BOONE—A dozen undergraduate students from four North Carolina institutions are being trained in remote sensing, GIS, and field methods at Appalachian State University under the mentorship of Ryan Emanuel, an assistant professor in Appalachian’s Department of Geology.

The students are from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU), Livingston College (LC), UNC Pembroke (UNCP) and Western Carolina University (WCU).

Two of the campuses, JCSU and LC, are part of the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) award-winning SEEDS program. The program is designed to diversify and advance the ecology profession by providing  opportunities that stimulate and nurture interest in underrepresented students to participate in ecology as well as become leaders in the ecology profession.

“I am excited about the opportunity to work with students from such a wide range of backgrounds. Collaboration with ESA’s SEEDS program has been instrumental in recruiting these students,” said Emanuel, who received an award from the National Science Foundation’s Research Initiation Grant to Broaden Participation (RIGBP) program for the project. “Students will learn how to work together toward a common goal and how to perform together with a common vision, much like how professional research teams operate,” he said.

This is not just another class project or activity. Students will participate in research on secondary ecosystem succession, or the recovery of ecosystems after disturbance. In North Carolina and across much of the Southeast, abandoned farmlands are reverting to secondary forests.  As they grow, these forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting carbon dioxide released by human activities.  The team will combine existing data, collected by satellites and aircraft, with their own ground-based measurements from forests in different stages of recovery to better understand how the processes of succession and carbon dioxide uptake vary across North Carolina.

After two weeks of intensive training with state-of-the-art field research equipment, each of the four participating campuses will conduct field assessments at predetermined sites near their home campuses over the course of the academic year.  “What is unique about this project is the year-long relationship with the students and their advisors,” said Emanuel. SEEDS will continue to provide support to the four teams through monthly webinars and through the nation-wide SEEDS network.

Faculty advisers accompanying the students are Joseph Fail (JCSU), Sashi Sabaratnam (LC), Leon Jernigan (UNC Pembroke) and Brian Kloeppel (WCU), who bring their rich ecological and forestry expertise to the project.

For more information, contact Teresa Mourad, director for Education and Diversity Programs

Ecological Society of America, at 202-833-8773, extension 234.

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