Carey Lab

In between massive summer data collection and analysis, we have just been notified of some very nice recognition to the Carey Lab over the past few weeks. First, Alex has just been notified that she received the 2014 Leo Bourassa Scholarship Award from the Virginia Lakes and Watershed Association- congratulations, Alex! Second, our recent article in Freshwater Science has been chosen as the Featured Article of the issue and is currently open-access.  The Society of Freshwater Science made very cool…

Read More Read More

The lab is a-buzz with action this summer- we have lots going on! Research-wise, the team is sampling almost every day across Virginia, primarily focusing on the Roanoke drinking water reservoirs. We are currently oxygenating Falling Creek Reservoir in collaboration with the Western Virginia Water Authority, and studying how manipulated redox conditions alter biogeochemical cycling at the sediment-water interface and the pelagic food web. We also recently welcomed two new team members: 1) Kate Hamre is joining us from Colby…

Read More Read More

The lab just returned from a triumphant week in Portland:  Jon and Alex rocked their first-ever talks   and Cayelan is recovering from giving three talks spread out from Monday-Saturday.  Jon and Cayelan spoke in a session on the effects of interactive anthropogenic stressors on water quality and plankton, while Alex presented in the reservoir biogeochemistry session.  Cayelan also presented in a session co-organized with GLEON and NEON colleagues on using high-frequency data as an education tool to teach limnology…

Read More Read More

Lots of travel this month! Cayelan has just returned from giving an invited talk at the University of Michigan’s symposium on “Humans as a force of ecological and evolutionary change” in Ann Arbor and left right after to give a talk with GLEON colleagues at the PRAGMA (Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly) computer science conference in Tainan, Taiwan.  As part of a very interdisciplinary collaboration, Cayelan is working with Renato Figueiredo (U-Florida), Paul Hanson, Luke Winslow, and Craig Snortheim (UW-Madison) to use…

Read More Read More

Cayelan and Alex both gave talks at the Virginia Lakes and Watersheds Association (VLWA) meeting in Richmond last week on their research on water quality in reservoirs in the Blacksburg-Roanoke area.  We were awarded the VLWA’s top annual prize for water research in the state, the Dave Pearson Watershed Excellence Award, for our collaboration with the Western Virginia Water Authority and several civil engineers (Paul Gantzer and Mark Mobley) to improve drinking water quality with oxygenation systems.  This prize was…

Read More Read More

We are in the midst of a busy winter in the Carey Lab:  Cayelan is back in Blacksburg after meetings and talks at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire and the Annis Water Resources Institute in Muskegon, Michigan, and is gearing up for talks at the Dean’s Forum on Global Engagement conference in Blacksburg and participating in the Early Career Scientists’ Symposium on ‘Humans as a force of ecological and evolutionary change’ at the University of Michigan in late March.  Cayelan and Alex…

Read More Read More

Summer 2014 (May 25 – August 2, 2014) – Undergraduate Research Fellowships Announcement National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site INTERDISCIPLINARY WATER SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia Application Deadline March 1, 2014 (5:00 PM, EST) Applications are invited from qualified and motivated undergraduate students (rising sophomores, juniors and seniors) from all U.S. colleges/universities to participate in a 10-week (May 25-August 1, 2014) summer research in interdisciplinary water sciences and engineering at Virginia Tech. U.S. Citizens or…

Read More Read More

Our reservoirs have frozen!  Alex and Zach bravely sampled Falling Creek Reservoir today (see below).  We are excited to see how these dimictic dynamics will alter nutrient cycling and plankton food webs in the reservoir this summer.

As part of a very interdisciplinary collaboration with some awesome wildlife ecologists at the University of Wisconsin, a new paper co-authored by Cayelan has recently been published as the cover article of the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, see the link here. Sloths spend the majority of their time resting in the canopy of tropical forests. However, every week a sloth will embark on a risky endeavor and descend a tree to defecate. In this paper,…

Read More Read More

We hosted our first annual winter retreat on 6-7 January at a cabin in the mountains of Virginia and used the time to coordinate summer field sampling, identify short- and long-term research goals, get caught up on writing, and learn rummikub.  Despite the polar freeze (-41oF with windchill!), we had a very productive visit and look forward to going back to the cabin in warmer climes. Very chilly selfie. Winter limnology! For those of you who don’t think Virginia experiences…

Read More Read More