NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in emerging areas where biology intersects with other scientific disciplines, in this case with mathematics and physical sciences. The Fellows are expected to lead the nation's scientific workforce of the future. This fellowship to Sarah Collins examines how local and regional factors interact to influence lake nutrient chemistry. The host institution is Michigan State University, and the sponsoring scientists are Patricia Soranno and Pang-Ning Tan. Lake ecosystems provide many valuable services to society including commercial navigation and water for drinking, irrigation, and recreation as well as economically and recreationally important fisheries. Understanding how human activities alter these important ecosystems is complex and requires consideration of processes that occur at multiple scales. One common driver of environmental change is human alteration of nutrient cycles, known to have profoundly affected ecosystems around the globe.
The research investigates how regional patterns in atmospheric nitrogen deposition influence nutrient limitation in lake ecosystems and uses a recently assembled, uniquely extensive database that includes water chemistry records for over 60,000 lakes, data on nitrogen deposition, and local variables, including watershed land use and connectivity between aquatic systems. The extensive nature of the database makes possible an explanation of how specific local drivers mediate the regional effects of nitrogen deposition on nutrient chemistry in lakes. Training goals for the Fellow include mathematical analysis techniques, data mining, statistical modeling, and the use of large databases to study nutrient pollution across spatial and temporal scales as well as teaching a limnology course to undergraduates in an innovative, interactive classroom setting.
