News

UVM, SUNY-Plattsburgh one step closer to forming Sea Grant College program ...
vtdigger.org
Mary Watzin, dean of UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and director of the Lake Champlain Sea Grant, said the program's new designation will enable it to further advance its goal of using research and education to promote ...

A team of RACC researchers, led by Dr. Judith Van Houten, State Director, VT EPSCoR, traveled to the National Science Foundation on September 6, 2012 for a Reverse Site Visit presentation of progress of RACC and CWDD in Year 1.

Dr. Robert Andosca, CEO and Co-Founder, MicroGen (and VT EPSCoR Phase (0) awardee) is now poised to move into production of our piezoelectric platform devices on a major scale for initial applications in the industrial and commercial markets. The relationship with a strong semiconductor investment house enables us to reach markets more readily, and to have resources that will enable a faster ramp for MicroGen.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened registration for student teams from colleges and universities across the country to participate in its new design competition, the Campus RainWorks Challenge, through which teams will compete to develop innovative approaches to stormwater management. This first annual competition, will help raise awareness of green design and planning approaches at colleges and universities, and train the next generation of landscape architects, planners, and engineers in green infrastructure principles and design. Stormwater is a major cause of harmful water pollution in urban areas in the U.S., impacting tens of thousands of miles of rivers, streams, and coastal shorelines, as well as hundreds of thousands of acres of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds.

Dr. Lori Stevens, Professor of Biology, UVM, has been named as the 2012 recipient of the Jackie M. Gribbons Leadership Award. The award is given to a woman who has demonstrated leadership ability, served as a model and mentor, developed innovative programs, and contributed significantly to the institution and profession. Presentation of the award will be at the Women in Higher Education (VWHE) annual Leadership Dinner on Thursday, October 4, 2012. VWHE is dedicated to serving women in higher education at all professional levels. For more information, and to see a list of former awardees, please visit: http://www.vwhe.org

A year after tropical storm Irene devastated many areas in Vermont, this story of a comparable event, the 1927 flood, is a timely reminder of the forces of nature and their impact on our environment.

One of Vermont's most devastating events, the 1927 flood occurred on November 2 – 4, with rainfall averages ranging from four to nine inches total. Excess rain during the month of October had saturated
the soil, and the additional rainfall in early November caused mass flooding all over the state. The flood
greatly changed the landscape and forced a massive reconstruction effort in all counties.
At the time of the 1927 flood, Mary Martin Hopkins was living in Perkinsville, a village located in the town of Weathersfield. Hopkins had been in Perkinsville, where her father managed the general store.
She married Adoniram Judson Hopkins, and their son Ernest Martin Hopkins served as the 11th president of Dartmouth College from 1916 to 1945.
A few days after the flood, Hopkins described her experience in a long letter to her children. Excerpts are included here, with explanatory material in parentheses.

This summer most of the central United States has been suffering the worst drought and highest temperatures in 75 years. These conditions follow record temperatures and reduced snow cover during winter and spring, with low rainfall in April, May and June. Wildfires have been more severe and extensive, and crop losses are expected. Except for the western United States, most states have seen record temperatures for the first seven months of this year.

Vermont has been exceptionally warm in 2012, with January to July temperatures running almost 5 degrees above normal. This was the first summer in years that I have had to water my vegetable garden a couple of times — in most Vermont summers since 2002 we’ve had rainfall well above normal amounts.

Vermont Public Radio
Flood Recovery, In Some Cases, Damaged Rivers
Vermont Public Radio
Mike Kline, Vermont's Rivers Program Manager, says the state is in the process now of developing the rules for towns to follow even in the face of a disaster. But he acknowledged that after Irene, with Tropical Storm Lee bearing down, towns had little ...

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The Vermont EPSCoR 2012 Grant Writing Workshop was held on August 17th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference center in Burlington Vermont.
Presentations......

The Vermont EPSCoR 2012 Annual Conference was held on August 16th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference center in Burlington Vermont.
Presentations......

The Vermont EPSCoR 2012 Grant Writing Workshop was held on August 17th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference center in Burlington Vermont.

The Vermont EPSCoR 2012 Annual Conference was held on August 16th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference center in Burlington Vermont.

The Vermont EPSCoR 2012 Annual Conference was held on August 16th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference center in Burlington Vermont.

Every few years the Lake Champlain Basin Program publishes a "state of the lake" report, detailing environmental quality in Lake Champlain. This year's report came out last week.

It says that while the overall health of the main lake is good, certain areas, like the Northeast arm and Missisquoi Bay, have higher levels of phosphorus pollution and algae blooms. Sarah Harris spoke with Bill Howland, director of the Basin Program, about the report.

Scientists warn of invasive species to come
Glens Falls Post-Star
Curt Stager is an ecologist and climate researcher at Paul Smith's College. He said climate change, when combined with other environmental stresses like phosphorous pollution in bodies of water, can drastically alter a region's biodiversity. “As the ...

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We are looking forward to seeing you at the Annual State Meeting scheduled on August 16, 2012 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Vermont EPSCoR Grant Writing Workshop on August 17, 2012 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont.

Evidence is mounting that extinctions are altering key processes important to the productivity and sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems1, 2, 3, 4. Further species loss will accelerate change in ecosystem processes5, 6, 7, 8, but it is unclear how these effects compare to the direct effects of other forms of environmental change that are both driving diversity loss and altering ecosystem function. Here we use a suite of meta-analyses of published data to show that the effects of species loss on productivity and decomposition—two processes important in all ecosystems—are of comparable magnitude to the effects of many other global environmental changes. In experiments, intermediate levels of species loss (21–40%) reduced plant production by 5–10%, comparable to previously documented effects of ultraviolet radiation and climate warming. Higher levels of extinction (41–60%) had effects rivalling those of ozone, acidification, elevated CO2 and nutrient pollution. At intermediate levels, species loss generally had equal or greater effects on decomposition than did elevated CO2 and nitrogen addition. The identity of species lost also had a large effect on changes in productivity and decomposition, generating a wide range of plausible outcomes for extinction. Despite the need for more studies on interactive effects of diversity loss and environmental changes, our analyses clearly show that the ecosystem consequences of local species loss are as quantitatively significant as the direct effects of several global change stressors that have mobilized major international concern and remediation efforts9.

As part of the 5-year UVM VT-EPSCoR program, 1 met station as well as its associated 2 maker buoys and anchors were deployed in Missisquoi Bay for the purpose of long-term monitoring of atmospheric parameters, water temperature, waves, algal blooms and currents in the bay. The met station is located somewhat northwest of the main platform site (maintained by UVM).This installation is the last one that will be deployed by Middlebury College and therefore completes the suite of instrumentation at this main site.

RACC Intern Events - Summer 2012

RACC Intern Sendoff Barbeque August 3rd at Saint Michael's College