A large contingent of BREE scientists attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2018 Fall Meeting, which ran from December 10th to December 14th in Washington, DC. More than a dozen BREE faculty members, post docs, graduate students, and undergraduate interns made oral and poster presentations. Topics of these presentations included evaluating climate model parameter specifications, estimating sediment and phosphorous transport during floods, modeling impacts of watershed management on lake cyanobacteria blooms, and more.

In addition to convening thousands of scientific presentations, the conference also had forums for linking scientific research to policy development. Ecological Team member Dr. Breck Bowden presented on the BREE project in this area, highlighting the nature of the project as a co-evolution of science, monitoring, and management in the Lake Champlain Basin. Dr. Bowden emphasized the fact that Vermont research and data collection was able to inform a renewed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and water quality act, which is quite unusual and special.

In addition to sharing current research, BREE scientists returned to Burlington with many new ideas after having indulged in the vast intellectual offerings that the large annual conference offers.

Representing Vermont EPSCoR, Dr. Breck Bowden, Dr. Julia Perdrial, Dr. Erin Seybold, Dr. Kristen Underwood, and Dr. Matt Vaughan all made oral presentations. Members who made poster presentations included Dr. Alan Betts, Dr. Elizabeth Doran, Dr. Scott Hamshaw, Dr. Janel Hanrahan, Dr. Jory Hecht, Dr. Huanping Huang, Dr. Brittany Lancellotti, Dr. Maxwell Landsman-Geroj, and undergraduates Jessica Langlois and Eric Romero.

More information about the AGU Fall Meeting can be found here.

An abstract of Dr. Bowden's presentation can be found here.

Article credit: Jory Hecht
Photos credit: Arne Bomblies