Delaware Beekeeping Association’s Beekeeping Workshop: Buzzing Success at Wesley College

Delaware Beekeeping Association’s Beekeeping Workshop: Buzzing Success at Wesley College

Jan 31, 2020 | Environment, Land, Wesley College

On Saturday, January 18, 2020, Wesley College hosted the Delaware Beekeeping Association’s beekeeping workshop for beginning and intermediate beekeepers for the fifth time. With over 150 eager enthusiasts of all ages in attendance, it’s safe to say this event was quite the buzz. Beekeeping is something that is not unfamiliar to Wesley College. Biology professor, Dr. Kathleen “Kathy” Curran, Wesley business adjunct, Joseph Nicolai, and Wesley biology alumnus, Ken Outten, took part in the workshop as instructors excited to share their knowledge. Last year, Wesley took steps to become a Bee Certified Campus. Both beginner and intermediate classes gained insights into bee biology, prevalent bee diseases, and bee equipment operation. Intermediate beekeepers also learned how to breed queen bees, a particularly valuable skill in the face of massive decreases in bee populations as well as techniques to market honey products. Funding was happily provided in part by Project WiCCED*, a collaboration among Delaware colleges that seeks to address water security challenges in Delaware and around the world. These threats negatively affect ecosystem function and critical economic drivers. Bees, too, need a clean source of drinking water to pollinate the food we eat every day.

Written By: Katelynn “Katie” Fry, Wesley Environmental Science STEM Ambassador Senior

*Funded in part by the Delaware EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Delaware under grant number OIA-1757353.

Read on the Wesley website. 

Small but Mighty: Oyster Aquaculture as a Tool to Improve Ecosystem Health

Small but Mighty: Oyster Aquaculture as a Tool to Improve Ecosystem Health

Jan 14, 2019 | Delaware State University, Environment, Land, Water

Like corals, oysters are considered ecosystem engineers. They have a unique ability to both physically and chemically alter their habitat. These bivalves are often a signal for healthy ecosystems because of their water filtration capabilities, since they can reduce water turbidity and pollution. Oyster beds also create habitat and act as a nursery for juvenile fish, providing foraging ground and protection from predators. Read More: https://www.climatehubs.oce.usda.gov/hubs/northeast/news/small-mighty-oyster-aquaculture-tool-improve-ecosystem-health

Water in a changing coastal environment

Water in a changing coastal environment

Sep 27, 2018 | Conservation, Environment, Land, University of Delaware, Water

National Science Foundation awards $19.2 million to statewide EPSCoR consortium

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s population resides within roughly 60 miles of a coast. Delaware has a rich coastal environment with 381 miles of tidal shoreline, including 24 miles of ocean coastline and approximately 90,000 acres of tidal wetlands.

Coastal regions throughout the world have entered a critical period when multiple pressures threaten water security, which the United Nations defines as society’s capacity to safeguard adequate, sustainable quantities of high-quality water.

A new five-year, $19.2 million Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) grant from the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) will help Delaware develop solutions to water issues related to human, economic and ecosystem health. In addition to the federal award, the state of Delaware has committed $3.8 million in support of this initiative.

Water in a changing coastal environment

“We are bringing people together to create actionable solutions that will have a positive impact on Delawareans, while providing transformative research, educational and career preparation experiences for students of all levels,” said Charlie Riordan, vice president for research, scholarship and innovation at UD.

EPSCoR is a congressionally mandated federal program to help states develop their research initiatives and institutions. In Delaware, the EPSCoR program currently focuses on enhancing environmental science, engineering, social science and policy research in support of the state’s goal of achieving a sustainable environment and a prosperous economy.

This is the fourth RII grant for the statewide consortium, which includes four Delaware higher education institutions: Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College, the University of Delaware and Wesley College.

“As a coastal state with significant agricultural and tourism industries, Delaware is the perfect place to address the interdisciplinary challenges of balancing the needs of the environment, the economy and our communities,” said University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis. “Not only will this funding help us develop solutions to local problems, but it will also make Delaware a national leader and a model for the world.”

“Water security is a serious issue facing society. We are bringing people together to create actionable solutions that will have a positive impact on Delawareans, while providing transformative research, educational and career preparation experiences for students of all levels,” said Charlie Riordan, vice president for research, scholarship and innovation at UD.

Water in a changing coastal environment

“Most problems related to water security are consequences of human activities and, inevitably, solutions involve behavioral change,” said Kent Messer, the project director and the S. Hallock du Pont Professor of Applied Economics for the Environment in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

A major component of the grant will focus on behavioral science and developing decision-support tools, early warning systems and other evidence-based solutions that decision-makers can use to inform policy and encourage adoption of environmentally oriented behavior.

In the Wilmington community of Southbridge, for example, a previous EPSCoR-funded social science study bolstered residents’ confidence about the quality of their drinking water by enabling researchers to work with community members to collect and analyze tap water samples and provide evidence-based data from both home test kits and professional labs that the tap water was safe to drink. A subsequent study revealed that this water quality information significantly improved residents’ trust in their water supply, saving them the expense of bottled water.

The threat of salinization

A key threat to water security in our region is salinization, or the accumulation of excess salts in soil, which degrades water quality. Delaware’s long tidal shoreline and low elevation renders its waters vulnerable to salinization, which can be exacerbated by sea level rise and the extraction of groundwater for use by industry, agriculture and municipalities. This problem is increasingly recognized in Delaware, where high salinity, or salt content, already has caused some agricultural lands to become unusable and has prompted the installation of new wells for monitoring and measuring saltwater intrusion in some coastal municipalities.

In addition to focusing on the salinization threat, the grant also leverages UD’s growing presence in interdisciplinary data science and environmental research to:

  • Develop ultrasensitive smart sensors for monitoring and characterizing how nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and particles are transported through Delaware rivers, ponds, streams and marshes, as well as the sources and fates of these nutrients and their effect on plants.
  • Address information gaps about the microbial communities that help maintain the healthy function of our coastal ecosystems and how these communities change with salinization or excess nutrients.
  • Use the emerging technology of big-data analytics to link science and social decision-making, and to potentially reveal previously hidden hurdles to sustainable societal change.

“This new project builds on the successful statewide network of partnerships we have built over the past years to address the significant issue of water quality and sustainability, which impacts not only Delaware but many parts of the world,” said Delaware EPSCoR Director Don Sparks, the Unidel S. Hallock du Pont Chair of Plant and Soil Sciences and director of the Delaware Environmental Institute.

Digitally defending our infrastructure

An emerging area of concern for water utilities is the digital defense of infrastructure, both from a contamination and from a cybersecurity standpoint. A partnership with the U.S. Army’s Communications, Electronic, Research and Development Center, Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (CERDEC-I2 WD) will integrate military-grade data science and machine learning capabilities to enhance existing water security decision support tools for resource managers, policymakers and researchers. It also will enable training of students in the emerging data science and big-data analytics fields, providing Delaware and the surrounding region a pool of capable environmental informatics and cybersecurity professionals.

In complementary work, UD will partner with Tidewater Utilities, Inc., the largest private water supplier south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, to develop a cybersecurity awareness program to educate utility company employees about potential cyber threats and security issues.

According to Tidewater President Gerard L. Esposito, cybersecurity is one of the biggest risks facing today’s utility companies, which increasingly rely on technology to support business operations. Developing an awareness program that is flexible, scalable and adoptable at any level, he said, will go a long way toward providing a blueprint for Tidewater and other companies, both locally and regionally.

“Utilities are not prepared to balance this risk while delivering on operational goals like increased efficiencies,” Esposito said. “Constant user engagement and training is the key to keeping our systems safe and having a robust cyber awareness program is a big step toward accomplishing this goal.”

Continuing to build the future workforce of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs trained to meet these growing challenges is necessary, too. Education and training opportunities throughout the five-year project will enable nearly 700 graduate, undergraduate and high school students to gain on-the-job experience working alongside over 60 faculty and post-doctoral researchers.

A proven track record that goes beyond statistics

Delaware was designated an EPSCoR state in January 2003 and awarded its first EPSCoR RII grant in 2005. To date, Delaware’s NSF EPSCoR program has resulted in $69 million in direct EPSCoR funding to the state and $46 million through leveraged EPSCoR funds and 143 additional research awards to EPSCoR faculty. Additionally, this work has led to over 900 published journal articles, 75 faculty and student submitted invention disclosures, 11 patents and eight faculty-led start-ups, as a result of direct or indirect funding by EPSCoR.

But the true impact of the work runs deeper than statistics. It is woven into the fabric of the partnerships created across and outside the state by collaborators, the local projects and models developed locally that also can be applied globally, and the training opportunities provided for students who will become our future citizens and decision-makers.

Support from the previous EPSCoR funding allowed Wesley College to change the institution’s academic curriculum to incorporate research in a first-year undergraduate experience for all incoming students. This important action improved student retention and four-year graduation rates of its students and led to the development of Wesley’s Undergraduate Research Center for Analytics, Talent and Success. Student retention rates in STEM majors at Wesley have increased by 22 percent since 2010, from 46 percent in 2010-2013 to 68 percent in 2014-2018. Additionally, all of Wesley’s EPSCoR STEM majors graduated and were placed in STEM fields between 2010-2013.

Across the state, the University of Delaware’s Spin In program paired teams of University undergraduate students with early-stage startups to apply experientially what they’re learning to real-life situations that entrepreneurs encounter. Students from a range of disciplines were coached and integrated into product development teams charged with solving business challenges facing these early-stage startups. To date, more than 175 students have engaged in 25 projects that have led to the launch of seven new products and four new business startups, with a dozen students landing job offers.

Article by Karen B. Roberts | Photos by Doug White, Kathy F. Atkinson and Evan Krape | September 26, 2018

NSF funding to build research infrastructure across the country

NSF funding to build research infrastructure across the country

Sep 18, 2018 | Land, University of Delaware, Water, Water security

Delaware, one of seven awards continue targeted investment approach from NSF’s EPSCoR program

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $140 million to seven jurisdictions through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which builds research and development capacity in jurisdictions that demonstrate a commitment to research but have thus far lacked the levels of investment seen in other parts of the country.

The new EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 awards will bolster science and engineering research infrastructure in Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire and New Mexico, each of which will receive five years of support.

EPSCoR is a program designed to fulfill the foundation’s mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide. The program enhances research competitiveness of targeted jurisdictions by strengthening their capacity for education, workforce training and innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). EPSCoR works with jurisdictions to identify and support projects with the greatest likelihood of success in those areas.

“NSF is committed to supporting the nation’s STEM research ecosystem, and part of that mission means that we’re making sure that top-notch research infrastructure opportunities can be found across the country,” said Suzi Iacono, head of NSF’s Office of Integrative activities. “This year’s awards continue EPSCoR’s tradition of targeted investments that take advantage of the strengths of recipient jurisdictions.”

Currently, 23 states plus the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam are eligible to compete for EPSCoR funding. Through EPSCoR, NSF establishes regional partnerships with government, higher education and industry that result in lasting improvements in a state’s or territory’s research infrastructure and research and development capacity.

“These new awards will fund research in areas of national importance in jurisdictions that have unique capabilities when it comes to exploring and understanding them,” said Sean Kennan, program manager for EPSCoR. “The projects target high priority research areas for NSF including next-generation power grids, the mitigation of wildfires, the prevention of water contamination, understanding the rules of life, and discovery and development of new materials for future technologies. In addition to improving infrastructure in the jurisdictions, this support for cutting edge research has the potential to benefit the entire nation through advances in public services, innovation in the high-tech sector, environmental remediation and medical solutions, to name just a few.”

Each award will foster networking among several universities and research institutions within a jurisdiction to maximize effectiveness of support and create research partnerships with the potential to result in future collaboration. All projects will leverage existing expertise and research infrastructure.

The awards will also promote workforce development in areas relevant to the jurisdictions’ vital interests. Such development will include bringing senior and early-career faculty, postdocs, students, staff and partners into research planning and execution.

DELAWARE — Water Security in Delaware’s Changing Coastal Environment, University of Delaware, Kent Messer

 

The Delaware project seeks to assess major threats to the state’s water quality and develop viable technological and policy solutions. The project will accomplish this goal by interdisciplinary research integrating social and physical sciences to address the serious challenge of the loss of fresh water quality through nutrient loading and salinization. The research plan will model vulnerable areas, assess and mitigate threats, provide tools to water quality managers, partner with state agencies, and develop new technologies to monitor nutrient loading and salinization in wetlands and watersheds bordering Delaware Bay.

Full article | NSF 

Helping Pea Patch Island Stand Up to Waves

Helping Pea Patch Island Stand Up to Waves

Aug 28, 2018 | Conservation, Environment, Land, University of Delaware, Water

Rachel Schaefer explores how vegetation can reduce erosion of Delaware River island

Rachel Schaefer is a senior honors degree candidate, majoring in civil engineering, from West Windsor, New Jersey.

Q. What are you studying, where and with whom?  

Schaefer: I’m studying the effects of marsh vegetation located on the south side of Pea Patch Island on incoming waves. This is for my senior thesis under the advisement of Prof. Jack Puleo. I’m also working with Michael Larner, who will write a senior thesis on how ship wakes affect the bare beach on the north side of Pea Patch Island. We’re also working with Prof. Thomas McKenna.

Pea Patch Island, which contains Fort Delaware and a nature preserve, is on the Delaware River and can be reached by a boat ride from Delaware City. I set out sensors in early June to measure water depths and velocities along a transect before and within a patch of vegetation. As the vegetation grows, the degree of wave attenuation could potentially increase. I have been conducting surveys of the transect on a regular basis to measure how the ground elevations change over time. Most researchers who have published on this topic performed controlled experiments in wave flumes, which allowed them to manipulate some variables but could not capture all of the environmental factors present in a real marsh. I plan to also explore numerical modeling of vegetation attenuation of water waves, and perhaps compare a model simulating the Pea Patch Island marsh to my data analyses.

Q. Why is this work important?  

Schaefer: Many large ships bearing heavy cargo pass Pea Patch Island and generate powerful wakes that slam into the island. Vegetation is known to reduce erosion by attenuating waves and stabilizing the surrounding sediment.

Q. What is it about this topic that interests you?

Schaefer: I’m fascinated by how the interactions between plants, sediment and water play out on a small scale but have enormous implications and potential uses. While in Malawi, Africa, in 2016 implementing a water project with the University of Delaware chapter of Engineers Without Borders, I saw evidence of extensive deforestation and the devastating effects of a flood followed closely by a drought. The absence of trees and plants allows water to more quickly flow and accumulate, and allows sediment to move more freely and fill rivers. Most electricity in Malawi is generated through hydropower, and a large portion of the population depends on fish from the huge Lake Malawi. Removing vegetation near sources of water can have multiple cascading consequences.

Last year, I did a class project that involved designing subsurface flow constructed wetlands to treat wastewater for a community in the Philippines. From working on that project, I became even more interested in how water and particles can interact with plants.

I’m also interested in how plants at the interface between wetlands and water can combat sea level rise due to climate change. Wetland vegetation may only partially decay, forming layer upon layer of peat over time. The buildup of peat may compete with a rising sea level, while the peat also stores carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Vegetation can also trap sediment washed in, further building up the land to reduce the effects of sea level rise while improving water quality. Plants may seem like part of the scenery, but they play crucial roles in marshland and coastal environments.

Q. What is a typical day like?

Schaefer: Many days have involved getting to work at 6 a.m. to gather equipment and catch a crew boat to the island. While there, we’re downloading data from some sensors, swapping batteries, as well as taking measurements, vegetation samples, notes and photographs. Bald eagles, herons, egrets, geese, muskrats and countless biting insects provide a constant audience.

I spend other days at the Ocean Engineering Laboratory where I read literature, process and analyze data, and watch footage downloaded from a time lapse camera I set up near my sensors to note ships coming by and subsequent ship wakes. I work with Mike to set aside equipment, charge batteries and prepare for upcoming days on Pea Patch Island. I may ask a graduate student or Prof. Puleo questions about how I’m using MATLAB to process the data, or about equations and concepts I found in my reading. In the background, I usually hear some students performing experiments in the wave flume. I’ve also been helping Prof. Puleo on an outreach project involving the construction and delivery of mini wave flumes to high schools along the East Coast. We are developing a teaching module where students can run waves and collect data to learn how vegetation can attenuate waves.

Q. What is the coolest thing you’ve gotten to do on the project?

Schaefer: Deploying water depth and velocity sensors for data collection at the beginning of June. Designing the experiment, preparing equipment, programming sensors and deploying them to take measurements felt like leaping into the unknown. Watching waves wash over and under my sensors, hearing the acoustic distance meters send out pulses, is uniquely satisfying. It’s easy to say “just go get some data,” but difficult to actually prepare for and execute a data collection. Leading up to the deployment, I felt increasingly buried by logistical details, but being able to finally get my hands dirty and my feet wet was amazing. Hearing the mud squelch as I drove scaffolding pipes into the ground to support the sensors made me smile. As I rode away from the island on a boat after the deployment, looking at my line of data collection stations made the project feel so real to me.

Q. What has surprised you the most about your experience?

Schaefer: I was surprised by how, after I defined the main research questions I was investigating, as I dug deeper, more and more questions came up. It reminded me of the Phragmites australis in the patch I’m studying, where a single seed can grow up into a 15-feet-tall plant, developing complex rhizome systems that grow more plants. Each mature plant bears long, broad leaves and a fluffy seedhead. I started out with the intention to study vegetation wave attenuation, the seed to the project. The rhizome system grew as I expanded my base of knowledge of the topic, and sprouted new plants when I focused on specific aspects of it. Ship wakes, sediment deposition, peat cliffs, season, vegetation species, as well as the height, width, shape, density, strength and leafiness of the plant stems were just a few of the offshoot questions that grew. Entire papers have been published on each individual subtopic I come across. I must investigate the involvement of each variable while keeping in mind the big picture.

Q. Dreaming big, where do you hope this work could lead?

Schaefer: I hope this work leads to DNREC implementing more natural coastal protection solutions and planting marsh grass along the edges of beaches and coastal areas. Delaware is vulnerable to sea level rise, so strategic planting of vegetation could help mitigate its effects. As shown on Pea Patch Island, rock seawalls are effective at protecting the immediate area behind them but may cause erosion further down the shoreline as the natural transport and replenishment of sediment there is restricted. As mentioned above, plants make many contributions to coastal ecosystems, certainly more than rocks.

Pea Patch Island attracts many visitors, and as they walk down the dock from the ferry they may look to their right and see my line of sensors going into the vegetation. I hope the sight of my sensors has caused visitors to wonder and think about what I was measuring and why I was measuring, perhaps inspiring them to better appreciate and respect what plants do.

Q. If you had to summarize your experience in only one word, what would it be?

Schaefer: Humbling. Solving problem sets in class with predetermined parameters and solutions gives me and other students a false sense of confidence and knowledge, when in reality no actual problem comes with neatly defined variables and a clear path to an answer. As I worked on Pea Patch Island, I watched many huge ship wakes roll in, wave after wave slamming into the shore, and felt rather small in comparison. Small animals like geese to massive freighters generate similar wake patterns. There is a rhythmic and timeless feel to the motions of the waves and tides. Cliffs of wetland peat represent decades to centuries of plant birth and decay. And here I am trying to take measurements and make sense of these complex and multifaceted interactions. Although the physics and math often seem daunting and difficult to manipulate, I am probably only scratching the surface.

Q. What do you enjoy when you are not doing research?

Schaefer: When I’m not doing research I like to wander around and explore the local area, often going out without any predetermined plans and taking whatever paths strike my interest. I enjoy reading classic novels and watching science fiction shows. Sometimes I write poetry or chip away at stories I’ve been developing for a while. I love spending time with friends and visiting family members and pets.

Editor’s Note: Get to know a dozen of our 2018 undergraduate Summer Scholars in this series of question/answer profiles on them and their work. The Summer Scholars program offers undergrads an expansive menu of research and service opportunities from the streets to the field to the laboratory. A record number of students — more than 530 — participated this summer. It’s a mark of distinction for UD, according to Associate Prof. Iain Crawford, faculty director of UD’s Undergraduate Research Program and president of the national Council on Undergraduate Research: “We have that culture firmly established at Delaware, where the value of undergraduate research is strongly felt.”  To learn about the work of some of this year’s Summer Scholars, visit https://www.udel.edu/home/summer-undergrad-research/

Article by Tracey Bryant | Photo by Evan Krape August 09, 2018