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
Mar 7, 2018 | Conservation, University of Delaware
UD researchers present findings on how to best market oysters
Researchers from the University of Delaware recently hosted members of Delaware’s oyster industry to share results of studies about how to best market their products.
Those studies showed that demand for their product is strong and consumers should be ready to pay good prices once the supply arrives.
The results were reported at a Consumer Preferences for Delaware Oysters: An Economic Evaluation of Marketing Messages workshop held on Feb. 9 at the Cannon Laboratory on the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes.
The workshop was hosted by the Center for Experimental and Applied Economics (CEAE) and sponsored by Delaware Sea Grant, housed in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE).
The results presented at the workshop were gathered over the past three years, when members from CEAE collected data at various locations throughout Delaware — such as the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal, at Ag Day in Newark, at 16-Mile Brewery in Georgetown, at Famous Joe’s Tavern in Wilmington, and at Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles — to gauge consumer preferences for local oysters.
Kent Messer, the Unidel Howard Cosgrove Chair for the Environment and director of CEAE, which is housed in the University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), said the researchers — specifically Tongzhe Li, post-doctoral researcher in CEAE, and Maik Kecinski, assistant professor at the University of Alberta — gained a number of good insights during the study and wanted to make sure the results were getting out to industry professionals.
Potential aquaculture
As the state does not currently have an aquaculture industry, Ed Lewandowski, the acting director for DESG’s Marine Advisory Service, said that the researchers were interested in looking at the potential for getting an oyster product into the marketplace so that when Delaware aquaculture is operational, producers can hit the ground running as well.
“It’s a competitive industry. You’ve got raw bars popping up all over the place and each of them have oysters that they favor as well as clients who favor particular brands,” Lewandowski said. “A lot of the times, those brands have catchy names or they’re marketed creatively. We wanted to ensure that when we do have an inland bays oyster product ready, we can compete in that market place by positioning it with the brand, the logo, and the catchy name.”
Francesca Piccone, a graduate of CEOE and current CEAE outreach coordinator, said the researchers tested the consumer response to a logo bearing the words “Inland Bays Oysters: A Southern Delaware Delicacy” underneath a picture of an oyster to see if people were willing to spend more money on oysters branded that way.
They also focused on demographics to see who would pay more for oysters and what kind of information would make them more inclined to do so.
“We found that local is an effective word that increased consumer demand for oysters. The consumers’ willingness to pay for oysters also changes depending on which body of water they were grown in,” said Piccone.
‘Local, local, local’
The study showed that 28 percent of locals would pay a higher price for oysters branded with the logo compared to 13 percent of tourists who would pay a higher premium. Additionally, the researchers found that consumers are willing to pay 16 percent more for oysters that are harvested locally.
“Local, local, local. Couldn’t stress that enough. People put a premium on locally produced or sourced products. Consumers appreciate local shellfish, and we also found that the word ‘southern’ seemed to be important to people,” said Lewandowski.
Consumers also value the smell of the oysters the most, followed by saltiness, meat size and meat color. Frequent oyster consumers prefer aquaculture oysters whereas infrequent and first-time consumers prefer wild-caught oysters.
In addition, female consumers were willing to pay 33 percent less per oyster compared to male consumers and consumers overall were willing to pay higher prices for oysters that improve local water quality.
Commodities and brands
Messer said many foods, such as oysters, are moving away from being a generic commodity to a specific brand.
“Recall the history of coffee in the U.S. It used to be a commodity – a couple of big companies put coffee into a big blue or red can that contained coffee from all over the world that was mixed together and sold at a low price. Now you have many coffee companies and they will sell you coffee from a specific location. It could be Sumatra, Costa Rica, or even specific farms in Mexico. These coffees are sold at a higher price,” said Messer.
The same is true for oysters, as consumers are looking for oysters from specific locations.
“More often than not, oysters are branded according to geographic location where they came from,” said Lewandowski. “There are Cape-May oysters, Chincoteague oysters, Bluepoint oysters out of Long Island, so using ‘Inland Bays Oysters’ definitely identifies it as a local product specific to Delaware’s inland bays.”
Importance of naming conventions
Messer said naming conventions will be important for oyster growers in Delaware to understand when they introduce their product into the market.
“What kind of names could resonate to both Delaware residents to tourists? One would anticipate that tourists would be very interested in buying a local oyster. Just like you have your local beer, you have your local oyster to go along with it. It could be a good chance to not only sell Delaware oysters but get a higher price for this product because now it’s a branded name and it’s something that you can’t get elsewhere,” said Messer.
Messer stressed that getting information that can benefit the Delaware oyster aquaculture is of the utmost importance for an institution like the University of Delaware.
“It’s fundamental to what we do. Public money paid for our research and this has public benefits for getting the oyster industry going, and it could improve water quality in our own state plus create jobs,” said Messer. “You can’t get that in many other contexts. I feel it’s imperative upon researchers to take the extra step to engage with their constituencies to share those results and I was happy to do it.”
Additional funding and support for the research and the workshop was provided by the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO), Ed Kee and the Delaware Department of Agriculture, Delaware NSF EPSCoR, the Center for Behavioral and Experimental Agri-Environmental Research (CBEAR), the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), the Cape-May Lewes Ferry and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Videos of various workshop presentations are available.
Article by Adam Thomas | Photos by Lisa Tossey | March 08, 2017
Mar 28, 2013 | Conservation, Environment, University of Delaware
The National Science Foundation and Delaware’s congressional delegation announced Thursday that the Delaware EPSCoR program has been awarded a new five-year, $20-million Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) grant.
EPSCoR, which stands for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, is a congressionally mandated federal program to help states develop their research initiatives and institutions. In Delaware, the program 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.
In addition to the federal award, the state of Delaware has committed an additional $4 million in support of Delaware EPSCoR between 2013 and 2018.
The grant is the third RII grant awarded to a consortium of higher education institutions in Delaware that includes the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Wesley College and Delaware Technical Community College.
According to Delaware EPSCoR director and principal investigator Don Sparks, the new grant will enable Delaware to expand upon interdisciplinary research and education efforts that have been initiated with previous support from EPSCoR.
To date, Delaware’s NSF EPSCoR program has resulted in $23 million in direct EPSCoR funding to the state and $38.8 million through leveraged EPSCoR funds and 129 additional research awards to EPSCoR faculty. Nearly 400 journal articles have been published as a result of research associated with EPSCoR.
“The NSF EPSCoR program in Delaware has made notable contributions to the growth of our state’s environmental research and education network and infrastructure,” Sparks said, citing the launch of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) at UD and the Center for Integrated Biological and Environmental Research (CIBER) at DSU as two prominent examples.
“We expect to see the programs that have been catalyzed by previous support from EPSCoR bearing significant fruit in the next five years as they mature and become more self-sustaining,” he said.
“The latest EPSCoR RII funding provides resources necessary to enhance the state’s research infrastructure and address the topics of sea level rise and renewable energy. Solutions to these societal challenges will be of value to Delaware and the nation,” said Charlie Riordan, vice provost for research at UD. “Importantly, these efforts will expand the impact of environmental research and policy while developing the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs that will help drive innovation and our economy. ”
Proposed research
Delaware’s successful proposal, titled “Meeting Delaware’s 21st Century Water and Energy Challenges through Research, Education and Innovation,” details the research themes that will be addressed during the term of the grant, which begins June 1.
The overarching research question that project participants will seek to answer is, “How do we sustain water and energy resources in changing and vulnerable coastal landscapes?” Interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research teams have been assembled to address this question in four major thematic areas:
- The effect of sea level rise on contaminant mobility and cycling;
- Land use and climate change impacts on water and natural ecosystems;
- Multiscale environmental sensing; and
- Innovations in renewable energy.
The grant provides funds to support faculty start-up packages and salaries; postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate student researchers; travel for fieldwork; cyberinfrastructure, equipment and supplies. In addition, periodic seed grants will be made available through EPSCoR to support promising areas of research and enabling faculty to develop new ideas in preparation for submitting larger grant proposals.
A signature of the Delaware EPSCoR research program will be the inclusion of economic, social science, policy and/or ethics research within each research theme.
“By integrating policy and social sciences into our research programs from the beginning, we hope to elucidate the most viable, cost-effective and ethical response options to the environmental and energy challenges we face, thereby providing decision makers with innovative and implementable solutions,” Sparks said.
The people pipeline
“Research infrastructure involves more than bricks and mortar,” said Amy Slocum, associate director of Delaware EPSCoR. “One of the most important things our NSF EPSCoR funds have done for the state has been enabling us to build a ‘pipeline’ of students and researchers interested in environmental fields.”
The network of participants in the Delaware EPSCoR program totals 194, spread across the four institutions, including 18 new faculty hired since the program’s inception in 2003.
Delaware EPSCoR has also funded 139 undergraduate research interns, with approximately 40 more set to begin their internships this summer. According to Jeanette Miller, Delaware EPSCoR’s director of education, outreach and diversity, the majority of these students are pursuing advanced degrees.
EPSCoR has also sponsored internships with outside partners, including the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). These positions have enabled advanced students to address real-world environmental policy issues under the mentorship of a professional. The work of one of these interns recently resulted in the passage of legislation removing outdated liability limits on companies responsible for oil spills that affect Delaware.
Delaware EPSCoR’s efforts to increase the flow of students pursuing science and engineering-related studies begins in middle school with summer science camps targeting demographic groups that are underrepresented in technical fields and teacher training workshops.
The four partner institutions have also developed a network of personnel and programs that provide clear pathways for students from a wide variety of backgrounds to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology, thus providing the state with a well-educated technical workforce.
“The new grant seeks to build on these accomplishments by expanding our outreach into Delaware schools,” Miller said. “We are planning a series of outreach visits to school sites that involve our faculty and students from throughout the EPSCoR network.”
Economic development
UD’s course in entrepreneurship was launched under the auspices of EPSCoR and has trained nearly 1,000 students so far in the skills they need to become entrepreneurs. Hundreds of virtual companies have been created as part of the class and some have gone on to become real businesses.
One of these students was Wayne Westerman, who had developed a new computer interface technology along with UD professor of electrical and computer engineering John Elias. Their company, Fingerworks, was later sold to Apple Inc. as the basis for today’s interactive screens on cell phones and tablets.
Three start-up companies in Delaware have resulted from new technologies developed through EPSCoR-sponsored research. Delaware EPSCoR is responsible for creating or sustaining more than 160 jobs in the state. UD’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnership (OEIP) was catalyzed by the EPSCoR program and has assisted EPSCoR researchers in obtaining nine patents with 35 more pending.
In the next grant cycle, OEIP will launch a new program called Spin-In, which will provide students and faculty with the opportunity to work closely with industry partners to conduct the research needed to commercialize new technologies.
“Delaware’s track record of accomplishments under the EPSCoR program has been exceptional,” Sparks said. “With the new grant, we hope to provide even greater returns to the citizens of Delaware, the region and the nation.”
Article by Beth Chajes | Photos by Evan Krape, Doug Baker and Kathy F. Atkinson
