WATER RESEARCHThrough our water quality research program, we are investigating various freshwater contaminants, many of which raise public health concerns making these water bodies unfit for their natural or intended uses. Pollution may be caused by fecal waste, chemicals, pesticides, petroleum, sediment, or even heated discharges.
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MICROBIAL ECOLOGYOur microbial ecology research program focuses on using traditional and state-of-the-art genomic and metagenomic approaches to understand how bacteria affect ecosystem and human health; as well as the diversity and function of microbial communities in various ecosystems.
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SCIENCE TEACHINGOur science teaching research is focused on the goal of enhancing student learning through effective and equitable student teaching practices that are based on research and best practices. Science education builds on the best of research in both worlds, science and education.
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Research in the Vereen Lab, referred to as the Vereen Research Institute (VRI) combines environmental studies, microbial ecology, urban ecology, and social-ecological dynamics. Below is a brief description of a few research topics that we explore.
Microbes play numerous roles in stream ecosystems. They carry out key processes in stream nutrient cycles and are responsible for a large part of organic matter breakdown. Advances over the past 25 years in our understanding of which microbes are linked to specific processes have been rapid and fundamental, in part, because of improvements in methods (genomics and bioinformatics). Microbes can be found in almost every part of the Earth, as can social injustice. On the surface, the 2 seem unrelated. However, the connection between microbes and social equity is becoming increasingly explicit. In recent years, microbiome science has established that microbes in the gut, water, soil, plants and air are all vital to human health. These habitats contain a multitude of beneficial and pathogenic organisms, and the composition of active microbes in a community often dictate the health and resilience of that ecosystem. Transdisciplinary work within the VRI aims to disentangle how environmental injustices have structured our urban ecosystems and how we can harness those lessons to build more just, biodiverse, and resilient cities.
Water is one of the most ubiquitous, yet scarce, resources on Earth. Even though the Earth is covered in more than 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water, about 75% of it is surface water and only about 1/100 of 1% of that water is usable by humans. Freshwater is a precious but limited resource, and it is essential to life. Some regions consume water faster than it is replenished. And, unfortunately, water is not evenly distributed across the globe; many people worldwide lack access to enough clean water. Methods are available to recover and purify otherwise dirty water, but we also need to use water more wisely. Water pollution decreases our usable water supplies, harms wildlife and human life, and is largely caused by human actions. Some types of pollution may be easier to address than others, but in general, we can decrease water pollution by controlling what we discharge into water bodies, restoring forested areas, and limiting the use of potential pollutants. Water research within the VRI utilizes the combined perspectives of natural and social sciences, emphasizing community and stakeholder coproduction of knowledge. The fundamental research question driving our work centers on exploring how does the scale and spatial density of urbanization impact water quality? As urban space continues to expand to accommodate a growing global population, there remains a real need to quantify and qualify the impacts of urban space on natural processes. To this end, water quality monitoring is an important part of environmental protection and public health.
Water is one of the most ubiquitous, yet scarce, resources on Earth. Even though the Earth is covered in more than 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water, about 75% of it is surface water and only about 1/100 of 1% of that water is usable by humans. Freshwater is a precious but limited resource, and it is essential to life. Some regions consume water faster than it is replenished. And, unfortunately, water is not evenly distributed across the globe; many people worldwide lack access to enough clean water. Methods are available to recover and purify otherwise dirty water, but we also need to use water more wisely. Water pollution decreases our usable water supplies, harms wildlife and human life, and is largely caused by human actions. Some types of pollution may be easier to address than others, but in general, we can decrease water pollution by controlling what we discharge into water bodies, restoring forested areas, and limiting the use of potential pollutants. Water research within the VRI utilizes the combined perspectives of natural and social sciences, emphasizing community and stakeholder coproduction of knowledge. The fundamental research question driving our work centers on exploring how does the scale and spatial density of urbanization impact water quality? As urban space continues to expand to accommodate a growing global population, there remains a real need to quantify and qualify the impacts of urban space on natural processes. To this end, water quality monitoring is an important part of environmental protection and public health.
360° tour of the Vereen Research Institute (VRI) lab and Water Sample Collection in the Field
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360° tour of the Vereen Research Institute (VRI) lab - visit here
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360° video of field site (PC2) in proctor creek watershed - visit here
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To watch 360-degree video clips, one can use a laptop, a web browser, a mobile phone, or a VR headset. The ways to play a 360-degree video clip on them varies from one to other.
- On a desktop PC (locally, and online), the viewer can use the mouse to pan and look around;
- On a mobile device, the viewer can either use a finger to pan and look around or directly point the device to where the viewer wants to look;
- In a virtual reality (VR) headset, the viewer is virtually wrapped by the video and can simply look around as it is in real life, by moving their head.
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