Topics ranging from carbon and climate change to salamanders and prairie dogs will all be explored over the course of a seminar series this fall at West Virginia University. The series is sponsored by the Environmental Research Center in WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design.

“There are myriad environmental issues impacting the world and numerous environmental research interests at WVU,” said Jim Anderson, director of the ERC and professor of wildlife and fisheries resources.

“This seminar series is designed to address some of these issues, all of which have important implications for environmental policy,” he added. “We hope that the diversity of the topics will appeal to a wide array of students, staff and faculty.”

The schedule of seminars is:

• Ecosystem Carbon and Water Fluxes in a Changing Climate and Society: What Have We Learned from Ecosystem Studies? Jiquan Chen, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor of Ecology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at The University of Toledo. 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, 101 A&B National Research Center for Coal and Energy. Chen has over 200 publications on a variety of topics related to ecosystem science, carbon and water cycling, ecological modeling, and conservation biology. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011.
• Behavioral and Endocrine Responses to Environmental Contamination in Stream-side Salamanders. Sarah Woodley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University. 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, 101A National Research Center for Coal and Energy. Woodley’s research interests focus on effects of environmental stressors on amphibian reproduction and health and neuroendocrinology of chemical communication.
• Adaptive Management or Risk Management? Examining the Drivers of Forest Service Planning Processes and their Consequences. Marc Stern, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech University. 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, 316 Percival Hall. Stern’s research interests include human dimensions of natural resource policy and management, environmental communications, protected areas management, international conservation, natural resource management effectiveness, and evaluation of environmental education and other outreach programs.
• Mid-Atlantic Freshwater Wetlands: Using Science to Inform Policy and Practice. Robert Brooks, Ph.D., professor of geography and ecology and director of Riparia, which is a center designed to understand watershed systems, at Pennsylvania State University. 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, 101 A&B National Research Center for Coal and Energy. Brooks has published extensively on wetland and river systems and wetland-dependent wildlife.
• Insights from Long-term Research: Why Do Females Mate with More than One Male, and Why Do Animals Disperse? John Hoogland, Ph.D., professor of biology at the University of Maryland, Appalachian Laboratory. 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, 101 A&B National Research Center for Coal and Energy. Hoogland has published more than 100 articles and 3 books, most of which are related to prairie dogs, the species focus of this seminar.

The seminars are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Anderson at 304-293-3825 or jim.anderson@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

dw/08/29/12

CONTACT: David Welsh; Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304.293.2394; david.welsh@mail.wvu.edu

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