LEAP Internships

Internships are a key element of LEAP. Following the first year of classes, students will choose an internship position working with one of the partner institutions during their first summer in the program. Students will be fully integrated into the activities of the partner institution, and will identify a research project that integrates the interests of the faculty mentor with a ‘real-world’ problem important to the partner institution.

Sara Emerson

Internship Summer 08

From June to August, 2008, under the remote supervision of Sue Margulis of the Lincoln Park Zoo, I conducted fieldwork for the fulfillment of the UIC LEAP IGERT internship. The project involved observational and experimental research to better understand the human-wildlife conflict that arises when non-human primates come into contact with human habitations. Specifically, the vervet and samango monkeys in and near the Lajuma Research Centre, South Africa have access to open garbage pits, and they have been anecdotally observed taking ready advantage of this food source. In addition to potentially altering the ecological behavior of these monkey populations, eating garbage also puts them in danger of being shot by property owners. The project aimed to a) assess the behavioral time budgets of vervet monkeys on a property with a large open garbage pit (Koesdevli) and compare the budgets to those of vervet monkeys on a property without a comparable garbage pit (Lajuma) and b) look for ways in which land and homeowners might deter monkeys from eating their garbage.

The time budget data was collected for 29 hours at Lajuma (no garbage pit) and 18 hours at Koesdevli (garbage pit). Morning and afternoon observations were staggered and roughly equal in number. More Koesdevli observations were not possible due to the presence of hunters on the property. Behavioral categories were broken down into Foraging (seeds, leaves, fruit, insects, flowers, tree sap, drinking unidentified and human food); resting (inactive and self-grooming); vigilance (looking, alarm calling); locomotion; and social activity (groom, play, aggression and sex). GPS points were also taken for each observation to measure the area of the monkeys' range of movement around the landscape. Koesdevli vervets were hypothesized to spend less time foraging and to have a smaller range of movement than Lajuma vervets. Vervets at Lajuma spent 16% more of their time foraging (p= 0.052) and 8% less of their time moving from place to place (but not significant, p= 0.481) than the vervets at Koesdevli. The biggest difference in foraging was by far for insects, with Lajuma vervets eating insects 22% more of the time than the Koesdevli vervets (p= 0.024). Statistical analyses were ANOVA GLM, performed with SYSTAT.

Finally, choice tests with samango monkeys for peanuts with and without vinegar were non-significant, and we cannot recommend vinegar as a deterrent to garbage-raiding.

Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke

Internship Summer 09

I worked with James Martin, Watershed Coordinator for the Clear Creek Watershed Enhancement Project (CCWEP), a collaboration between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Department of Agriculture Division of Soil Conservation, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Johnson County Soil & Water Conservation District.  CCWEP is working to improve the water quality of Clear Creek, an EPA 319 waterway, by encouraging agricultural watershed landowners to adopt conservation practices on their land.  Over the summer, I coordinated a watershed-wide women landowners meeting, as well as designing, implementing, and analyzing a survey of project landowners.

Kelly Granberg

Internship Summer 08

As a LEAP Fellow in the environmental engineering program at UIC, I chose to intern with the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) Chicago District to obtain experience solving real-world large-scale engineering problems in an urbanized setting on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Chicago District plans, designs, builds, and operates civil works projects for navigation, flood control, shoreline protection, and environmental protection. The ACE embodies much of the LEAP mission, working in interdisciplinary teams and with numerous organizations on projects that promote environmental as well as socioeconomic benefits.

At the ACE Chicago District office, I worked in the Environmental Section of the Design Branch on a major project to restore the navigable depth of Indiana Harbor and Canal (IHC). Because of heavy industrialization in the area, IHC sediment is contaminated with heavy metals, nutrients, oil, and organic pollutants like PAHs, PCBs, and VOCs and will be disposed of in an upland Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) built to meet environmental law. While the navigation project will concurrently provide a remediation benefit, the potential for VOC and particulate emissions during dredge and disposal raised air quality concerns in the surrounding residential communities. Therefore a large-scale Ambient Air Monitoring Program was implemented at the CDF site that has regularly monitored 62 different compounds since 2001 and is set to increase during the operational phase of the project. The majority of my efforts were aimed at furthering the air quality program of the IHC project.

Proposed air quality Action Levels, concentrations on the site triggering operational emission controls, were discussed in an inter-agency meeting on the first day of my internship. I was given the task of confirming that these levels would be protective of the health of surrounding communities. To predict the maximum atmospheric contaminant concentrations in nearby neighborhoods, the SCREEN3 air dispersion model developed by USEPA was run using a variety of emission-source and worst-case meteorological scenarios based on the CDF design and Action Level proposal. Estimated screening model concentrations in the communities were found to be lower than risk-based reference doses and previous risk assessment predictions reported as safe. I provided a report describing the modeling rationale, scenarios, inputs, outcomes, and conclusions confirming the safety of proposed Action Levels to the involved agencies to aid in further decision making. Additional outreach-related tasks included supplementing and manipulating the air quality dataset for upload into the USEPA Air Quality System online database, and preparing for an annual public meeting updating the status of the IHC Ambient Air Monitoring Program.

While playing a historic role in altering Chicago 's natural landscape, the USACE Chicago District now counts environmental protection as its mission and often deals with environmental contamination in projects such as IHC. In addition to gaining a working knowledge of an important civil and environmental works agency, I plan to apply my specific internship experience toward research by utilizing the impressive IHC air quality dataset along with receptor modeling techniques to identify and quantify the contribution of the air pollutants with their sources. By continuing to study the sources and fate of contaminants in the environment, I can further my research, inform the USACE, and advance LEAP objectives.

Elaine Grehl

Internship Summer 08

Chicago Botanic Garden Department of Sustainable Operations Intern, May 2008-August 2008

• Independently researched and authored a proposal/business plan for locally composting, reusing, and reselling the starch-based, biodegradable dishware used by all Chicago area Museums.
• Developed a strategy for designing and implementing organizational sustainable operations based on social-marketing theory.
• Created overarching goals and objectives to guide the implementation of sustainable action items specified by staff
• Produced and presented a concise and informative seminar to staff, volunteers, and Cook County Commissioners to establish consistent vision and messaging of sustainable operations
• Assisted in incorporating sustainable operations into the organizational budgeting process
• Researched and wrote case statements for numerous grant applications seeking funding for sustainable infrastructure.
• Researched and authored a manuscript on the state of sustainable operations among visitor-based nonprofit museums in the Chicago region titled, A Theory of Nonprofit Organizational Capacity for Sustainable Operations.

Paul Gulezian

Internship Summer 08 

I worked at Illinois Beach State Park to document how the invasion of Austrian Pine

( Pinus nigra ) has changed the native sand prairie community over the last 130 years. What follows is a concise description of the major findings:

The successional dynamics of sand dune systems provide an opportunity to examine how non-native ant species affect plant communities over small spatial scales. The status of pine species introduced as seeds about 130 years ago at Illinois Beach State Park (IBSP), Zion , IL , USA , was studied. Five patchy stands of Pinus nigra (Austrian pine) were found and studied (spatial relations, age by dendrochronology, diameter, nearest neighbor distance) to reconstruct the invasion process. Pinus nigra forms limited age range stands. Recruitment is episodic not only in time but also spatially. Each Pinus nigra age class stand is associated with significantly different ground layer vegetation categories that are different from each other as well as the nearby sand prairie areas. Woody plant ground layer vegetation increased progressively as pine stands mature. This progressive temporal change with stand age is also reflected in a significant effect of distance from a tree on ground layer vegetation categories. Specifically, the frequency of woody vegetation is significantly greater at close (1 m) distance from trunks than at 5 or 10 m distances. Graminoid and forb ground cover decreased significantly and progressively with pine stand age and distance from pine trees. This introduced, non-native tree species has significantly altered the dune vegetation at IBSP. This study is a rare assessment of the community-level effects of an invasive species over a century after its introduction.

Basil Iannone

Internship Summer 08

Overview

My summer internship was with Liam Heneghan from the Environmental Science Program at DePaul University and the Co-chair for the Chicago Wilderness Science Team. I also worked with area land managers.

Activities:

1) I assisted with the selection of long-term research plots in natural areas surrounding Chicago . These plots are part of the 100 plots, 100 year research project of the Chicago Wilderness.

2) I helped to write a collaborative NSF grant with David Wise, Liam Heneghan, and Lauren Umek (DePaul University).

3) I assisted and helped design sampling techniques for an ongoing restoration experiment in Mettawa. This experiment was implemented by Liam Heneghan and Lauren Umek. The purpose of the study is to determine if depleting soil nitrogen will reduce buckthorn reinvasions after its removal.

4) I worked with managers from Cook, Lake, DuPage, and Will Counties , as well as from the Chicago Botanic Gardens , and the Morton Arboretum, to select field sites that I could use as part of my dissertation research. To date I have 17 such field sites.

5) Lauren Umek and I conducted a study that compares the effectiveness of two methods used to sample earthworms. This study was conducted across a gradient of buckthorn removal. The results are currently being written up and should be submitted for publication no later than Fall, 2009

Jennifer Ison

I did my internship with Chicago Botanic Garden .  However, it was a little different than other students' internships since I had already worked there for a number of years and am co-advised by one of their scientists.  I worked at the Botanic Garden in the genetics lab learning techniques I would use for my PhD, under the direction of Dr. Jeremie Fant.  I also conducted ecological field work in western Minnesota under the direction of my co-advisor Dr. Stuart Wagneius.  My overall internship was supervised by LEAP co-PI Dr. Kayri Havens.