Unravelings

My work is a collection of narratives. Each one is the unfolding of the story of a person or thing. Several pieces are made up of objects that tell the story of their owners, giving clues to their lifestyles and experiences. I am interested in the story behind the things and people that I come across on a daily basis. For instance, what was housed in the drawers of the dresser I found in a thrift shop? Who drank from the milk bottle I now use as a vase? If I see a discarded toy on the street, I wonder what events led up to its abandonment. The way in which all of the represented objects and people are linked is left ambiguous, so that the viewer can create their own narrative. The more abstracted pieces are close-ups of objects. These pieces document the wearing away or fraying of something, telling many stories over several years, possibly portraying a wall that has been painted over many times, causing it to flake, or a shirt that has been worn to the point of disrepair

Health Consciousness in High School Baseball

The purpose of this study was to address the health consciousness of high school baseball players. A group of high school baseball players were asked to fill out a survey for 4 to 7 days that recorded their diet, daily exercise, amount of sleep, and amount of screen time. The nutrition data recorded by the players was put into SuperTracker, an online food intake tracker. All of the data was recorded and compared to the recommendations found in the literature review. It was found that most of the players did not meet the nutritional recommendations, but did, however, meet the recommendations for sleep and screen time usage and exceeded the recommended amount of daily exercise.B.S. (Bachelor of Science

A River Runs By It: How Embracing a River Created Synergy for a Natural Areas Program and Interagency Environmental Education in Billings, Montana

Billings, MT was established in 1882 concurrent with the newly arrived railroad, which displaced the Yellowstone River as the area’s economic engine. For a century, Billings was dominated by ranching, agriculture, mining and refining. As the only major city in 125,000 square-miles, it is now a hub of commerce, education, and medical services. It has recently become a center for natural resource agencies and NGOs. Demand for quality of life amenities and local expertise to provide them has contributed to the rediscovery of the river as an ecological and recreational gem. This interest has led to the development of a Natural Areas management program in city wildland areas

Riparian Cottonwood Forest Restoration Along the Yellowstone River: A Featured Natural Area in Billings, Montana

Across Montana, dams curtail annual spring floods, depriving riparian cottonwood forests of the regenerative disturbance processes that sustain them. Invasive plant species further disrupt plant communities and ecosystem dynamics. Billings, MT lies along the undammed and iconic Yellowstone River. Spring floods still drive ecosystem change, but invasive species prevent a return to a fully functioning natural ecosystem. Restoring a highly visible natural area adjacent to Montana’s largest city will provide abundant opportunities for education on disturbance regimes, invasive species, and ecosystem processes

Distribution and involvement of Phytophthora cinnamomi in white oak (Quercus alba) decline in mid-Atlantic United States forests

The association of Phytophthora cinnamomi with declining white oaks was studied at 102 sites in mid-Atlantic oak forests. Seven Phytophthora species were isolated from 44 sites. P. cinnamomi was restricted to USDA plant hardiness zones six and seven, and P. cinnamomi propagules in soil were significantly higher in zone seven than in zone six. When white oak fine root lengths of infected and Phytophthora-free trees were compared, infected trees had significantly lower fine root amounts. However, infected trees in zone seven had more fine roots. Little difference in pathogenicity between 32 P. cinnamomi isolates was found during white oak seedling stem inoculations. Fine root lengths of inoculated white and red oak seedlings decreased most during the spring. Propagule density in soilless potting media decreased with increasing temperature, except at 8°C and 16°C. These studies demonstrated that the impact, survival and spread of P. cinnamomi are strongly linked to environmental conditions and host species

Relationships between sapling recruitment and canopy gaps in Waldron Fen, Emmet County, MI.

General EcologyThe purpose of our experiment was to determine the relationship between canopy cover and the density of seedlings and saplings in an aging Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) plantation in Emmet County, Michigan. For this experiment, we marked off a total of 24 4 x 4 m plots through randomly generated coordinates, to record seedling density and sapling height and density. In the middle of each plot, a spherical densiometer was used to measure canopy cover. Linear regressions were used in order to determine the relationships between canopy cover and seedling density, sapling density, and sapling height. The results indicate a significant negative correlation between seedling density and canopy cover after excluding one outlier plot from our data. There is also a significant negative correlation between sapling density and canopy cover, but only a weak correlation between sapling height and canopy cover. Our findings suggest that seedling and sapling density increase as a result of less canopy cover.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101748/1/Forde_Ho_McConnell_McKeighan_2013.pd

Detection Rates of Northern Bobwhite Coveys Using a Small Unmanned Aerial System-Mounted Thermal Camera

The northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) requires intensive monitoring to evaluate management efforts and determine harvest rates. However, traditional monitoring techniques (e.g., covey-call surveys) are labor-intensive and imprecise. Small unmanned aerial systems (sUASs) mounted with thermal cameras have demonstrated promise for monitoring multiple avian species and could provide a less intensive and more effective approach to monitoring bobwhite coveys, assuming coveys produce a recognizable heat signature. To assess sUAS monitoring, we evaluated the influence of bobwhite covey size (3, 6, and 12) and cover type (grass, shrub, and forest) on covey detectability by a sUAS equipped with a thermal camera. We hypothesized that forest would have the lowest covey detection due to trees obstructing detection of the thermal signature and that larger covey size would improve covey detection due to the formation of larger, more visibly distinct thermal signatures. We placed groups of known-size, pen-reared bobwhites in steel mesh cages (3, 6, and 12 individuals/cage) in 3 vegetation types (grass, shrub, and forest) among predetermined locations on a private farm in Clay County, Mississippi, USA (3 replicates, 27 total cages). At civil twilight on 5 March 2020, the sUAS flew a systematic route over the cage area at 30 m above ground level, capturing thermal infrared photographs every 5 seconds. To assess detection, we distributed 57 photographs to 31 volunteers and asked them to assign a binary value for detection (1, 0) regarding covey presence in each photograph. Overall true positive rate was 0.551 but improved with increasing covey size. By vegetation type, simulated coveys in grass had the lowest true positive rate by photograph (0.403), followed by forest (0.562) and shrub (0.605). Results indicate that sUASs and thermal camera technology could be a viable method for surveying intact bobwhite coveys, especially if detection of smaller groups and those in denser vegetation improves. As this technology advances, we recommend that future research focus on evaluating the efficacy of this novel methodology through assessing the influence of weather conditions, camera specifications, flight speed, and altitude, as well as assessing machine learning for processing photos

Metolachlor metabolite (MESA) reveals agricultural nitrate-N fate and transport in Choptank River watershed

Over 50% of streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been rated as poor or very poor based on the index of biological integrity. The Choptank River estuary, a Bay tributary on the eastern shore, is one such waterway, where corn and soybean production in upland areas of the watershed contribute significant loads of nutrients and sediment to streams. We adopted a novel approach utilizing the relationship between the concentration of nitrate-N and the stable, water-soluble herbicide degradation product MESA {2-[2-ethyl-N-(1- methoxypropan-2-yl)-6-methylanilino]-2-oxoethanesulfonic acid} to distinguish between dilution and denitrification effects on the stream concentration of nitrate-N in agricultural subwatersheds. The ratio of mean nitrate-N concentration/(mean MESA concentration * 1000) for 15 subwatersheds was examined as a function of percent cropland on hydric soil. This inverse relationship (R2 = 0.65, p b 0.001) takes into consideration not only dilution and denitrification of nitrate-N, but also the stream sampling bias of the croplands caused by the Choptank River. The relationship between nitrate-N and MESA concentrations in samples collected over three years was linear (0.95 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.99) for all eight sampling dates except one where R2 = 0.90. This very strong correlation indicates that nitrate-N was conserved in much of the Choptank River estuary, that dilution alone is responsible for the changes in nitrate-N and MESA concentrations, and more importantly nitrate-N loads are not reduced in the estuary prior to entering the Chesapeake Bay. Thus, a critical need exists to minimize nutrient export from agricultural production fields and to identify specific conservation practices to address the hydrologic conditions within each subwatershed. In well drained areas, removal of residual N within the cropland is most critical, and practices such as cover crops which sequester the residual N should be strongly encouraged. In poorly drained areas where denitrification can occur, wetland restoration and controlled drained structures that minimize ditch flow should be used to maximize denitrification