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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!
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