Read more about the student proposals >>

More than 2,000 individual counts took place throughout the Americas and beyond from Dec. 14, 2007 to Jan. 5, 2008. The VCU team participated in the Hopewell Count on Dec. 16. The team broke into two groups. One group conducted an all day count at the Rice Center while the other group joined Cyrus Brame, USFWS, to survey Presquile National Wildlife Preserve, just upstream of the Rice Center.

The following is an excerpt from a report from Hopewell Count Coordinator Arun Bose.

“Despite challenging weather conditions, with rain at the beginning of the day and high winds toward the end, once again the Hopewell CBC reached a new high count for species recorded on count day –115. Two additional species were recorded during count week; Greater White-fronted Goose (2) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (1). A total of 53,421 individual birds were counted which is up from last year’s count of 33,843.”

Also two new species were added to the count – Willet and White-eyed Vireo. Both species were documented with written descriptions. The Willet was at the VCU Rice Center and the White-eyed Vireo at Westover Plantation; both in Charles City County.

Willet is described in Virginia’s Birdlife an Annotated Checklist as “... rare west of the Chesapeake Bay and the salt marshes along the lower reaches of the Bay’s tributaries ...” There is a single prior winter record of Willet in King William County on Jan. 31, 2004.

Other highlights of the day included 24 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 15 from the VCU Rice Center.

Kudo’s to Dr. Len Smock, Rice Center director, for observing and documenting the Willet!

For more information about CBC participation, visit Audubon’s Web site:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/.

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As researchers generate vast quantities of data about individual genes, proteins and signaling pathways, scientists are realizing that true understanding of complex biological systems requires studying how these components work together. By focusing on the cell or organism as a whole, rather than merely the sum of its parts, systems biologists hope to open new avenues to understanding, preventing and treating disease. To help train future scientists to think like systems biologists, VCU in Richmond is taking a similarly integrated approach. It will use its $750,000 grant from HHMI to implement programs targeting teachers, community members and students at many educational levels. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will introduce kindergarten through 12th grade science teachers to research techniques in workshops highlighting applied systems biology. This training will help teachers create activities that encourage students to design and conduct their own scientific inquiries. The HHMI grant will also support development of a systems biology component to VCU’s popular “Secrets of the Sequence” public education campaign, through which educators can download videos and accompanying lesson plans and activities.

Read more from the Richmond Times-Dispatch »

Read more about the $2 million gift »

Mucking about with her net, however, Wright found the unromantically named Pond 7 pulsing with life.

Softball-sized blobs of jelly contained salamander eggs. Inch-long baby salamanders sported gills and tiny feet. A predatory insect hid in a 2-inch brown cylinder made from leaves it had cut.

Read more from the Richmond Times-Dispatch »

Dr. Joy Ware was appointed as the first Director of the Conservation Medicine Program. Dr. Ware is a Professor in the Department of Pathology in the VCU School of Medicine and in addition to being a nationally recognized cancer researcher. She is also active in the investigation of wildlife diseases. She is a member of the Wildlife Diseases Association and the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians. Dr. Ware has already brought together a strong team of researchers from both the academic and medical campuses to focus on amphibian and reptile health and disease. Following an initial finding of a new type of fungal infection in both spotted and marbled salamanders at the VCU Rice Center, Dr. Ware and several collaborators around the state are investigating the distribution and significance of this disease for amphibians of Virginia.

Monitoring the population dynamics, migration, and health status of salamander species inhabiting the VCU Rice Center and area refuges not only will provide important insights into the baseline health of amphibians but will also facilitate development of conservation strategies worldwide. These salamanders are excellent environmental monitors of local and regional conditions. Disease development often accompanies immune suppression due to climate change, chemical contaminants and pesticides. Thus, these animals may act as indicators of environmental changes that could one day affect human health. It is unfortunate that there are observed declines in amphibian populations worldwide since it has already been found that increased biodiversity reduces the incidence of Lyme Disease in people and some investigators have shown that when tick nymphs attach to some species of lizards, the blood of the lizard actually kills the bacteria that cause Lyme Disease. Dr. Ware has therefore determined that in conjunction with the study on salamanders, a portion of the conservation medicine research will be focused on the further investigation of the possibility that Eastern Fence lizard blood can kill the agent that causes Lyme Disease.

The movement of genes from one generation to the next is the critical process that maintains the genetic connectivity of populations. For most plant species, pollen is the most pervasive vector of gene exchange and is typically transmitted by either wind or via a dispersal vector such as insects or animals. As empirical data on landscape-level gene movement continues to accumulate, it is becoming apparent that insect mediated dispersal produces significantly different spatial distribution patterns of genetic structure than species that use wind as their primary dispersal mechanism. This project is focused on the examination of insect-mediated dispersal using the understory tree, Cornus florida (L; flowering dogwood). We will be using both mathematical models and genetic analyses of natural populations to understand the spatial patterning of insect-mediated pollination and investigate the ecological factors that may influence this process.

Combining mathematical models that are sensitive to the mode of dispersal with genetic data that can identify the spatial movement of genes provides unique insights into this most critical process. Moreover, placing these analyses within an ecological context allows us to understand how the environment influences the behavior of insects that move plant genes across the landscape. The results of this research will ultimately allow us to design more effective management and conservation strategies for natural populations.