LEAP Projects

Capstone Projects

Cohort 1: Kelly Granberg, Paul Gulezian, Jennifer Ison

Conium maculatum Project

Cohort 1 (Paul Gulezian, Kelly Granberg, and Jennifer Ison) analyzed how soil contamination along roadsides may have influenced the range expansion of Conium maculatum (poison hemlock) into Cook County, IL. Paul Gulezian had documented the first reported presence of the species in Cook County. They combined analyses that characterized the soil and measured concentrations of heavy metals and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) where Conium is growing; assessed the genetic structure of individuals within and among nine known populations; and tested for tolerance to heavy metals and local adaptation with greenhouse establishment experiments. The research team received a significant grant from Chicago Wilderness to study the possible adaptation of invasive conium to contaminated soils as a mechanism underlying its invasion in the Chicago region.

Interactions between environmental variables in anthropogenically disturbed environments and physiological traits of invasive species may help explain reasons for invasive species range expansions. Gulezian, Granberg, and Ison found elevated levels of metals and PAHs in the soil where Conium was growing. Specifically, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) were found at elevated levels relative to EPA ecological contamination thresholds. In a greenhouse study they found that Conium is more tolerant of soils containing heavy metals (As, Cd, Pb) than two comparable native species.  For the genetic analysis a total of 217 individuals (approximating 20-30 per population) were scored with 5 ISSR primers, yielding 114 unique loci. They found high levels of genetic diversity in all populations but little genetic structure or differentiation among populations. Although Conium shows tolerance to contamination in both the field and the greenhouse, there was not significant evidence that its tolerance is connected to either the genetic structure or the regional pattern of invasion. These findings indicate that Conium is likely expanding into the Chicago region due to its ability to tolerate generally disturbed environments, but tolerance to soil contamination is not driving the expansion.  It appears that the range expansion is not of one highly tolerant Conium ecotype, but a genetically diverse group of individuals that are probably the result of multiple introduction events.

Cohort 2: Charles Flower, Elaine Grehl, Basil Iannone, Sara Emerson, Michael Iversen

Also contributing to this project: Genevieve Nano, LEAP Fellow-Cohort 4 and Janet Backs, LEAP Associate

Land Covers Project

The second cohort of LEAP students are completing a capstone project to evaluate the use of alternative land covers on the UIC campus. They have quantified ecosystem services and economic costs of existing and alternative UIC land covers. Through surveys at campus Town Hall meetings, they have evaluated peoples' preferences for treatments of campus sites using 'virtual' landscaping. Individuals were surveyed before and after being educated on ecological benefits and economic costs of native and low maintenance landscape alternatives. Over 80% of respondents preferred environmentally sustainable landscape treatments. Their findings will be part of the development of a new campus master plan and UIC's Climate Action Plan.

Cohort 3: Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke, Jennifer Howell, Emi Kuroiwa, Carrie Seltzer,

Clifford Shierk

Chicago Area Pollinator Study

Members of Cohort 3, Caroline Druschke, Carrie Seltezer, Clifford Shierk, Emi Kuroiwa and Jennifer Howell, completed their capstone project, the Chicago Area Pollinator Study, in collaboration with the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo and Roosevelt University . They piloted this citizen science monitoring program for bees and involved more than 60 households in collections throughout the summer and fall of 2009. Each household used a standardized protocol to collect bees. The types of bees collected have been identified and now will be used to analyze how the scale and pattern of land use affects bee abundance and diversity the Chicago region. In addition, the students conducted surveys to evaluate the potential for informal learning and changing attitudes and behavior through participation in citizen science projects. They have reported their findings at several conferences and were invited speakers at a special workshop at Chicago 's Garfield Park Conservatory.

Cohort 4: Amy Belaire, Andrew Dribin, Douglas Johnston, Douglas Lynch

Chancellor's Supplemental

Graduate Fellowship Award Projects

In response to a call for proposals for interdisciplinary graduate projects, Cohort 3 Fellows, Caroline, Jennifer and Cliff, submitted proposals which were funded for two years.

Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke's project:

"Developing a Rhetorical Understanding of Ecology: Arguments for (and Against) Conservation at the Watershed Scale"

In collaboration with the Johnson and Iowa County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Clear Creek Watershed Enhancement Project, a University of Iowa geographer, and a Southern Illinois University economist, Gottschalk-Druschke will survey 820 agricultural landowners in Iowas Clear Creek watershed about their conservation attitudes and behaviors, complementing this survey with ethnographic interviews with watershed stakeholders.  Gottschalk-Druschke will pair multiple methodologies (ethnography, survey collection, textual analysis, statistical analysis) with rhetorical theory in order to analyze the collected data for gender, age, and geographical trends and to draw conclusions about the arguments that male and female agricultural landowners and operators make about conservation, stewardship, and responsibility in regard to natural systems.

Jennifer Howell's project:

Deserts are interesting places to study granivorous foraging. In a biogeographical context, birds and ants tend to be the major granivores in the deserts of Australia and South America; while, rodents and ants tend to dominate the deserts of Africa and North America . These major granivores and their dominance patterns are the subject of this study. We intend to exercise an approach past studies have lacked. Our objectives are to: 1) standardize a multi-disciplinary method for assaying foraging capacity; 2) add to the body of foraging literature by producing directly comparable data; and 3) apply standardized methods to two deserts in dissimilar biogeographic provinces of the world that are known to support different major granivore groups.

We propose to assay the granivores in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Sierra de las Quijadas (SLQ) National Park of Argentina . These deserts are significant because they are located in the western hemisphere on opposite sides of the Equator. They are ideal for comparison because, despite differing biogeography, they exhibit similar vegetation and topography. Preliminary data supports birds being the major granivores in SLQ.

We will use the ideas of optimal foraging theory and biogeography to evaluate the granivores in the Sonoran and SQL deserts. Foraging assays will be used as a tool of foraging ecology to measure the foraging intensity exhibited by the granivores of these deserts. Measuring foraging intensity provides an inexpensive, non-invasive, and efficient method to gain insight of how animals perceive their environment.

Seeds comprise a large portion of available resources in desert communities. In this study, foraging intensity will be evaluated by setting out 50 plastic trays (14 in diameter, 3 in deep) with 3-4 liters of sievable sand/dirt ( as a substrate) and 5 grams of yellow pro so millet as foraging patches. Each location will be chosen randomly at least 20 meters apart, throughout the desert habitats. Each location will have a station containing two trays, one tray in the open (no bushes or trees directly above it) and one under cover (directly under a bush or tree). The stations will also include a petri dish with 5 grams of seeds to evaluate the foraging intensity of ants. Each station will be armed with 1 camera trap to determine and quantify who foraged within the trays. Day and night GUDs will be collected by sieving and weighing the remaining seeds out of the trays in the morning (directly after dawn) and in the late afternoon (directly before dusk). Morning and night GUDs will help to identify if and which species are sharing resources by partitioning the day and foraging times. Once species in camera traps are identified, we will identify vicariant species of both deserts.

Overall, our method will allow scientists worldwide to put their deserts within the same context and framework.

Clifford Shierk's project:

"The effect of urbanization on pollination networks"

Summary: Sites will be selected in the Greater Chicago region along a  gradient of urbanization.  Observational visits will examine the pollination network that exists at each site by noting the presence (or absence) of interactions between plants and pollinators.  Differences in the structural properties of each of the networks will be compared to environmental conditions that covary along the urban gradient (e.g., land use patterns, presence of exotic species).

LEAP Course

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study

of Integrated Human/Natural Landscapes -

Class Project

Fort Sheridan Project

During the fall semester, 2007, LEAP students participated in the course “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study if Integrated Human/Natural Landscapes.” This course embodied the core principles of LEAP: graduate training that focuses on developing the research and communication skills needed to solve interdisciplinary problems of integrated ecosystems. During the semester students and faculty learned together by conducting research on options for developing the newly-created Openlands Lakeshore Preserve at Fort Sheridan . The Lakeshore Preserve is a mile of Lake Michigan shoreline that was part of the former Fort Sheridan and contains unique ravine habitats and other natural elements, but has been highly degraded by past human activities and poor management. The semester culminated in the preparation of a final report for Openlands and presentation given to the staff of Openlands on December 14, 2007.