Special sessions

Teaching in the 21st Century: Programs and Funding Opportunities

Teaching undergraduates in today's academic institutions offers great challenges and great opportunities. Institutional demands for excellence, innovation, and skillful leadership in the classroom have increased dramatically in the past 10 years. We are expected to recruit and retain at the same time that students have developed a "consumer mentality". We are expected to develop and maintain "academically rigorous" programs at the same time that student preparedness has declined. And yet, most of us have not been trained to teach; rather teaching is something we have learned on the job through trial and error and through the mentorship of our peers. As a consequence, many of us are not aware of the resources that are readily available to help us meet the expectations of our institutions and the needs of our students. This year, the Human Resources Committee is pleased to offer a Teaching Special Session featuring presentations/ discussions on educational reform, innovative curriculum development, the role of technology, case studies, and funding opportunities for curriculum design and innovations in teaching. If you have something to contribute and something to learn about teaching, this is the session for you.  If you are interested in giving a paper in this session, please contact Billie L. Kerans (bkerans@montana.edu ; 406-994-3725) or Pamela Silver (psb3@psu.edu ; 814-898-7132).

Statistical (Probabilistic) Survey Designs: Local to National Examples 

In the past 10 years there has been increased interest and application of probabilistic (random) survey designs for making bioassessments of streams and rivers.  Applications range from multistate surveys of the five Mid-Atlantic states and 12 conterminous Western United States to individual river basins or metropolitan areas.  The objective of this session is to report results from those bioassessment surveys, and to document the strengths and weaknesses of probabilistic survey designs.  The proposed session is not yet full, so interested speakers are encouraged to contact Bob Hughes (hughes.bob@epa.gov ; 541 754 4516) with proposed titles.

Photoecology of Benthic Habitats: Interactions Among Ultraviolet Radiation, Organisms, and the Environment 

The effect of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on marine and lentic plankton communities has received considerable attention in recent years. However, our understanding of how UVR impacts benthic communities is greatly limited. Although planktonic organisms can often avoid intense UVR by moving to deeper water, the sessile nature of many benthic organisms increases potential UVR exposure. Even relatively mobile macroinvertebrate taxa may be exposed to intense UVR while grazing on periphyton in shallow lakes and streams. This special session will examine the direct and indirect effects of UVR on benthic communities in lentic and lotic habitats. Presentations will focus on various environmental factors that modify exposure and influence susceptibility of benthic organisms to UVR.  Please contact Will Cements (willc@cnr.colostate.edu ; 970-491-0690) or Paul Frost (pfrost@nd.edu ; 574-631-0580) for more information.

  West Nile Virus goes West

This special session will consider the westward advance of West Nile Virus with a key address from Andrew Spielman on the progress of the disease and the major mosquito vectors.  Peter Belton, author of ?Mosquitoes of British Columbia?, will provide an update on the latest mosquito news in British Columbia. The virus has confronted a number of natural barriers as well as many human attempts at control.  Some of these control measures have been controversial, such as controlling adult mosquitoes with malathion, whilst others have promoted more natural abatement methods.  Contributors from across Canada and North America will explore the effectiveness of natural and human defenses against mosquito vectors and the somewhat puzzling routes that this virus has taken on its movement across the continent.  This session has openings for additional speakers.  Please contact Michael J. Jackson (acroloxus@dccnet.com ; 604-740-5895)

Small Streams and Forest Management 

Riparian zone management around larger streams, largely for the protection of fish and water quality, has been a key land-use requirement in many places for over a decade.  The effects of land-use, particularly forestry, on small streams can be dramatic, yet many jurisdictions are reluctant to protect these smallest of streams.  This session will focus on studies of the effects of forest practices and the effectiveness of riparian buffers for small streams.  Studies of small streams have been motivated by several concerns, including their role as a unique habitat, the effects on downstream water quality and quantity, as well as their service as conduits of resources (detrital organic matter and invertebrates) to downstream parts of the fluvial network. Another concern that has proven difficult to deal with are the cumulative effects from incremental alterations of headwaters that propagate downstream, but are challenging to isolate, and we will discuss that additional element. Session organizer is John Richardson (john.richardson@ubc.ca ; 604-822-6586).

New Directions in Food Web Analysis

Major advances in the construction and analysis of food web models have increased their value as predictive tools and hypothesis generators. Recent advances include stable isotope analysis for elucidating material flows, complex network analysis, and paleolimnological techniques for reconstructing ancient food webs. If our understanding of food web properties and material and energy flows is to expand and deepen, further advances are required. We also need to expand the scope of food web models by incorporating recent phenomena such as species invasions and urbanization. The goal of this session is to highlight and critique new approaches for constructing, analyzing, and expanding the scope of freshwater food webs. Topics may include: accounting for exogenous nutrients, stable isotope mixing models, meta-analyses, inverse and network analyses, incorporating climate changes, invasive species and urban streams, and food webs as units of stream and lake management. The session is not yet full so potential speakers are encouraged to contact co-organizers Scott Larned (s.larned@niwa.cri.nz; 64-3-343-7834) or Peter Eldridge (eldridge.pete@epamail.epa.gov; 541-867-4031).

Innovative approaches for investigating stream networks at multiple spatial scales

As society copes with pervasive problems involving rivers and streams, studying and managing lotic ecosystems across a variety of spatial and temporal scales is increasingly required. Appropriate research and management techniques have been elusive despite recent developments in landscape ecology.  The primary objective of this symposium is to increase awareness of innovative approaches for examining spatial and temporal heterogeneity in rivers and to demonstrate how such approaches can enhance understanding of stream ecosystems at scales relevant to conservation and management. Topics include (1) analytical advances in spatial statistics and network characterization, (2) examples of multi-scale studies, (3) remote sensing of rivers, (4) linkages between watersheds and streams, and (5) regional assessments of riverine systems. Presentations will explore ideas developed in terrestrial landscape ecology and oceanography and their application for explaining patterns of, and relationships between, aquatic biota and physical habitat in hierarchically-structured hydrologic basins and river networks. Session organizers are Kelly Burnett (kmburnett@fs.fed.us ; 541-750-7309), Robert E. Gresswell (robert_gresswell@usgs.gov ; 541-750-7410) and Christian Torgersen (ctorgersen@usgs.gov ; 541-750-7797).