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University of Central Arkansas
phone:501-450-5919 fax: 501-450-5919
2011 Lab members
Research
Ecology of streams and wetlands
- Ecosystem processes in streams and wetlands
- Changes in invertebrate community structure, food webs, secondary production, and decomposition in altered watersheds
Most
of our research focuses on changes in invertebrate
community structure, production, and food web composition following
natural or
anthropogenic disturbances. For example, I quantified changes in
macroinvertebrate production following the experimental addition of
large wood
to streams in forested, yet intensively managed, watersheds. My
work
generally aims to determine changes in ecosystem processes, such as
invertebrate production or decomposition, following changes in landuse.
One of our main projects is quantifying biological effects of natural
gas development on intermittent streams. Arkansas has a lot of
intermittent and ephemeral streams and wetlands and so much of our
research is currently exploring biological consequences of variable
hydrology coupled with anthropogenic alterations.
Teaching
- Principles of Biology II for majors.
All class materials are posted on UCA
Blackboard.
- Restoration Ecology is taught every other year and
was last taught in Fall 2011. The course focuses on placing
underlying ecological theory into a restoration context. The course is
team-taught with K.C. Larson, a terrestrial ecologist with an emphasis on
invasive species. In addition, UCA is working to restore a stream
that runs through campus. This will be an on-going project.
- Environmental Practicum, a capstone research course for Environmental Science students. Students are given an environmental problem to solve using ecological methods. The course is research-based and students work in groups to propose, execute, and present their ecological research.
- General Ecology for all biology majors.
- Invertebrate Zoology.
- Large wood additions to
2 streams in the Sylamore Watershed, Ozark Mountains
- Collaborators
- United
States Forest Service: Keith Whalen & Kathryn Furr
- UCA:
Ginny Adams & Reid Adams
- Graduate
Students: Mandy Bates
- Effects of natural gas
drilling on headwater stream ecosystems (see blog for detailed sampling
information)
- Collaborators
- UCA:
Ginny Adams, Reid Adams, & Karen Steelman
- UA:
Michelle Evans-White, Brian Haggard
- TNC:
Ethan Inlander & Daniel Millican
- USFWS: Lindsey Lewis, Chris Davidson
- Graduate Students: Nicki Jensen, Julie Kelso, Adam Musto
- Delta food webs: from
rice fields to forested floodplains
- Collaborators
- UCA:
Ginny Adams & Reid Adams
- UND: Dominic Chaloner
- Resource ratio effects on detritus and detritivores
- Collaborators
- UA: Michelle Evans-White, Thad Scott
- Graduate students: Chris Fuller
Allyn Fuell earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Lyon College, where she did undergraduate research in the Lindblom lab on the involvement of nhr-8, an orphan nuclear hormone receptor, in xenobiotic metabolism in the soil nematode C. elegans. Allyn’s thesis research is part of a multi-agency collaborative effort gathering data to inform the development of a Wetland Management Plan for White Oak Bayou watershed in Pulaski County, Arkansas. Her primary research objective is to quantify the mechanisms driving differences in leaf decomposition rates in the two dominant wetland types in the watershed. She has been involved with hydrogeomorphic (HGM) wetland assessment throughout White Oak Bayou, and is using data gained from these assessments to evaluate the utility of HGM as a predictor of wetland ecosystem function, particularly nutrient cycling. She is also investigating land use effects on leaf decomposition rates in the watershed.
Nicki
Jensen completed her undergraduate degree at the
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville with a B.S. in Biology. While and
undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Michelle Evans-White on a stream
flood study, a
rapid bioassessment of the Upper White River Basin project, and
conducted
her own research on a stream restoration. She is currently
working on the
Fayetteville Gas Shale Project to determine changes in
macroinvertebrate community structure in watersheds that have recently
experienced rapid development of natural gas wells.
Julie Kelso graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in Environmental Policy. After graduating she spent three years working as a biological technician on a variety of projects ranging from noxious weed inventory in Idaho to banding migratory birds in Virginia. She always wanted to conduct research in small streams and now studies macroinvertebrate communities in intermittent streams of Arkansas. Her thesis will explore how macroinvertebrates may use refuge (e.g. the hyporheic) to persist through periods of stream drying.
Chris Fuller completed his undergraduate degree at University of Central Arkansas with a B.S. in Biology. As an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Sally Entrekin on the invertebrate community structure of an agricultural watershead in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. He also aided in the identification of chironomid larvae for Dr. Michelle Evans-White from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. He is currently working in collaboration with Dr. Entrekin and Dr. Evans-White on an NSF grant to examine how the elmental composition of food resources influences invertebrate (specifically chironomid) growth.
Amanda Bates received her B.S. in biology from the University of Arkansas in 2010. Her master's research focuses on how hydrology of headwater streams affects macroinvertebrate communtiies and leaf decomposition with an emphasis on the funcational role of crayfish. She is working in ephemeral streams in the Sylamore Ranger District of the Ozark National Forest.
Research Technician
Jordon Johnson: graduate from University of Arkansas-Moticello with a BA in Wildlife Management. He is currently working to identify invertebrates from a restoration project and managing the data.
Undergraduate students
Chelsea Miller: Macroinvertebrate diversity in the South Fork Little Red River, AR
Josh Bregy: studies the ecology of wetlands in the Arkansas River Valley.
Daniel Sniegowski: Invertebrate colonization dynamics before and after a stream restoration.
Will Maurer: Macroinvertebrates in the Middle Fork Saline River before restoration.
Former graduate students
David Mitchell, Instructor, Ozarka College, Mountain View, Arkansas
Former undergraduate students
Kasey Nix: Leaf litter decomposition in intermittent Ozark streams.
Phuong Ngyugen: Seasonal changes in nutrient concentrations in ephemeral streams.
Tyler Troutman: Sediment export in
streams with varying gas well densities.
Michael Lowry: Leaf litter breakdown in streams with varying gas well densities.
Chris Fuller: Invertebrate
community structure in an agricultural watershed in the Lower Mississippi River
Valley.
Lindsay Martindale: GIS analysis of stream catchments with varying gas well
densities.
Adam Musto: Effects of turbidity on Hyallela azteca.
Professional Organizations
North
American Benthological Society (www.benthos.org)
American
Society of Limnology and Oceanography (www.aslo.org)
Ecological
Society of America (www.esa.org)
Publications
Entrekin, S.A., Evans-White,, M. Johnson, B., Hagenbuch, E. 2011. Rapid expansion of natural gas development poses a threat to surface waters. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9 (9): 503-511.
Hoellein, T.J., J.L. Tank, E.J. Rosi-Marshall, and S.A. Entrekin. Early View. Effects of benthic restoration on nutrient uptake and ecosystem metabolism in three headwater streams. River Research and Applications.
Jennifer
Tank, Emma Rosi-Marshall, Natalie Griffiths, Sally Entrekin, and Mia
Stephen. 2010. A review of allochthonous organic
matter dynamics and metabolism in streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 29(1): 118-146.
increase macroinvertebrate secondary production in 3 forested headwater streams. Freshwater Biology 54: 1741-1748.
Hoellein, T.J., J.L. Tank, E.J. Rosi-Marshall, and S.A. Entrekin. 2009. Temporal variation in substratum-specific rates of N uptake and metabolism and their relative contribution at the reach scale. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 28(2): 305-318.
to an experimental wood addition in three headwater streams. Freshwater
Biology 53:1642-1657.
M.J. Winterbourn, W.L. Chadderton, S.A.
Entrekin, J.S. Harding and J.L. Tank. 2007. Distribution
and dispersal of adult stream insects
in a heterogeneous montane environment. Fundamental and Applied Ecology 168/2:
127-135.
Hoellein, T.J., J.L. Tank, E.J.
Rosi-Marshall, S.A. Entrekin, and G.A. Lamberti. 2007. Controls on
spatial and temporal variation of nutrient
uptake in three headwater streams in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Limnology
& Oceanography 52(5).
cypress-gum swamps and grass-sedge marshes. Archiv für Hydrobiologie
152 (3): 369-394.
Golladay, S.W., K.Watt, S.
Entrekin, and J.Battle. 2000. Hydrologic and geomorphic controls on
suspended particulate organic concentrations in