K-12 Science Education Research
As a portion of my research, I investigate how teachers and students develop scientific reasoning about environmental ideas. I am particularly interested in how teacher knowledge and practices influences student outcomes. This research has greatly influenced how I communicate science with students, policy makers, and grant reviewers. To date, There are two components to this project. My work with middle school and high school teachers and students has focused on how students reason about water movement and substances in water, in collaboration with a number of other researchers throughout the LTER network. My second focal area involves elementary and early childhood science education. I have been looking at how science is taught in early childhood and elementary school buildings and how science outcomes can be improved through student and teacher interventions.
Quantifying Ecosystem Services from Agricultural Landscapes
(Photo Credit: Julie Doll)
My research focuses on one central question: Is it possible to design agricultural systems that provide provisioning ecosystem services (food, fiber, and fuel) without sacrificing other potential ecosystem services (ie. climate regulation, biodiversity, and ground water replenishment). My work has provided diverse lines of evidence that agricultural systems can be designed to produce food, fuel, and fiber while also producing other ecosystem services at rates that are higher than in conventional, business as usual agriculture. This includes particularly hopeful improvements in nitrate leaching in row crop systems merely by changing the tillage and fertilization regimes. Other services, such as climate regulation, seem to require greater shifts in management regimes, such as switching to perennial crops or removing land from agriculture all together. These findings raise important questions: How might we be able to design and manage landscapes to maximize the production of multiple ecosystem services?
In my lab I will develop new approaches for utilizing long term data from sources such as the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network and the National Ecological Observatory Network to further investigate the provisioning of ecosystem services within individual land management scenarios. While I have worked extensively with long term data from Kellogg Biological Station, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, and the United States Department of Agriculture, this research would necessitate collaboration with other institutions and data repositories to amass the information necessary to ask questions about ecosystem service provisioning. Data that was used in my published ecosystem services research can be found in the KBS LTER data catalog.
My research on ecosystem services provisioning would likely combine data from field studies and modeled data using the System Approach for Land Use Sustainability (SALUS) Model, http://140.134.48.19/salus/. I have used this model in the past in collaboration with one of its creators, Bruno Basso, and I intend to continue to utilize this model based on its ability to simulate a wide range of ecosystem types.
I am currently work on a new ecosystem services modeling project with Sigrid Smith from Delaware State University. We are looking for ecosystem service hotspots in Delaware and quantifying how those ecosystem services are bundled together. That project started in 2020 based on a USDA grant, and will continue for the next several years.
My research focuses on one central question: Is it possible to design agricultural systems that provide provisioning ecosystem services (food, fiber, and fuel) without sacrificing other potential ecosystem services (ie. climate regulation, biodiversity, and ground water replenishment). My work has provided diverse lines of evidence that agricultural systems can be designed to produce food, fuel, and fiber while also producing other ecosystem services at rates that are higher than in conventional, business as usual agriculture. This includes particularly hopeful improvements in nitrate leaching in row crop systems merely by changing the tillage and fertilization regimes. Other services, such as climate regulation, seem to require greater shifts in management regimes, such as switching to perennial crops or removing land from agriculture all together. These findings raise important questions: How might we be able to design and manage landscapes to maximize the production of multiple ecosystem services?
In my lab I will develop new approaches for utilizing long term data from sources such as the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network and the National Ecological Observatory Network to further investigate the provisioning of ecosystem services within individual land management scenarios. While I have worked extensively with long term data from Kellogg Biological Station, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, and the United States Department of Agriculture, this research would necessitate collaboration with other institutions and data repositories to amass the information necessary to ask questions about ecosystem service provisioning. Data that was used in my published ecosystem services research can be found in the KBS LTER data catalog.
My research on ecosystem services provisioning would likely combine data from field studies and modeled data using the System Approach for Land Use Sustainability (SALUS) Model, http://140.134.48.19/salus/. I have used this model in the past in collaboration with one of its creators, Bruno Basso, and I intend to continue to utilize this model based on its ability to simulate a wide range of ecosystem types.
I am currently work on a new ecosystem services modeling project with Sigrid Smith from Delaware State University. We are looking for ecosystem service hotspots in Delaware and quantifying how those ecosystem services are bundled together. That project started in 2020 based on a USDA grant, and will continue for the next several years.