REU Site for Ecosystems in Transition:

The Role of Research in Assessing Ecosystem Responses to a Changing Environment:

This program will not be held in 2008.

We hope to resume the program in 2009.

Educational Training Sessions:

The Research Process. Seminars, group discussions, and one-on-one training with mentors were used to teach the REU students the steps involved in conducting proper research. Scheduled sessions included:

Defining research problems, developing hypotheses and literature review

Using PowerPoint and Excel for preparing graphics and displaying data

Data analysis

Preparing and giving oral and poster presentations

Sessions were 2 to 3 hours in length and included both lecture presentations and hands-on-training in the computer laboratory. In addition to these formal activities, each student spent time with their mentor(s) during the first two weeks discussing the hypotheses and experimental design of the larger project on which they were working. The students spent time assisting with these projects during the summer, enabling them to learn specific field sampling techniques that could be used in their independent project and procedures for data management and quality control/quality assurance. They also gained an understanding of the cooperative nature needed for the large, interdisciplinary projects to assess complex ecological problems. The REU students met briefly on Monday mornings, prior to any other activities, to update the progress of their independent research projects. The students discussed each others progress and suggested possible changes or improvements, as well as noting aspects that were working well. This interaction gave them experience in critically assessing the quality of research and providing constructive peer review.

Free Fridays: Beginning in Week 2, Fridays were a free day, during which the students had the opportunity to work on the other projects for a day (requests were made by Tuesday of each week). By seeing the approaches used to address a variety of research questions, the students learned much more than they would working on only one project. On these “Free Fridays” presentations on research tools such as mass spectrometry and molecular techniques could be given, if warranted by student interest.

Field Trips to Research Sites: The REU students gained additional exposure to the research process during field trips to established, long-term, multidisciplinary research locations. These included:

The Michigan Gradient Study - a seventeen-year examination of the effects of chronic N deposition and climatic variations and on carbon and nutrient cycling and forest productivity in northern hardwood forests.

The Rhinelander Aspen FACE Project (FACTS-II) - a multidisciplinary study assessing the effects of increasing tropospheric ozone (O₃) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels on aspen forest ecosystems. The project provides a window into the atmosphere of the future and allows for experimental testing of CO2/O3 interactions under realistic forest conditions.

MTU’s Ford Forestry Center - a 4,547 acre facility for research, education and outreach. A variety of forest ecosystems, including northern hardwoods, jack pine, natural red pine, and several wetland communities occur in the School Research Forest. The School Research Forest is home to long-term projects examining the effects of forest management on ecosystem health and productivity, and new projects examining ways to restore tree species that are declining in the regional landscape.