Achievement

An example of a new interdisciplinary student/faculty collaboration derived from IGERT is Ecology trainee Culler's research on how climate shapes the distribution and abundance of aquatic invertebrates in freshwater habitats. Culler is collaborating with earth sciences faculty (Kelly) on how changes in insects found in lake sediment cores might provide information on climate change. By collaborating with Kelly, Culler will have access to core samples from New England lakes and cores collected in Greenland for paleoclimate assessment to understand how the freshwater invertebrate communities have varied through time and with climate. Culler's ability to identify insects within sediment cores will also inform Kelly's research. Working together, new information on recent changes in insect communities will be linked to longer-term sedimentary records by a synthesis of ecological and earth science approaches.