About
Sweet Briar's Student Naturalists
Laurel Speilman, Sweet Briar Class of
2003
Laurel
has worked on chestnut blight since her sophomore year. She became interested
in the American chestnut and the chestnut blight when she and her father
obtained nuts to plant on their Virginia property.
She first conducted a semester of library
research and contacted scientists Gary Griffin at Virginia Tech and John
Scrivani at the Virginia Department of Forestry. In summer 2001, with financial
support from the Honors Summer Research Program and expert advice from Griffin
and Scrivani, Laurel conducted two chestnut projects. She evaluated the
blight resistance of hybrid chestnuts growing at the Lesesne State Forest
in Nelson County, and conducted laboratory experiments on the effects of
tannins on chestnut blight and on other fungi.
Photographs
from Laurel's summer 2001 work.
Laurel's
Honors Journal summary of her work.
In summer 2002 Laurel took a break from chestnuts
and conducted research at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo NY.
In 2002-2003 she picked up the chestnut research again for a full year honors
thesis, and in summer 2003 she will continue her experiments. She has convinced
numerous classmates of how beautiful fungi can be, and has learned to use
practically every piece of major instrumentation in the biology and chemistry
departments.
Laurel plans to go into biomedical research
rather than field biology or plant pathology, but she has enjoyed sharing
the Lesesne Forest with deer and other wildlife, riding in a bucket loader
when the chestnuts were being pollinated, and driving central Virginia's
back roads in search of blight-resistant American chestnut trees.
Serena Basten, Sweet
Briar Class of 2002
During Spring Break Serena visited several of the
monarch butterfly overwintering sites in Mexico with Dr. Brower.
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Serena Basten has been an admirer of
butterflies and moths since she was a small child. In spring 2001
she conducted junior honors research on monarch butterflies with Drs.
Fink and Brower, and in 2001-02 she continued her work as a senior
honors thesis.
Serena investigated the ability of migrant
and overwintering adult monarch butterflies to convert sugar into
lipid (fat). The fall generation of monarch butterflies migrates from
the eastern U.S. and Canada to Mexico, overwinters, and then migrates
back to the southern United States. An unresolved question is whether
older adult butterflies are physiologically capable of adding to their
fat reserves by late winter nectaring, or if they are dependent on
reserves stored up during the fall migration to get them back to the
southern United States.
Serena presented a talk on her research
at the Lepidopterists' Society meeting in Charleston SC in summer
2002. In spring 2003 she, Dr. Fink and Dr. Brower will collect a final
data set that will allow them to prepare a manuscript based on her
thesis.
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Shelly Jozwiak Kellogg, Sweet Briar Class of 2002
Shelly Kellogg conducted research in biology
at Sweet Briar in summer 2001, with support from the Honors Summer Research
Program and from the Scion Natural Science Association. Shelly measured
the impact of exotic insect parasites on mortality of saturniid moth caterpillars.
She reared hundreds of caterpillars of luna, promethea, cecropia, and io
moths, setting them out on understory forest trees for part of their life
cycle, bringing them back into the lab, and determining their rates of parasitism.
This project was based on a recent paper in Conservation Biology
[Boettner, G. H., J. S. Elkinton, and C.J. Boettner. 2000. Effects
of a biological control introduction on three nontarget native species of
saturniid moths. Conservation Biology 14(6): 1798-1806.].
Photographs
from Shelly's research.
Shelly's
Honors Journal summary of her research.
A paper based on Shelly's research has been
accepted for publication in Environmental Entomology. The citation
will be: Kellogg, S.K., L.S. Fink, and L.P. Brower. Parasitism of native
luna moths, Actias luna (L.) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) by the
Nonnative Compsilura concinnata (Meigen) (Diptera: Tachinidae)
in Central Virginia, and Their Hyperparasitism by Trigonalid Wasps (Hymenoptera:
Trigonalidae). Shelly, Dr. Fink and Dr. Brower also co-authored
a paper at last summer's Lepidopterists' Society meeting in Charleston SC.
Shelly is currently in the graduate program
in Entomology at the University of Kentucky.
Megan Ogilvie, Sweet Briar Class of 2002
Megan is one of Sweet Briar's first majors in
Environmental Science, with a concentration in ecology and conservation biology.
After graduation she accepted a job as an ecologist for an environmental
consulting firm in Canada, but she is also applying to graduate programs in
nonfiction writing.
In summer 2000 she was field assistant to Naturalist-in-Residence
Wendy McIntyre, unfazed by ticks, mud, and poison ivy as they surveyed the breeding
birds at Sweet Briar. She had never tried identifying birds by their song, and
found that her background in music was very helpful.
Excerpts
from Megan's summer 2000 field journal.
In spring 2001 Megan attended Duke University's
Beaufort-to-Bermuda marine environmental science semester. She spent the summer
as a field research assistant before returning to Sweet Briar for her senior
year.
Megan conducted her senior research under Dr.
Fink's supervision in the Biology Department. She designed a manipulative experiment
to follow up on Marlena Koper's research (see below). Megan trapped Peromyscus
mice either in Vinca patches or in areas of forest far from any Vinca, and then
quantified their habitat use and behavior in an arena covered partly with Vinca
and partly with leaf litter.
Megan is also an expert equestrian, sucessful
at competitions both in the United States and in her native Canada.
Andrea Capano, Sweet Briar Class of 1999
Andrea Capano grew up in Maine's forests. At Sweet Briar she combined
this experience with her interest in biology and focused on forest ecology.
Her senior research was a dendrochronologic (tree ring) study of chestnut
oaks, white oaks, and tulip poplars, looking for evidence of 1954's Hurricane
Hazel in the trees' growth rings. In the summer after her graduation she
received an Honors Summer Research Fellowship to identify, map, and measure
all of the trees in the kilometer-long COSIP
forest transect.
Andrea is now teaching middle school biology and environmental science in
Maine.
Tricia Hamilton, Sweet Briar Class of 2001
Tricia Hamilton graduated from Sweet Briar
in December 2000 with a major in Biology. Tricia is interested in aquatic
ecology, particularly ichthyology, and in Fall 2001 she began graduate work
in fisheries biology at Texas A&M Galveston.
For her senior research Tricia examined the
effects of intermittent trout stocking on stream insect communities. In
summer 2000 she studied behavioral responses of heptageniid and ephemerellid
mayfly nymphs to odor cues produced by trout, which are among their major
predators. Tricia was supported by a fellowship from the Honors Program.
To gain additional experience in aquatic biology,
Tricia spent summer 1999 at the Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan, in
a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program.
She spent her junior year as an exchange student at Texas A&M Galveston,
which allowed her to take advanced marine biology courses.
Marlena Koper, Sweet Briar Class of 2000
Marlena Koper is a graduate student in Biology
at Miami University of Ohio. She is studying predation risk and mating behavior
in wolf spiders.
Marlena, a biology major from Westchester County,
N.Y., worked on several field projects while a student at Sweet Briar. She
conducted her senior research on the effects of an alien groundcover, Vinca
minor, on the population density of Peromyscus mice in Sweet Briar's
hardwood forests. Vinca is an evergreen vine that forms dense, continuous
patches across the forest floor. One patch in the Carry Nature Sanctuary is
more than an acre in extent. Previous student research had determined that
oak seedling densities are lower in Vinca patches than in comparable
non-Vinca patches, and that white oak acorns are removed (by unidentified
predators) at higher rates in Vinca patches. Marlena did not find differences
in Peromyscus densities in Vinca and non-Vinca patches,
but rodent densities overall were quite low.
Marlena spent one month in summer 2000 assisting
Dan Druckenbrod and Linda Fink in re-mapping forest quadrats in two sanctuaries.
Marlena spent another part of the summer as a field assistant for a
fir tree research project in upstate New York. In summer 1999 Marlena spent
a month restoring the Guion Pond Woodland
Garden. Later she was a member of a five week expedition to Nepal, organized
by Sweet Briar DuPont Scholar-in-Residence Dorothy Allard, studying the biology
of an epiphytic Pedicularis.
When Marlena was not plying mice with peanut
butter or battling poison ivy and leeches, she could be found on Sweet Briar's
volleyball court.
Kim Leach, Sweet Briar Class of 2000 
Kim Leach Burge is a field naturalist who grew
up exploring wetlands and woods in North Carolina. While in high school she
worked as a Junior Curator at the North
Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences. After graduating from Sweet
Briar with a degree in Biology, she returned to the museum where she is employed
as an Aquatics Technician.
During spring semester of 2000 Kim conducted
amphibian surveys at Sweet Briar, concentrating on regular censuses of calling
male frogs and toads at the major breeding sites. Her research also examined
the importance of abiotic factors (air and water temperature, wind speed,
and moonlight levels) on calling rates.
At Sweet Briar, Kim was also active in the
Riding Program and in softball. She spent the fall semester of her junior
year studying at The University of Melbourne, Australia. Kim is an excellent
photographer, as is evident from her many contributions to this website.
Jennifer Lear, Sweet Briar Class of 1999
Jennifer Lear is working on her M.S. degree in Marine Science at Old Dominion
University. Her thesis research is examining octopus predation on spiny lobsters.
Jen's senior research at Sweet Briar examined
the effects of tree size on trunk surface temperatures. This study has direct
applications to the conservation biology of overwintering monarch butterflies
in Mexico, where large tree trunks can act as 'hot water bottles' and buffer
butterflies from cold night temperatures. Jennifer conducted a follow-up experiment
on the thermal biology of large fir trees in the mountains of Nepal in summer
1999, on an expedition with former DuPont Scholar-in-Residence Dorothy Allard.
Jennifer's trip to Nepal was partly funded with a research grant from The
Explorers' Club. Jennifer worked for the year following her graduation as
a technical assistant to Lincoln Brower.
Dina Orbison, Sweet Briar Class of 2000
Dina was one of Dan Druckenbrod's and Linda
Fink's field assistants in summer 2000, re-mapping all of the woody stems
in two areas of Carry and Constitution Oaks sanctuaries. Dina found Virginia's
pollen to be a major challenge to her California sinuses, but she persevered
in measuring DBH's and identifying tree species.
Dina graduated in May 2000 with a major in
Biology. She plans to go to graduate school, but has not decided on an area
of specialization. At Sweet Briar, Dina was a competitive rider, winning her
class in the 1999 ANRC national championship. She spent her junior year studying
biology at Royal Holloway College of the University of London.
URL: //nature.sbc.edu/aboutnat2.html email:
naturalist@sbc.edu
This site is maintained by Professor Linda
S. Fink (434) 381-6436
Department of Biology
Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar VA 24595
Last updated: 5 March 2003
Sweet Briar College main site