Curious about how scientists study fish populations or climate change? Or how drones are used to map streams and lakes?
Then check out Zoom a Scientist, an interactive, virtual webinar series focused on watershed and aquatic science. It’s hosted by the University of Vermont (UVM) Extension Lake Champlain Sea Grant Education Team every Tuesday and Friday from 12-1 p.m. Although geared to middle and high school students, content also will be of interest to younger students and adults.
The programs are free, although registration is requested. For details, go to go.uvm.edu/seagrant-live. Sessions will be recorded and archived for future viewing at this same link. To request a disability-related accommodation to participate, please send an email to watershd@uvm.edu.
Featured presenters include scientists and researchers from the UVM Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh and the Lake Champlain Research Institute, among other organizations.
The schedule and registration links for individual webinars are as follows:
April 17: Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin (go.uvm.edu/basinclimate); What’s Already Happened and Where We’re Headed. Dr. Eric Leibensperger, SUNY Plattsburgh, will highlight climate changes already observed and changes projected to occur in the Champlain Valley.
April 21: A Fish’s Story: Following Lake Trout Movement around Lake Champlain (go.uvm.edu/fishstory). UVM graduate student Matt Futia will explore recent advances in technology that allow researchers to track individual fish to understand their movement and behaviors.
April 24: Microplastics in Freshwater Systems (go.uvm.edu/microplastics). Dr. Danielle Garneau, SUNY Plattsburgh, will share findings from her research on microplastics in Lake Champlain.
April 28: Long-term Effects of Climate Change on Lakes and the Importance of Winter Sampling (go.uvm.edu/wintersampling). Dr. Jennifer Brentrup will describe research on the effects of climate change and extreme events on lakes and how dissolved oxygen levels are used to estimate lake metabolism under ice. Brentrup is a limnologist and postdoctoral fellow at UVM and Dartmouth College.
May 1: Sensing What is in the Water: Next-generation Sensor Technologies for Water Quality Monitoring (go.uvm.edu/sensortech). Dr. Breck Bowden, Lake Champlain Sea Grant director, will review how researchers measure water quality and traditional sampling methods along with how new technologies provide new insights for scientists.
May 5: But How Do We Know? Sampling Fish to Understand What’s Happening with Populations (go.uvm.edu/fishsample). Dr. Ellen Marsden, UVM fisheries biologist, will delve into how scientists observe fish through remote sampling and other methods and interpret data from those samples to understand the overall fish population in a lake.
May 8: Squeezing the Middle of Lake Champlain’s Food Web go.uvm.edu/lakefoodweb). Dr. Jason Stockwell, Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory director, will share his research on the interaction of lake trout natural reproduction and stocking strategies.
May 12: Mapping our Streams and Lakes with Drones (go.uvm.edu/dronemapping). Learn how drones are being used to map invasive species, respond to floods and track changes in streams in the Lake Champlain watershed with Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, director of the UVM Spatial Analysis Laboratory.
Additional programs may be planned for future dates with dates and details announced on the website. Lake Champlain Sea Grant is hosted by UVM in partnership with SUNY Plattsburgh. It operates with additional support and collaboration with UVM Extension and several state and local organizations.
