Events

 

Conferences Supported:

• Study co-leader, M. Bain: Environmental Technical Group ($5 million budget), Lake Ontario û St. Lawrence River Water Level Regulation Study, International Joint Commission (US/Canada).
• Assisted organizing: New York's North Coast: A Troubled Coastline Conference, 2002 Pittsford, NY.
• Project members participated in an NSF-sponsored workshop on biocomplexity research in education.
• M Bain participated in forming the Lake Ontario Coastal Initiative; an alliance of public interest organizations and government agencies working to restore the ecological integrity of New York's North Coast.
• Conference organization and leadership: Lake Ontario Interdiscplinary Science and Management Conference, 2003 in Syracuse, NY.
• Numerous participants: Great Lakes Research Consortium's 13th Annual Student/Faculty Conferences, 2003.
• Conference organization and leadership, C. Driscoll: Lake Ontario Embayment Ecosystems Symposium, 20 papers for the International Association for Great Lakes Research Meeting, Waterloo, Ontario.
• Featured presentation and financial supporter: Saving New York's North Coast Conference, 2005, Rochester NY.
• Invited project review for new state program: ecosystem based management under The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Act.
• Two posters were presented at the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity in the Environment Awardees 2005 Meeting. Poster topics included upwelling events in Lake
  Ontario and overall project activities and findings.
• Conference organization and leadership, K. Arend and M. Meixler: Great Lakes Coastal Systems, 15 papers for the American Fisheries Society 136th annual meeting, Lake Placid, New York, September 2006.
• Outreach and conservation assistance, M. Bain: EPA lakewide management plan (LaMP) for the Lake Ontario basin with the Nature Conservancy, 2006.
• Outreach and student education, M. Distler: ecology of Deer Creek Marsh, with the Oswego County Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES), October 5, 2006.
• Outreach and education of grade school children, B. Doyle-Morin: 'floating classroom' boat in Cayuga Lake, 2007.

On campus events

• A graduate level course titled Complex Adaptive Systems in Nature and Society was developed and offered in the Winter semester of 2002. Fourteen students from two of the
  project universities participated in the course. The course introduced the new field of complexity, the properties of complex adaptive systems, and the evidence supporting or
  refuting the existence of complex system phenomenon.
• A weekly discussion group met during the spring semesters of 2002, 2003 and 2004 to discuss general topics related to biocomplexity research as well as results and plans of members of the research group.
• Project graduate students participated in the Graduate Student Association associated with Cornell University’s Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity IGERT in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
• A seminar series on topics related to biocomplexity and biogeochemistry and sponsored by the Cornell University Biogeochemistry and Biocomplexity Initiative began in fall 2002.
• An informal bi-monthly discussion group started meeting in mid July of 2005 to discuss general topics related to biocomplexity research as well as results and plans of smaller working groups. Topics that have been discussed include: publication and collaboration issues, data accessibility, grant proposal ideas, and overall synthesis of project results.
• K. Arend and R. Doyle both are active members of the Cornell University Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity (BEB) IGERT Program and associated Graduate Student Association (GSA). Through this program, they attend weekly BEB-sponsored seminars and GSA meetings, and participate in the annual retreat and various workshops. R. Doyle chaired the committee for planning a BEB Ethics workshop that was hosted by scientists at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, NY) in April, 2005. K. Arend assisted with planning the 2005 BEB annual retreat, organizing the poster session and scientific exchange activities.
• A graduate level course titled Scaling and Fractal Processes and Methods in Nature was developed and offered in the spring semester of 2005. Five students from disciplines spanning Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Biological and
  Environmental Engineering, and Animal Science enrolled in the course. The course reviewed the basic properties of fractal patterns and the methods used to measure them and attempted to comprehend some simple studies in which fractal processes have been derived to further the understanding of biological mechanisms.
• A course called 'Biological-physical interactions in aquatic ecosystems with emphasis on fresh-water environments' was taught at Cornell University in Spring 2007. One of the
  instructors, Todd Cowen, is a PI on this project. The purpose of the class was to enable in-depth examination and review of the biological-physical interactions in freshwater ecosystems. The course allowed examination of those interactions and provided in-sight to the importance of those interactions in structuring and governing freshwater communities. An outcome of the course was preparation of a review paper on the topic.