Environmental Studies
Interpreting the Fall Landscape, ENV 101
The Interpreting the Fall Landscape course is offered through the Environmental Studies department. Students taking this class visit deciduous forests, tall-grass prairies, nature sites, as well as the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and an apple orchard. Students have the opportunity to observe and interpret the world around them. Identifying Minnesota tree species, nature walks, [...]
Investigating pollutants in northern Minnesota
This summer, student researchers have been collecting water and soil samples from a bog in northern Minnesota to investigate how mercury, a toxic pollutant, and other metals are transported through ecosystems. This work is part of an ongoing study led by Prof. Jeremiason at the Marcell Experimental Forest near Grand Rapids, MN. Pictured are Emily [...]
Millions and billions of years ago…
On May Day, students from GEO 111: Principles of Geology (part of the original ES major) hiked around Interstate State Park on the eastern border of Minnesota. In the photo above, they found a rock outcrop where 1.1 billion year-old volcanic rock is directly overlain by ~500 million year-old sedimentary rock. So, while we know that volcanoes were [...]
ICP-MS featured in MPCC story
A story published on the Minnesota Private Colleges Council web site discussing recent National Science Foundation grants awarded to private colleges, features Ben Carlson ’11 and ES director Jeff Jeremiason. The article highlights our new inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The ICP-MS was purchased in Fall 2009 with funds from an NSF Major [...]
Carlson ’11 Presents Research at ASLO Conference
Ben Carlson ’14 in Puerto Rico Ben Carlson ’11, senior Environmental Studies and Chemistry major, presented a poster at the annual American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) conference held in San Juan, Puerto Rico February 13-18, 2011. His poster was entitled “Trace Metals and Dissolved Organic Matter Cycling in an Ombrotrophic Bog”. Ben worked [...]
Gusties Plant Trees in Ecuador … for the Cafeteria?!?
Gustavus students plant trees to combat climate change, in partnership with the Minnesotans who supply coffee to the cafeteria.
Hansen Completes J-term at Audubon Center
Sophomore Environmental Studies major and ES program assistant Ashley Hansen received a scholarship to participate in a class entitled “Wolves and Other Large Predators: A Northwoods Experience” at the Audubon Center of the North Woods. Highlights Included: * Visiting with Dave Mech, Peggy Callahan, Lynn Rogers, Paul Schurke & Craig Blacklock * Finding Wolf and [...]
Dissecticon! – Gulf Oil Spill Research at Gustavus
Students helped dissect fish sampled from the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster.
Tracking the animals
Last week, a group of Environmental Studies students strapped on their snowshoes and followed Jon Grinnell (Biology), Joel Carlin (Biology) and Laura Triplett (Geology) into the woods down by the river. We saw deer beds, cottontail rabbit browse, shrew holes and a multitude of squirrel tracks. It was nice to get outside and learn a [...]
Lake mud may reveal environmental change
On January 6, students taking the J-Term course “Paleolimnology” (GEO 110) retrieved three sediment cores from Lake Hallett in St. Peter, with assistance from researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Limnological Research Center. Lake sediments accumulate slowly over time, so they can record signals of environmental changes that happened before people were monitoring the lake. [...]
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