Amy Tanner

Stream ecology class has students wading into field experience

Biology students explored the flowing waters of Rock Glen Conservation Area over the September 22 and 23 weekend as a field trip for professor Lynda Corkum’s course in Stream Ecology.

To ensure a full experience for all participants, half the class of 32 went each day, comparing the area’s two rivers: using survey equipment to calculate slopes, measuring discharge, and collecting chlorophyll samples to estimate algal abundance. The students also compared the aquatic insects that live under rocks in riffles and pools in each river.

Campus planting sparks sharing of tree stories

The Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica) derives its common name from reports that early European settlers used its seedpods as a coffee substitute. The species survives in Canada only in southwestern Ontario, where it is considered threatened.

That population grew by one Wednesday, as the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Jull EES Club helped to plant a specimen in front of Memorial Hall in celebration of National Tree Day.