[LTER-sbc_help] COVID-19 Community Messages Week 2

[Hubbard Brook Research Foundation]

 ‌ ‌ Familiar Faces Friday Enjoy these short virtual updates from Hubbard Brook. Hannah Vollmer Field Technician, US Forest Service/MS Student, Plymouth State University Congratulations to all for making it through the geologic epoch that was March! I was looking forward to some downtime at home to focus on my jigsaw puzzles, but I've already gotten distracted. On Tuesday morning, I woke up to an email from "info at nsfgrfp" and groggily read the equally unintelligible contents that congratulated me on receiving a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship...Now, I'm still trying to figure out if that was just a day-early April Fool's prank, but my name is right there on the webpage of award recipients, and it is blowing my mind. I did not expect to get this prestigious award when I applied, and I certainly did not expect to get it in the middle of a pandemic, so life is pretty surreal right now.   While my research is regional, it is not very Hubbard Brook related, though everyone here has been my inspiration, and I'm serious about that. I will be researching the conservation genetics of three rare alpine roses in the White Mountains: a disjunct, presumed extirpated population of Sibbaldia procumbens, regionally endemic Geum peckii, and White Mountains endemic Potentilla robbinsiana. I plan to use molecular techniques and field observations to estimate phylogenies, assess population genetic diversity, and characterize species’ habitats to better understand ecological process and inform conservation strategies.   	 A preemptive thanks for your encouragement and support, as I know I'll be looking to you all for scientific inspiration. And resilience! Peter and his new grandson, Nigel. Peter Groffman Professor CUNY Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center and Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Greetings to the Hubbard Brook community! It has been great to see how our group has responded to the challenges of the pandemic; thinking of how to keep people safe, how to keep our community intact, and how to keep our research going. I am lucky to have research efforts, co-workers, and offices in urban (New York City, Baltimore) and rural (Millbrook, Hubbard Brook) locations and it is interesting to see how there are different challenges in different places. For those of us outside the city, it is easier to get out and walk around and get some fresh air and clear our heads. And our living spaces are bigger. On the other hand, I worry about many rural residents suffering alone in isolation and anxiety. I think it is important to remember that we are all in this together, that like in ecosystems, many things are connected and that what we do at the individual scale has impacts at larger scale that can feedback to us in positive or negative ways. Be well and I look forward to seeing everyone hopefully sooner rather than later! Tammy Wooster Field Technician, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Clara Chaisson Outreach and Communications Manager, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation David Zietlow Hydrologist, US Forest Service Hi Everybody! Or everybody’s computer! I’m losing track of the difference ;) Kim, Kobe, and I are holding up here on Mill Brook. We are feeling fortunate for many things, including our health, each other, remote work, an able and available homeschool teacher, and of course 10am recess! Living in a sparsely populated neighborhood close to woods and creeks and bike riding territory is another aspect of our situation we are thankful for. We are also aware that we are an anomaly compared to the other 8 billion people out there, some who do not have a roof, or money to buy a week of groceries, or a fridge to put them in, or even a companion to share this terrible experience with. Kim stays pretty busy teaching a kindergartener and managing a lone child with no warm blooded companions. However, she has found time to make masks out of cotton for health care workers. Hospitals are increasingly accepting the use of such masks by themselves, or as a cover over a manufactured n95 mask to extend their lifespan. If anyone is interested in firing up their sewing machine to contribute to this effort I can put them in contact with Kim. Between sitting at my computers, AND standing at my computers, there is plenty of work to take care of! I am focused on trying to produce good streamflow data from our 9 watersheds. Nina and her BOXes have been extremely helpful in getting all the important data into one file. We even have the hookgage data from the weekly rounds tacked on the right end. What started as more than 33,167,232 unique cells will end up with less than 2,632,320 cells that we will push onto Mark who will top off the “less than” part with the ensemble prediction. Until next time, David The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. Hubbard Brook Research Foundation | 30 Pleasant St., Woodstock, VT 05091 Unsubscribe sbc_help at lternet.edu Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by sciencelinks at hubbardbrookfoundation.org in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!
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