2016 - New Year, New Science

2016 is off to a great start for WEEL. Despite having to cut out some field days due to vehicle issues, our January field campaign at the Tres Rios Constructed Treatment Wetland came to a successful conclusion yesterday. This is due in large part to dedication of our students and volunteers, so a big thank you is in order to all of you that joined us on those cold mornings (before sunrise in most cases)! Having only been out to Tres Rios myself in January once during 2013, it was fun to more fully experience the site during the middle of winter. Check out the photos below to see our field crew in action, and get a taste of how cool Tres Rios looks on those early (and sometimes very foggy) winter mornings!

The Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program hosted its eighteenth annual All Scientists Meeting (ASM) on January 15th, 2016, and WEEL showed up in full force! All of our students did a fantastic job presenting posters about their projects and latest findings, and it was a great opportunity to see the work that the CAP LTER community as a whole has been doing over the course of the past year. Peter Groffman, a visiting professor and collaborator from City University of New York and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER (BES LTER), gave the opening talk on "Baltimore, Phoenix and the Emergence of Long-Term Ecological Research in Cities." WEEL's very own Dan Childers, who is heading up the upcoming proposal to the National Science Foundation for the fourth funding cycle of the CAP LTER program (CAP IV), gave an interesting second keynote presentation on "Tomorrow’s Cities: Infrastructure to Enhance Urban Sustainability," detailing the importance of studying infrastructure in urban systems. Congratulations to all of the WEEL members for their hard work over the past year, and good luck in what will no doubt be another exciting and successful year! Check out the photos below to see our lab members representing WEEL and having fun at the ASM.

Chris Sanchez
WEEL Lab Manager