Lacawac Sanctuary Research Grants
Review of applications will begin on April 15 of each year
Robert Estabrook Moeller Research Fellow Award
Lacawac is now accepting applications for the 2020 R. E. Moeller Research Fellow Award
Applicants can be graduate students, post docs, or faculty. The award supports scholars conducting ecological research that incorporates Lacawac’s natural resources. Preference will be given to scholars who are new Lacawac users or are starting new projects, and who request funding to cover Lacawac lodging, lab, and/or boat fees. Awards are up to $5,000 but are generally ~$2,500.
2019 R. E. Moeller Fellows
Lauren Adkins Knose, Miami University
Investigating algal responses, including community assembly and toxin presence, to changes in nutrient, light and temperature differences, accelerated by increasing dissolved organic matter (DOM).
Lauren Adkins Knose is a PhD student in the Global Change Limnology Laboratory at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research is focused on studying the effects of climate change on lakes, including changes in transparency, mixing, nutrient regeneration, and the potential public health consequences for the communities reliant on the lake(s) for goods and services. Prior to Miami University, she received a Master of Public Health from the University in Tennessee, Knoxville and worked as a Public Health Specialist on USEPA’s health impact assessments.
Investigating algal responses, including community assembly and toxin presence, to changes in nutrient, light and temperature differences, accelerated by increasing dissolved organic matter (DOM).
Lauren Adkins Knose is a PhD student in the Global Change Limnology Laboratory at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research is focused on studying the effects of climate change on lakes, including changes in transparency, mixing, nutrient regeneration, and the potential public health consequences for the communities reliant on the lake(s) for goods and services. Prior to Miami University, she received a Master of Public Health from the University in Tennessee, Knoxville and worked as a Public Health Specialist on USEPA’s health impact assessments.
Jessica "JB" Moon, Murray State University
Long-term Deer Herbivory Effect Carbon Pools and Fluxes in a Temperate Forest
J.B. Moon has a Ph.D. in Ecology from The Pennsylvania State University, with a background in landscape ecology and wetland microbial biogeochemistry. She was a postdoc at the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Coast Ecology Branch and the University of Arkansas and is now an Assistant Professor in the Watershed Studies Institute and the Biological Sciences Department at Murray State University. She studies how landscapes affect fine-scale spatial variability in wetlands and alter their carbon and nitrogen cycles. In recent years, her research interests have expanded outside of wetlands. Last summer she was part of a team studying how carbon cycling changes across a land use gradient, from old-growth forests to abandoned rubber plantations in the montane rain forests of Borneo. She received a Franklin & Marshal COG Grant and the Moeller Award to begin studying the effects of deer browsing on soil microbial communities and their carbon cycling in the long-term deer enclosures at Lacawac.
Long-term Deer Herbivory Effect Carbon Pools and Fluxes in a Temperate Forest
J.B. Moon has a Ph.D. in Ecology from The Pennsylvania State University, with a background in landscape ecology and wetland microbial biogeochemistry. She was a postdoc at the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Coast Ecology Branch and the University of Arkansas and is now an Assistant Professor in the Watershed Studies Institute and the Biological Sciences Department at Murray State University. She studies how landscapes affect fine-scale spatial variability in wetlands and alter their carbon and nitrogen cycles. In recent years, her research interests have expanded outside of wetlands. Last summer she was part of a team studying how carbon cycling changes across a land use gradient, from old-growth forests to abandoned rubber plantations in the montane rain forests of Borneo. She received a Franklin & Marshal COG Grant and the Moeller Award to begin studying the effects of deer browsing on soil microbial communities and their carbon cycling in the long-term deer enclosures at Lacawac.
Robert Moeller, a friend to Lacawac...
Robert was born in Chicago in 1949 and grew up roaming the hills and fields of western Pennsylvania. He went to high school at Shadyside Academy in Fox Chapel PA and did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College. He earned his PhD from Cornell University in Aquatic Ecology, followed by postdoctoral work in Paleolimnology at the University of Minnesota and in Aquatic Ecology at Michigan State. His career involved positions at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Lehigh University, and most recently Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Many years of his life were dedicated to work on Lake Lacawac and other lakes in the Poconos of northeastern Pennsylvania.
From his earliest childhood Robert spent each day in active pursuit of knowledge. His unquenchable and wide ranging curiosity about matters from reptiles and bugs to fossils and rocketry as a child, through nature, history, music, culture, politics, literature, languages, and geography made asking him a question its own reward. It is the intention of the Robert Estabrook Moeller Memorial Fund to support promising young scholars in limnology with bright, inquisitive minds who will perpetuate this search for knowledge. Robert’s generosity extended to his establishing an endowed fund which will support Robert Estabrook Moeller Research Fellow awards to college and university students and faculty to do limnological research on Lake Lacawac and other Pocono region lakes. |
Previous Recipients
2018: Dr. Alyson Thibodeau, Dickinson College Investigation of Lead Isotopes as Chronostratigraphic Markers for Lake Sediments in Northeastern Pennsylvania 2018: Dr. James R. Dearworth, Jr. , Lafayette College Ecophysiological Evidence for the Ability of red-eared slider Turtles to Adapt to Hypoxic Environmenta 2017: Dr. Elise Heiss, King's College Nitorgen Cycling in Lake Lacawac: Investigating Environmental Controls on Water Column Nitrification 2017: Rachel Pilla, Miami University in Ohio Mapping the Metabolic Landscape for Threatened Zooplankton Taxa in Lakes 2016: Dr. Christopher Dempsey, Gannon University The role of photochemical reactions and microbial degradation in the oxidation of dissolved organic carbon in Lake Lacawac 2015: Jennifer Brentrup, Miami University of Ohio A comparison of the fate of terrestrial dissolved organic matter in temperate vs. sub-tropical lakes 2014: Dr. Robyn Smyth, Bard Center for Environmental Policy Understanding changes in lake thermal structure: preliminary physical analysis of Lakes Lacawac and Giles |
Isabel and Arther Watres Student Research Award
Announcing the 2020 Isabel and Arthur Watres Student Research Fellows
2019 A. Watres Student Research Fellows
Mitchell Campbell, University of South Florida
Advisor: James Dearworth, Lafayette College
Survey at Lacawac Sanctuary: To help define the ecology of the red-eared slider turtles, Trachemys scripta elegans.
Mitchell is an undergraduate student at the University of South Florida. He is majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology and minoring in Psychology. He has also worked as an EKG tech at the Allegheny Health Network in Erie, PA. He is collaborating with Professor Dearworth at Lafayette College to study the ecophysiological evidence for the ability of red-eared slider turtles to adapt to hypoxic environments.
Advisor: James Dearworth, Lafayette College
Survey at Lacawac Sanctuary: To help define the ecology of the red-eared slider turtles, Trachemys scripta elegans.
Mitchell is an undergraduate student at the University of South Florida. He is majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology and minoring in Psychology. He has also worked as an EKG tech at the Allegheny Health Network in Erie, PA. He is collaborating with Professor Dearworth at Lafayette College to study the ecophysiological evidence for the ability of red-eared slider turtles to adapt to hypoxic environments.
Mikaela Martiros, Bard College
Advisor: Robyn Smyth, Bard College
Assessing the DOM contribution of surface inflows into Lake Lacawac during summer storm events
Advisor: Robyn Smyth, Bard College
Assessing the DOM contribution of surface inflows into Lake Lacawac during summer storm events
The grant will support the expenses of college or university students whose research deals, in whole or substantial part, with the natural resources (biological or physical) of the Lacawac Sanctuary. Priority in expending funds will be given to supporting the costs of residence at Lacawac and/or the research user fees of undergraduate students. Only after appropriate support of those costs will consideration be given to supporting the costs of research supplies or materials, or to funding the research expenses of graduate students. Awards generally range from $300 - $700. |
Previous Recipients
2016: Ariek Norford, Franklin and Marshall College Changes in dissolved organic matter and impacts on dissolved oxygen and zooplankton 2016: Sarah Magyan, Gannon University The role of photochemical reactions and microbial degradation in the oxidation of terrestrially dervied dissolved organic carbon in temperate lakes 2015: Taylor Leach, Miami University of Ohio Living in a multidimensional world: Exploring the mechanisms that link vertical and horizontal habitat selection of zooplankton using acoustic techniques 2015: Tiffany Chin, Dickinson College Seasonal changes in the algal community of Lake Lacawac 2012: Jeffrey Babb, Miami University of Ohio 2007: Adam Heinze, Temple University Characterizing the mixotrophy of Dinobryon |
