06 September 2012

CUERE Fall 2012 Seminar Series


Seminars are held on Fridays at 2 PM in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, and are free and open to the public.  Registration is not required.  Visitor parking passes for the TRC lot may be purchased for $4.00 in the CUERE office in TRC 102/105 shortly before seminar.

September 7, 2012
Dr. Amanda Rodewald
School of Environment and Natural Resources
The Ohio State University
"Linking Pattern and Process: Behavioral and Demographic Drivers of Avian Responses to Urbanization"

September 14, 2012
Dr. Dan Brown
University of Michigan
"Modeling Land Cover and Carbon Dynamics in Exurban Landscapes"

September 21, 2012
Dr. Patrick Hurley
Ursinus College
"Lingering ruralities, Emergent urbanities: Rethinking the urban forest through the lens of non-timber forest products (NTFPS)"

September 28, 2012
Dr. Joanna Endter-Wada
Department of Environment and Society
Utah State University
"Metrics for Analyzing Appropriateness and Change in Urban Landscape Water Use"

October 5, 2012
Dr. Laura A. Ogden
Global & Sociocultural Studies
Florida International University
"Miami's Urban Ecology: Recreations of Home"

October 12, 2012
Dr. James Connolly
Department of Urban Policy and Political Science
Northeastern University
"Organizing Urban Ecosystem Governance through Environmental Stewardship in New York City"

October 19, 2012
Dr. Christopher D. Ellis
Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture
University of Maryland, College Park
"Landscape Performance: Measuring Benefits of Designed Communities"

October 26, 2012
Dr. Chris Hennigan
Dept. of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
UMBC
"Closing the Gap on Missing Sources of Organic Aerosol in the Atmosphere"

November 2, 2012
Dr. Chris Boone
School of Sustainability
Arizona State University
"Urban Sustainability and Environmental Justice in Baltimore"

November 9, 2012
Dr. Karina V.R. Schäfer
Department of Biological Sciences
Rutgers University, Newark NJ
"Canopy Carbon Net Assimilation of an Urban, Naturally Assembled Brownfield Forest"

November 16, 2012
Liz Barry
Urban Environment, Public Laboratory, NY
"Civic Science for Collaborative Cities"

November 23, 2012
Thanksgiving Holiday, no seminar

November 30, 2012
Dr. David Newburn
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
University of Maryland, College Park
"Residential Development in the Baltimore Region"

December 7, 2012
No seminar (Fall AGU)
Electronic Directory | Directions | Site Map
Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education
UMBC, Technology Research Center 102
1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, Maryland 21250
Phone:410-455-1763 Fax: 410-455-1769 Email: cueremail@umbc.edu

30 August 2012

Baltimore Teachers Research at Toolik Lake, Alaska

In July and August of 2012, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study sent two Baltimore area science teachers to the Toolik Field Station in Toolik Lake, Alaska [ http://toolik.alaska.edu/index.php ] to participate in research funded by the NSF Arctic LTER.  

The teachers were part of a volunteer research effort to identify and catalog species of vegetation in the Tundra.  The teachers spent up to 10 hours a day for six straight days doing field and lab work.  Work included harvesting plants from research plots, breaking down the plants and sorting by species, separating out different parts of each plant, and bagging and labeling. 

A special thanks goes to John Moore of Colorado State University for helping to organize and sponsor the trip for our teachers. 

Please click below links to see slideshow and read about the teachers' experience at Toolik Lake.


http://beslter.org/teasers_ajax/toolik-landing-page/Toolik-Alaska-write-up-wafle.html

Contributed by: Bess Caplan, BES Ecology Education Program Leader

16 August 2012

Gwynns Fall Trail App


Gwynns Falls Trail – Navigation app found at the Apple App Store
Be one of the first to purchase the first trail app in Baltimore - cost : $0.99
 

The Parks & People Foundation has worked for a number of years to improve the quality of Baltimore's neighborhoods. With the greening of Baltimore playing a key role in this effort, the Gwynns Falls Trail has become a core focus for the Foundation and the residents of Baltimore. To reach a new wave of technologically savvy outdoor enthusiasts, the Parks & People Foundation teamed up with International Mapping to create this interactive navigation application. We surrounded a detailed trail map database with a variety of navigational tools and personal customization features to help make your next visit along the trail more enjoyable and memorable.

Planning a hike or bike ride in or near Baltimore? Looking for a well maintained trail to try out? If so, the Gwynns Falls Trail is a great 15 mile greenway trail running through the heart of the city connecting over 30 unique neighborhoods and 2,000 scenic acres of wooded parkland. Looking for an app to help you navigate the entire trail? Worried you will not have Wi-Fi access to access all of the information? Then this is the app for you as we have included everything you will need in the download!

Key Content Features:
+ Detailed City maps of the Trail and surrounding Baltimore neighborhoods
+ Photos and descriptions for dozens of key locations throughout the trail system
+ Points of Interest listings for over 90 locations in and around Baltimore

Key Features Include:
+ GPS tracking of your location, even without WiFi or cell reception
+ A revolutionary new trail navigation system
+ Map tools including distance, bearing, area and compass
+ Customized pins to record photos, comments, & locations along your hike
+ Detailed search capabilities by nearby locations and by type
+ Identify the Latitude/Longitude or UTM Coordinate for any place on the map

The Gwynns Falls Trail app was developed by International Mapping. To learn more visit:
www.internationalmapping.com
To learn more about the Gwynns Falls Trail visit www.gwynnsfallstrail.org
To learn more about Parks & People Foundation visit www.parksandpeople.org
Compatibility:
+ Requires iOS 4.3 or greater
+ GPS functionality requires iPhone 3GS or later and iPad 2 or later.

15 August 2012

BES Annual Meeting 24-25 October 2012


Dear Members, Collaborators and Friends of The Baltimore Ecosystem Study:



S  A  V  E       T  H  E       D  A  T  E  !



For:            Baltimore Ecosystem Study Annual Meeting


Dates:        Wednesday and Thursday, 24-25 October –
          All Day Wednesday; Half Day Thursday



And:           Community Open House and Annual Greening Celebration
        (in partnership with Parks & People Foundation)


Date:          Wednesday, 24 October – Evening Event



Place:          Cylburn Arboretum, Baltimore, MD



As usual BES researchers who have scientific results to share are invited to present a 15-minute talk or a poster summarizing the results. 

Our invitation to participate and/or attend will be sent out at the end of August.

30 July 2012

Urban Ecology Book Chapter


BES Co-PI Mary Cadenasso and Project Director Steward Pickett have a chapter in the recently published book "Encyclopedia of Theoretical Ecology."

This major reference is an overview of the current state of theoretical ecology through a series of topical entries centered on both ecological and statistical themes.  Coverage ranges across scales—from the physiological, to populations, landscapes, and ecosystems. Entries provide an introduction to broad fields such as Applied Ecology, Behavioral Ecology, Computational Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Epidemiology and Epidemic Modeling, Population Ecology, Spatial Ecology and Statistics in Ecology.  Others provide greater specificity and depth, including discussions on the Allee effect, ordinary differential equations, and ecosystem services.  Descriptions of modern statistical and modeling approaches and how they contributed to advances in theoretical ecology are also included.  Succinct, uncompromising, and authoritative—a “must have” for those interested in the use of theory in the ecological sciences.



Cadenasso, M.L., and S.T.A. Pickett.  2012.  Urban ecology.  Pages 765-770. In: A. Hastings and L. Gross (eds.) Encyclopedia of Theoretical Ecology.  University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

12 July 2012

New Journal: Ecosystem Services


We are pleased to announce that our new journal, Ecosystem Services, will be launched in 2012. The journal is associated with the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP).

Be part of this exciting new journal.  Submit your paper online

Author benefits:
  • Easy online submission
  • No page charges
  • Fast maximum online visibility, accessible to over 17 Million readers
  • Liberal copyright policy
  • More services for authors, proofs, online tracking, free e-offprints

Aims&Scope
Ecosystem Services is an international, interdisciplinary journal that deals with the science, policy and practice of Ecosystem Services in the following disciplines: ecology and economics, institutions, planning and decision making, economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry and outdoor recreation, and all types of ecosystems.

The aims of the journal are:
1.   to improve our understanding of the dynamics, benefits and social and economic values of ecosystem services
2.   to provide insight in the consequences of policies and management for ecosystem services with special attention to sustainability issues
3.   to create a scientific interface to policymakers in the field of ecosystem services assessment and practice, and
4.   to integrate the fragmented knowledge about ecosystem services, synergies and trade-offs, currently found in a wide field of specialist disciplines and journals.

Detailed information, including the online submission system can be found at www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoser.

Register NOW and receive an alert when the first issue is live on ScienceDirect.

Questions? Please contact Sandra Broerse at Elsevier.