support your next steps as you explore future career options!
Emma Lucier (VT BIOL BSc 2025) pictured in her graduation cap and gown while collecting water samples at the Main Branch of Stroubles Creek above the Duck Pond on Virginia Tech's campus.
2025-05-05 - Hotchkiss recognized for Teaching Excellence
2025-05-05 - Hotchkiss recognized for Teaching Excellence
This spring, Erin Hotchkiss was recognized for her teaching excellence through a 2025 Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the College of Science and as one of two university-wide recipients of Virginia Tech's 2025 University Award for Excellence in Teaching. She was selected for the university-wide award by members of Virginia Tech's Academy of Teaching Excellence, who noted her pedagogical leadership in the Department of Biological Sciences and broader influence on the university community through teaching and mentoring.
2025-04-28 - Lucier & Flota share their science at VT undergraduate conference
2025-04-28 - Lucier & Flota share their science at VT undergraduate conference
Two undergraduate researchers in our lab, Emma Lucier and Alejandra (Andie) Flota, shared results from their ongoing collaboration at the spring 2025 Dennis Dean Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Conference. This semester, Andie and Emma continued analyses to assess the impacts of sediment dredging on the nutrient removal capacity of the Duck Pond on Virginia Tech's campus, as well as the downstream water quality of Stroubles Creek. They were supported by graduate mentors Katherine Pérez Rivera and Carla López Lloreda, and built on the fantastic work conducted with many other undergraduate collaborators who participated in our Duck Pond/Stroubles Creek monitoring project during 2024-2025!
Citation: Lucier, EA, AL Flota, ER Hotchkiss, KA Campo, J Huo, CE Offhaus, B Vaughn, E Walters, C López Lloreda, & KX Pérez Rivera (2025). Influence of Dredging on Water Chemistry in a Retention Pond. Dennis Dean Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Conference. Poster.
Emma Lucier (left) and Andie Flota (right) presenting their poster at the spring 2025 Dennis Dean Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Conference at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
2025-04-10 - Hotchkiss co-authors article on tadpole biogeochemical hotspots
2025-04-10 - Hotchkiss co-authors article on tadpole biogeochemical hotspots
A new journal article led by Dr. Nick Corline assessing how "Tadpole aggregations create biogeochemical hotspots in wetland ecosystems" was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. From the abstract: "Here we investigate the effects of wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpole aggregations on nutrient recycling, microbial metabolism and carbon cycling in geographically isolated wetlands. We used a paired mesocosm and field study approach that utilized measurements of tadpole excretion rates, microbial extracellular enzyme activities, and litter degradation. We found a strong relationship between tadpole development and nutrient excretion, demonstrating that ontological changes impact tadpole-mediated nutrient cycling in wetland habitats. Further, the interplay between population-level tadpole excretion and wetland hydrologic conditions increased ambient NH4+ and PO43− concentrations by 56 and 14 times, respectively, compared to adjacent wetlands without tadpoles. Within our mesocosm study, microbes decreased extracellular enzyme production associated with nitrogen acquisition in response to the presence of tadpole-derived nitrogen. In addition to microbial metabolic responses, tadpole presence enhanced litter breakdown in both mesocosms and wetlands by 7% and 12%, respectively, in comparison to reference conditions. These results provide evidence for the functional and biogeochemical role of tadpole aggregations in wetland habitats, with important implications for ecosystem processes, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem management." Nick was a PhD student collaborator on our NSF-funded Delmarva wetlands project; this work was one of his dissertation chapters.
Citation: Corline, NJ, ER Hotchkiss, B Badgely, BD Strahm, DT Scott, & DL McLaughlin (2025). Tadpole aggregations create biogeochemical hotspots in wetland ecosystems. Journal of Animal Ecology 94: 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14222
Figure 1 from Corline et al. 2025: "(a) photograph of in situ mesocosm. Note mesocosms without surface films contain tadpoles. (b) Site photograph of tadpole-occupied wetland 1. (c) Example of wood frog egg masses, and (d) wood frog tadpoles in wetland 1."
Figure 2 from Corline et al. 2025: "Average per capita excretion of (a) N-NH4+, (b) dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), (c) P-PO43−, and (d) dissolved organic phosphorous (DOP) for Gosner stage range in mesocosms (gold), wetland 1 (cyan), and wetland 2 (green)."
2025-03-28 - Photos from research sabbatical: Oak Ridge, TN
2025-03-28 - Photos from research sabbatical: Oak Ridge, TN
Erin Hotchkiss is on a research sabbatical for the spring 2025 semester, and recently enjoyed a short visit with collaborators on the Watershed Dynamics and Evolution Science Focus Area (WaDE SFA) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in eastern Tennessee. Our research collaboration is assessing watershed function through the lens of stream biogeochemistry and carbon metabolism, including at East Fork Poplar Creek in Oak Ridge, TN (photos on left). While at ORNL, I also had the opportunity to visit a well-known site for important advances in stream ecology, Walker Branch (photos on right).
2025-02-10 - Pérez Rivera & Hotchkiss co-author science education article
2025-02-10 - Pérez Rivera & Hotchkiss co-author science education article
Katherine Pérez Rivera and Erin Hotchkiss are co-authors on a recently published article led by Ph.D. Candidate Yunus Naseri on "Integrating Data Science Into Undergraduate Science and Engineering Courses". This work emerged from our NSF-funded collaboration and focuses on instructors' experiences integrating new data science activities into existing undergraduate STEM courses at Virginia Tech, North Carolina A&T State University, and Vanderbilt University.
2025-01-17 - Flota is a 2025 SFS Instars Fellow!
2025-01-17 - Flota is a 2025 SFS Instars Fellow!
Andie Flota, an undergraduate researcher in our lab and student in Virginia Tech's Water program, was recently selected to be a 2025 Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) Instars Fellow! The SFS Instars program supports the attendance and professional development of a group of undergraduates at SFS annual meetings. Members of each Instars cohort have the opportunity to connect with new peers, graduate student mentors, and other SFS members while presenting their science at the meeting. Andie will present results from her research measuring changes in pond nutrient retention and downstream water quality during and after a retention pond sediment dredging project. Congratulations, Andie!
Google Sites
Report abuse