New field lab building available. This innovative building is available to facilitate teaching and research opportunities in the natural and environmental sciences, as well as in areas like education, art, journalism, and writing where immersion in the natural environment is valuable.

The field lab (completed in April 2009) is located near University Lake at the IURTP Griffy Woods property northeast of the IU golf course and IU Foundation. [ Read more about the field lab and how to reserve the facility for your class. ]

Lave is Sawyer Seminars speaker

CRES member Rebecca Lave, Assistant Professor of Geography, has received the honor of being named an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminars speaker. This year's seminars will address how and why cultural, social, and material forces interrupt the circulation of technoscientific objects--and with what consequences for what kinds of communities.

CRES Co-Sponsored Presentations CRES Co-Sponsored Presentation: Linking Plant Traits, Ecosystem Dynamics and Global Change: Keys to a Predictive Ecology? Peter Reich, University of Minnesota Fri., Nov. 6, 2009 Hosted by: EEB CRES-Grant-Sponsored Program: Great Lakes Basin Pilot Program Hosted by Professor Henk Haitjema, IU SPEA Featured researchers: Mr. Daniel Feinstein and Dr. Randy Hunt, both of the USGS in Wisconsin, are investigating the Lake Michigan watershed regional model and creating intermediate and local scale refined models to better understand surface-groundwater interactions. Thu., Oct. 15, 2009 CRES Co-Sponsored Presentation: Animal Migration Conservation Seminar David Wilcove, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, Princeton University Fri., Oct. 9, 2009 CRES co-sponsored the EEB (Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior) Graduate Program seminar: Predicting Water Use and Salinity with Vegetation Change Robert Jackson Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Fri., Apr. 17, 2009 Microbiology and CRES jointly sponsored the seminar: Greenhouse Gases and Microbial Niches: Tradeoffs Between Metabolic Power and Efficiency Tom Schmidt Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University Tue., Apr. 7, 2009 CRES co-sponsored the EEB (Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior) Graduate Program seminar: The Nature of Climate Change Impacts: Philosophical, Statistical, and Ecological Considerations Jonathan Newman University of Guelph Fri., Mar. 6, 2009

Upcoming Presentations

The role of science in the decision-making progress
U.S. Congressman Baron Hill (IN-09)
Tue., Nov. 24, 1:15-2 pm
Swain East Rm. 240

Visit Other Presentations of Relevance for a list of environmental science talks at Indiana University.

CRES grants awarded (Spring 2009)

In order to enhance environmental sciences research and activities at IU Bloomington, the IU Center for Research in Environmental Sciences (CRES) made available approximately $100,000 for research support and infrastructure as well as approximately $50,000 for seminars, workshops, and travel. In February 2009 the call for proposals was distributed, but not limited, to CRES affiliated members. Any IU Bloomington faculty member, postdoctoral, or graduate student interested in environmental sciences research was eligible to submit a proposal as long as at least one investigator was a CRES affiliate and on the IU Bloomington campus.

Nine research proposals requesting a total of $191,800 were received. The five top-ranked proposals were selected for full or partial funding. Five proposals requesting funds for seminars, workshops, and travel were submitted. All five were fully funded.

Funded research

Investigating temporal dynamic of autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration using reversible-girdling technique (PIs: C. Wayson, D. Dragoni), $30,465

Plugging the IURTP into 21st century lake research: real-time meteorological and thermal instrumentation of University Lake (PI: S. Hall), $20,900

Characterization of endophytic fungi of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) (PI: H. Reynolds), $10,000

Decomposing spatio-temporal dynamics of carbon and water fluxes for improved understanding of ecosystem functions in a changing climate (PI: D. Dragoni), $14,205

Examining the role of mycorrhizal associations in mediating carbon storage in southern Indiana forests (PIs: R. Phillips, T. Evans), $18,700

Funded seminars, workshops, and travel

Workshop: Interdisciplinary approaches to research on human-environment interactions (E. Moran, E. Brondizio), $14,330

Funding for Meghan Midgley to attend the 2nd Annual Summer Course on Flux Measurements and Advanced Modeling (M. Midgley, R. Phillips), $1,750

Seminars: (1) Metal toxicogenomics related to human disease, metal biochemistry, and physiology and (2) Adaptive evolution to pollution stress, Environmental genomics (J. Shaw), $2,800

Workshop: Implementation and further development of a hybrid analytic element--finite difference model for water availability assessment in the Great Lakes area (H. Haitjema), $2,000