But now the pond is empty. So where are the koi?

Bob Conaghan, associate director of Facilities Management and grounds manager, has been caring for the 75 acres on the Garden City campus for more than 45 years. He’s assisted by a team that includes mechanics and plumbers like Bruce Brine. Initially, Conaghan and his team purchased 24 koi and goldfish from a nursery nearby in the Town of Hempstead as part of their ongoing mission to beautify the campus. Today, there are more than 500 koi.

Conaghan and Brine explained that the pools are drained for winter and the majority of the koi are relocated.

Most of them are now swimming about in one of two holding tanks in the Nexus Building. They’ve been joined by two turtles who were formerly owned by an Adelphi employee but needed a new home.

Others are in a 50-gallon tank in the basement of Swirbul Library. They’re cared for by Brine and his colleagues, who brought in additional fish, such as carp and goldfish, to join their more exotic counterparts.

Some of the larger koi have remained outside and can still be seen circling in the Swirbul south patio pool. Conaghan said the pool’s close proximity to the library warms the water, thus preventing it from freezing.

Life Under Water

According to Conaghan, winter is the hibernation period for the fish: During this period they conserve their energy and barely swim.

When spring comes, it’s time to return to their usual home at the Swirbul entrance. Conaghan said moving the koi takes “them out of their hibernation state.” “That’s when they start laying eggs almost immediately. The water temperature has to be a certain number when they’re going to mate, usually around June,” Brine added. “They lay the eggs sometimes twice a year.”

The koi have 40- to 50-year life spans. Smaller koi are preyed upon by species like raccoons and egrets, but Conaghan said most of the koi have grown too large for these predators.

The Once and Future Pools

The pools outside Swirbul were originally simple reflecting pools, but “no matter how many hours we put into cleaning and vacuuming, they never looked crystal clear,” Conaghan said. He decided to let water lilies and water irises and the koi act as natural filters. “We receive many more compliments now than before.”

And as of this past May, a waterfall has been added, thanks to a donation from Nancy Rogner ’75, which “turned out to be a really big hit,” Conaghan said.

Facilities Management is currently looking into the possibility of adding UV lights and a filtration system to the pool.

Keeping Adelphi Green

Of course, Conaghan and his team are responsible for far more than the koi. The winter break may be a time for students to relax, but Conaghan, Brine and the team are still at Adelphi every day to ensure facilities are in top shape.

Conaghan said he enjoys being the grounds manager the most of his many responsibilities. In this role, he maintains the campus organically, without the use of pesticides. He also gives students and alumni tours, which can include the behind-the-scenes areas where he and the facilities team operate. He’ll talk about anything from the “probably a couple thousand” Italian wall lizards that might be spotted running around on campus to the names of different trees students might see when walking to their next class.

“The students like hearing about these kinds of things,” Conaghan said. “And we talk about many of the other things on campus that are out of sight, out of mind. So when the students leave our tour, they have a much better understanding of the nature around them.”

To get some glimpses of the fish and hear more from the facilities team, produced by Adelphi’s social media team.

The post Where Have All the Koi Gone? appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

“Since we created our Green Guide in 2010, we have also seen dramatic growth in the number of colleges committing to sustainability practices—from sourcing food locally and constructing LEED-certified buildings, to making commitments to becoming fossil fuel-free,” said  , editor-in-chief of . “We are proud to shine our light on these exceptional schools and to recommend them to students who want their ‘best-fit’ college to also be a green one.”

For the past two decades, Adelphi has prided itself on being a pesticide-free organic campus. A registered arboretum, the University is home to nearly 70 different types of trees and shrubs, as well as to the University’s unofficial mascot, the Adelphi bunnies.

As part of Adelphi’s Momentum 2 strategic plan, the University has committed to sustainability goals by dedicating one of its 16 priorities to efforts that support an environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient environment.

Recent initiatives include:

• The installation of solar panels on the roof of Swirbul Library and the Center for Recreation and Sports, respectively.
• Adelphi has 18 EV charging stations currently on campus—12 in the Motamed Field garage and six in the Nexus Building garage.
• by sourcing regional suppliers, ensuring that water bottle filling stations are located throughout campus and reducing food waste by using “imperfect” produce from root to stem.
• During the renovation of the Ruth S. Harley University Center, which reopened in 2021, environmentally friendly methods were used whenever possible, including the use of reclaimed or biomass materials and energy-efficient lighting.

Learn more about Adelphi’s sustainability and conservation efforts.

The post Adelphi Featured in Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Schools for 2025 appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

That’s what Heather Gittelson, a rising senior majoring in cognitive neuroscience and a member of Adelphi’s Honors College, is asking participants this summer in her research project, “Can Taking the Perspective of a Relative in the Future Influence Climate Change Risk Perception.”

Earlier research has indicated that people can be reluctant to be proactive about climate change because they feel disconnected from the future. “I want to understand what can motivate people to care more about others,” Gittelson explained. “We can’t expect to make positive changes in the environment moving forward without using neuroscience and psychology to understand what drives people’s decisions.”

This past academic year, she assisted Karolina Lempert, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, in her National Institutes of Health-funded research project exploring memory’s role in decision-making.

This summer, Gittelson is again working with Dr. Lempert to “conduct an experiment in which we test a psychological manipulation to see if it will change climate-related decisions,” she said. “In this case, people must make decisions that are both future- and other-oriented.”

Dr. Lempert notes that while Gittelson’s summer experiment relates to her own work about future decision-making, her student wants to find ways to encourage pro-climate behavior. “This project combines both of our interests. I’ve been interested in basic decision-making, but Heather is making this more concrete.”

Making Better Decisions for the Future

The 300 participants will be divided into three online groups of 100.

• The first group will read a vignette about a storm caused by climate inaction and use future thinking, Gittelson said, to “develop a vivid mental image of a future event, and perspective taking, where they will name a young friend or relative to represent future generations impacted by climate change.”
• The second group will read a short story about a storm and refer to an unnamed person in the future. According to Gittelson, they’ll learn if vivid details about a storm are enough to enhance participants’ perception of risk—or if considering the perspective of a chosen individual leads to a greater effect.
• The third group will only read some facts about a future when no climate actions are taken.

Each participant will then be asked to decide how to split $10 between themselves and a climate charity.

The Big Picture

Gittelson expects that the first group that engages in both future thinking and perspective taking will donate a greater share of the $10.

Participants’ answers to questions about their political orientations and general attitudes about climate change will also be factored in. She also expects younger participants to better understand the risks of climate change, since they will most likely be adversely impacted over time.

Gittelson, who hopes to pursue a doctoral degree after graduating from Adelphi, is passionate about her summer project—and limiting the impact of climate change. “Big picture, we’re hoping to contribute information on effective ways to make people care more about climate change and encourage small-scale climate action. We may not be able to stop climate change, but any action is better than none, so we hope to motivate people to take pro-climate action.”

The post Stepping Into the Future: Using Neuroscience to Inspire Climate Action appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

The Joro spider, a species native to East Asia that can grow up to eight inches long, is already in the United States and is making its way to the Northeast.

If you’re interested in arachnids, the Joro’s impending arrival is something to be excited about. But if you’re one of the many people who fear even itsy-bitsy spiders, you’re probably freaking out at the thought of running into one.

Joro Facts From an Adelphi Expert

The media is sounding the alarm about how we’ll be invaded by giant, flying spiders. But this isn’t necessarily true.

The Joro is big, as mentioned earlier, but “giant” is pushing the envelope. The species isn’t the size of fictional spiders like Shelob (The Lord of the Rings) or Aragog (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). It doesn’t actually fly but moves through the air on silk threads that catch air currents. (Joros can also hitch rides on vehicles.) And we won’t be getting an Arachnophobia-worthy amount of them by any means.

Perhaps most reassuring of all, the species, according to experts, is not harmful to humans and is not out to get us.

Matthias Foellmer, PhD, is Adelphi’s “Spider-Man,” so to speak—a professor of biology who is “fascinated by spiders,” as he notes on his .

He explained that while the Joro is non-native, “it does not appear to be invasive, but rather is in the process of becoming naturalized. Orb-weaving spiders rarely, if ever, compete over food and are typically not abundant enough to threaten prey species.”

That means, unlike our recent nemeses, the lanternfly and the brown marmorated stink bug, the Joro is not expected to have a negative impact on native organisms. And while we were told to kill invasive insects on sight, there’s no call to do the same to Joros. In fact, Dr. Foellmer suggests we view the Joro as our ally in the bug battle. “If anything, it’ll catch at least some of the bugs you don’t like, like lanternflies and mosquitoes,” he said.

If you see a Joro outside, leave it alone, he advised. What if one comes inside? “I’d be surprised if one would ever come into your house, but should you encounter one inside, gently push it into a jar and release it outside,” he said.

He added, “They are beautiful! View it like a pretty flower.”

Tips for Joro Phobia From an Adelphi Expert

If you’re still not swayed, you’re not alone. Joel Weinberger, PhD, a clinical and research psychologist and professor at the Âé¶čֱȄ Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, has studied phobias and the unconscious mind for about 20 years and has published on the subjects.

“A phobia is an intense, irrational fear of an object or type of experience that is disproportionate to the actual danger posed and can cause significant distress and impairment in daily functioning,” he said, adding that arachnophobia—fear of spiders—is one of the top 10 phobias people experience, and, “Most people are uncomfortable around spiders even if they don’t have a full-blown phobia.”

Arachnophobia isn’t entirely irrational; there is a biological/evolutionary component, he explained. Since some species of spiders can be harmful to humans, our ancestors who avoided all species were more likely to survive than those who took a chance and did not.

If you encounter a Joro and have a phobia, “you will freak out,” he said. He advised that if the phobia affects your daily life—for example, you’re afraid to go outside for fear of running into a spider—psychological treatment can help. Exposure therapy is the most effective. As it sounds, the patient is gradually and systematically exposed to the feared object—real, virtual or an image—in a controlled and safe environment, thereby helping you confront and reduce your fear and anxiety over time.

A Matter of Perspective

In , after Wilbur the pig first meets Charlotte A. Cavatica, the spider who would save his life, he asks himself: “Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?”

If you’re asking yourself the same question, consider the benefits of spiders to our ecosystem. As Charlotte says, “…do you realize that if I didn’t catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they’d destroy the earth, wipe out everything?”

Or as Billie Eilish, who worked with live tarantulas in her and has one for a pet, said (as reported in ), “They’re fun. They’re not gonna hurt you. They’re cool.”

The post The Joro Spiders Are Coming: Are You Fascinated or Freaking Out? appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

The Community Garden came about thanks to Kelly Andreuzzi. Andreuzzi, who uses they/them pronouns, has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s degree in environmental studies. A former president of the and environmental activist, they spearheaded the garden initiative in 2022, with the support of the Center for Student and Community Engagement (SCE). “Community is especially important to me—I have immense passion for empowering my own community and dedicating time to providing services that truly make a difference.”

According to Kelsey D’Andrea, assistant director of the SCE, the main crops of the garden are various types of lettuces, peppers and tomatoes. “We are hoping, over time, to find other plants that will thrive within the garden,” she said.

Growing Together

Senior Erica Gibson, volunteer coordinator of the Panther Pantry, said the food donated is appreciated by the pantry and its patrons. “We want to [supply] the people who visit the Pantry with fresh ingredients whenever we can to help them add a bit extra to the amazing variety of items we already provide them,” she said. For example, she cited that the garden’s tomatoes could be used to make fresh tomato sauce to pair with the pantry’s various pastas they provide.

The pantry plays an important role in the harvesting of the garden.

“In the upcoming semesters, we will be moving more intentionally to strengthen our relationship between the members of the Community Garden and the volunteers of the Panther Pantry,” said Gibson.

The garden is a great place to learn and be a part of a community. “Reflecting back, I feel more appreciative of food and those working to provide our communities with fresh produce,” Andreuzzi said. “I am happy to say that I applied the theories and practices that I have learned inside the classroom into the Community Garden on campus.”

Blossoming in Knowledge

The Community Garden is more than a resource that provides food for others. Volunteers also gain valuable skills and learn more about themselves.

“Working on the Community Garden helped me gain the knowledge and experience to start my own garden at home to provide my family with a sustainable source of produce,” said Andreuzzi. “Working with others and sharing knowledge as a community has taught me to become a better gardener and be able to share what I have learned with others.”

Being able to volunteer in this garden provides students with new perspectives on agriculture and the importance of community.

Andreuzzi said, “Agriculture is hard, calculated work—it’s extremely time sensitive and requires an immense amount of consistent care.”

The post How Does Our Community Garden Grow? With Fresh Produce Donated to Those in Need appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

After completing approval processes, Shipley expects installation of the solar panels to begin by late June or early July. “There will be a flurry of activity in the beginning, to get equipment up on the roof, hooking up the electrical side to the campus grid, and completing inspections,” he explained. “Once it is connected to the electrical grid, it should be up and running by fall.”

A solar array is coming to the roof of the Center for Recreation and Sports

Neil Sharma, co-founder and chief commercial officer of SolarKal, is the project consultant and adviser. He said, “Our collaboration with the University dates back to 2022, during which time we’ve diligently sought out avenues for seamlessly integrating solar technology into the campus infrastructure, aligning with the University’s steadfast dedication to renewable energy initiatives.”

The new solar panels are the second to be installed on campus since Swirbul Library first harnessed solar power with a 50 KW rooftop power system in 2011. According to Shipley, the maximum output of the system would be consumed by the CRS and supplemented by the normal power grid. “We aren’t selling or exporting any of the power generated—we’re using it right here on campus,” stated Shipley.

Generating Fuel Efficiency

In keeping with Adelphi’s leadership in energy conservation and fuel efficiency, the CRS project came about when an emergency repair was needed on the building’s roof in late 2021 and early 2022.

“I spoke to the former CFO and gave him options to defer and offset capital costs. The building was an excellent candidate for a solar system, with its large, wide-open roof,” Shipley said.

A search for vendors landed on Greenskies Clean Energy LLC, which will install the system. “We’re not spending money to have it installed,” Shipley explained. Adelphi has a 20-year contract to purchase the power generated by the system at a discount from PSEG. “That’s how we will garner $20,000 in savings a year,” he said.

Sustaining a Green Environment

While the University’s recently completed Momentum 2 strategic plan makes support of an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient environment a crucial priority, a 2023 top ranking as an environmentally responsible green college by The Princeton Review recognizes Adelphi’s longstanding commitment and leadership in sustainability.

The campus, which maintains its natural beauty through organic gardening techniques, has been pesticide-free for 20 years. More recent initiatives have included the green-minded Ruth S. Harley University Center renovation that prevented tons of debris from ending up in landfills; numerous electric vehicle chargers on campus; sustainable dining that depends on local and regional suppliers; and convenient, campuswide water bottle refill stations.

As Shipley sees it, the CRS’s solar paneled roof is an easy way to continue Adelphi’s green leadership. “The rooftop is an unused space as is. Why not put it to work generating electricity? The system will be relatively maintenance-free once it is up and running.”

The post A Solar Array is Coming to the Roof of the Center for Recreation and Sports appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

Bob Conaghan, associate director of facilities, has been keeping track of Adelphi’s rabbits for the 44 years he has worked in grounds.

He said there is a stable population of 200–300 eastern cottontail rabbits who live on campus. Native to North America and wide-ranging along the entire East Coast, the cottontails are easily recognizable by their reddish or grayish brown fur, large feet, white bellies and fluffy white tails.

Adults weigh up to three pounds and, for the most part, they live underground and can have a lifespan of up to four years.

We may be tempted to try to catch and adopt a bunny, but the eastern cottontail is not domesticated and would never make a good pet.

Sunrise, Sunset and Yellow Flowers

Eastern cottontails are crepuscular, meaning, “You’ll see them early in the morning, right around sunrise and right before sunset,” said Conaghan, adding that they often congregate around the campus flagpole.

The Adelphi cottontails love to eat yellow flowers—and flower bulbs. “We plant 5,000 bulbs a year, and it’s okay if we lose 1,000,” he stated. And with the grounds crew’s organic, no pesticide program, the rabbits have no danger of being harmed by toxic pesticides.

Nature’s Way

Rabbits are known for their fertility. The population stays relatively stable by letting nature take its course. “Their worst enemies are dogs, cats and hawks,” noted Conaghan. “We’ve seen swoop down and grab baby bunnies. But more mature rabbits move quickly in a zigzag pattern to escape predators on the ground.”

The rabbits freeze in place as a defensive measure and take off once a predator spies them. “They have an unbelievable sense of smell, and twitch their noses to open their smell sensors,” Conaghan explained.

“I appreciate the rabbits. They’ve been at Adelphi as long as we have,” he added. “And who knows, maybe they bring us luck.”

The post Springtime at Adelphi: Get to Know Our Famous Bunnies appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

According to Conaghan, two varieties of Japanese cherry trees, which vary in size and age, grace the campus. The majority are Kwanzan cherry trees, with deep pink blossoms that pleasantly contrast with the white to paler pink shades of the Yoshino trees.

The cherry trees that have  been planted along the baseball field are informally referred to by Conaghan’s grounds crew as “cherry lane,” he reported. The trees start blooming in mid-April. The Kwanzan (prunus serrulata) cherry trees in front of the Ruth S. Harley University Center are a favorite spot for grads to pose in their caps and gowns.

Conaghan, whose career at Adelphi began 44 years ago, recalled a time when there was a single surviving black cherry tree—prunus serotina—by the Hy Weinberg Center. Unlike the Kwanzan and Yoshino blossoming trees, black cherry trees are native to Long Island and bear fruit.

Meet Some Other Trees

For those eagerly awaiting the peak of the cherry trees’ blossoms, Conaghan noted that the Cornelian cherry dogwoods, which he planted a few years ago on South Avenue and between the Nexus Building and Swirbul Library, are always the first trees to bloom on campus with their lovely yellow flowers. “It’s not a cherry tree, despite its name, but does have beautiful early blossoms.”

He pointed out a native Long Island tree called an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) by Hagedorn Hall that bursts into purple-hued flowers in May. “Walk from the UC to Nexus and you’ll see a purple-leaf flowering plum tree on your left,” he noted. “We also have a few different types of magnolias that are also getting ready to bloom. One of my favorites, on the south side of Levermore Hall, is the cucumber magnolia, with its pretty yellow flowers.”

TLC for Cherry Trees

Caring for the cherry trees is relatively straightforward, Conaghan said, adding, “Pruning is important to keep a tree’s crown in shape. And they don’t like to be overwatered.

“We have a good system here, though,” he explained. “When I took over the grounds, I threw out all pesticides and began an organic practice. We bring in insects such as assassin bugs and green lacewings to eat insects we don’t want. We engage in proper pruning and watering—which all seem to be working to keep the trees in good shape.”

Like all living things, however, the ornamental cherry trees have a lifespan. “Some of the older ones have been here for 70 years—but they won’t last forever,” Conaghan said.

That’s why “We continue to plant more cherry trees on campus. We like variety, but we mainly look for what is healthiest at local nurseries. If Kwanzan trees look healthier than Yoshino trees, we’ll get them—or vice versa.”

Boots on the Grounds

Conaghan’s grounds crew of four is led by foreman Jimmy Campbell, who is “a miracle on two feet,” Conaghan said. Beginning at 6:30 every morning, the crew polices the entire campus, not only cleaning up garbage, but also inspecting the shrubs, trees, flowers and grass. This daily check ensures that any problem—whether aphids in a tree or a lawn that is turning brown—is taken care of without delay and unnecessary expense.

“We don’t want plants to die on our watch,” Conaghan insisted. “And we want our beautiful campus and arboretum to look the best it can. I’m not the one responsible for how nice the campus looks. The grounds crew is. These fantastic guys have a great knowledge of plants, flowers, trees. They make my job easy.”

The post A Sure Sign of Spring: Adelphi’s Cherry Trees appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

How can this 40 percent of people be convinced that climate change is real—and more importantly, that human activity is contributing to it? Alemtsehai Turasie, PhD, assistant professor in Âé¶čֱȄ’s , believes that the only tool to convince those who deny the existence of climate change is to support our arguments with reliable evidence.

Dr. Turasie co-authored “,” which was published in Statistics and Econometrics of Environment and Climate Change, a special issue of the journal Sustainability, and takes a new approach to modeling changes in our environment and attributing any changes detected to appropriate factors. He completed all the data analysis and produced the graphs used in the paper to indicate results.

According to the paper, detection-attribution studies assess whether detected climate changes are significantly outside the range expected from natural internal variability and “assess to what extent observed changes can be attributed to external forcings of climate change, both human-induced and naturally occurring.” However, the existing methods for detection and attribution are missing an important piece of the puzzle.

“Climate scientists use different methods—such as ordinary least squares regression and total squares regression—for detection and attribution of climate change,” Dr. Turasie said. “Unfortunately, these existing methods for detection and attribution are based on the assumption that the data used are stationary. The trouble with that is, most climate variables, like global mean temperature, are not stationary.”

Dr. Turasie and his co-authors, David Stephenson, PhD, of the University of Exeter and Donald Cummins, PhD, of Université de Toulouse, looked at the characteristics of the existing methods for measuring climate change and the real data available. They then designed this study as the first to evaluate the performance of existing methods and to then introduce a new method that can account for nonstationarity in the data.

After intensive data analysis, they found that the cointegrating vector autoregressive model of order 2, VAR(2), outperformed the existing methods in terms of all statistical criteria. In other words, Dr. Turasie says that their new VAR(2) model was found to be less biased and more precise, and therefore more accurate, than the existing methods.

With sustainable development efforts increasingly focusing on human-induced climate change, this level of precision is important in pinpointing specific factors and to what degree they contribute to observed climate trends—so that we can take steps to decrease them.

How Climate Science Research Can Impact the Future

The implications for this research are wide-reaching. Dr. Turasie says that climate change affects almost all sectors, and sustainability of these sectors heavily depends on accurate detection of changes—and strong policies to adapt the changes.

“Reliable detection and attribution of climate change is a key for policymaking and preparedness,” he said. “Use of the new method we proposed can help climate scientists to detect changes more accurately, and policymakers and investors to put adaptation tools in place for sustainable development.”

He adds, “If we can’t detect possible changes properly, we can’t be prepared. If we are not prepared, there is no sustainability. Accurate detection of climate change minimizes false positives and false negatives, allowing policymakers to allocate resources more efficiently and effectively.”

A Love for Statistics Becomes a Passion for Climate Change Research

Dr. Turasie grew up in a small rural village in Ethiopia, developing a love for statistics that led him to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the subject from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He is the first in his family to attend college.

After completing graduate school, Dr. Turasie began to feel drawn toward taking on some of our world’s pressing problems—and to use statistics to do so. His interest in weather and climate change, one of the largest global issues, seemed a natural fit. He embarked on doctoral studies at Exeter Climate Systems at the University of Exeter, focusing his research on the application of statistics to climate-related research and completing his PhD project under the supervision of an interdisciplinary team of renowned professors of statistics, climate science and economics.

Since joining the faculty of Âé¶čֱȄ in Fall 2022, Dr. Turasie has continued exploring this research interest and making important contributions that have the potential to impact how we address the impacts humans are making on the environment.

“There is an old saying, ‘Without data, you are just another person with an opinion.’ Statistics makes sense out of data,” Dr. Turasie said. “Properly collected data are more genuine than many theories. Mathematics and statistics will always play an irreplaceable role in providing crucial evidence toward solving real-life problems and answering important questions.”

The post Detecting Human-Induced Climate Change appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.

She pitched the idea to the National Park Service in 2020, and received funding from the Schoodic Institute as part of the  research fellowship program.

At Adelphi, Dr. Giakoumis double majored in environmental studiesÌęČčČÔ»ćÌęanthropology and was a member of the Honors College. She also participated in several study abroad programs, including studying marine biology at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It was here that she discovered her passion for marine conservation. Now, she is developing an app that anyone can download and use to contribute to her study, part of a growing movement by scientists to embrace what is known as “citizen science.”

In Fall 2023, Dr. Giakoumis returned to her alma mater virtually to present “Conservation of Sea Stars in the North Atlantic Ocean” for Adelphi’s Artivism series.

Here, she shares what interested her about sea stars, why she is creating the app, and advice for women in STEM.

Why sea stars?

Sea stars are keystone species, which means they have a disproportionately large effect on their communities. Their presence or absence on the coast in these intertidal [areas between high and low tide] communities can shape the types of species that can live there.

They’re also under-studied. In a marine context, people think about more charismatic animals, like endangered whales. Yet sea stars are one of the few invertebrate species that people connect with—they get really excited when they go to the beach and find a sea star. So you can get the wider community engaged with your research.

How will your app help with your research?

One of my hypotheses about why sea stars are declining involves Sea StarWasting Syndrome, which is a disease that has high mortality and likely affects sea stars regularly. We have no baseline data for how often sea star wasting outbreaks are happening or how severe they are. If we can crowdsource that information through people who are already out on the beaches in the North Atlantic, we can have a much better idea of where this is happening, what time of year it’s happening, and how severe it is.

How does the app work?

When you see an animal, you take a picture and upload it with a location. Then students can review the images and confirm whether the sea stars are sick [and give us] baseline data for when these outbreaks are happening. I’m sure scientists will be some of the primary users, but I hope we’ll get users who are not scientists as well. More boots on the ground is always better. In a study that I am hoping to publish soon, I have some pretty striking results and have documented that the density of sea stars is declining really rapidly.

What does your work at the Museum of Natural History involve?

Along with my own research, I run the Institute for Comparative Genomics Data, working under the director of the Institute for Comparative Genomics. As associate director, I manage the staff and make strategic long-term decisions about the future of the program. I also work and manage several different genomics labs 
 [including one] lab that we call the Ancient Biomolecules Lab, which is equipped to extract DNA from very old specimens from museum collections. We’re one of only a couple of institutions equipped with a lab of that caliber.

What advice do you have for women entering STEM fields?

Find a community of support. I’ve been a part of the  for over a decade, and it’s been invaluable to me to have a community that wants to support women in science. We reach out to each other about specific problems, find ways to address them and push for institutional change, because there’s power in numbers. And if there isn’t a community you can join, then build one.

How have you adjusted from being a woman scientist to being one who is also a mom?

It’s fun and it’s amazing, but it’s a whole new world with a whole new set of challenges. But I have a lot to look forward to—hopefully, one day my daughter will look to me for some of the same advice I’ve shared today!

The post She Seeks Sea Stars—and How to Save Them appeared first on Âé¶čֱȄ.