NM EPSCoR August 2010 Newsletter

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The first quarterly newsletter from New Mexico EPSCoR, released August 2010.

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New Mexico EPSCoR is funded by the National Science Foundation. Our mission: “To provide the critical gap infrastructure, computational support, and education

and outreach opportunities that foster excellence in climate change research and education.”
For more information, please visit www.nmepscor.org.

THE EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM TO STIMULATE COOPERATIVE RESEARCH

NEWSLETTER
Summer | 2010

Undergraduate Summer Research
This summer, eleven students from seven New Mexico colleges and universities participated in the 2010 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), a NM EPSCoR education effort led by Dr. Mike Pullin and Lisa Majkowski from New Mexico Tech.
Through UROP, undergraduates from 2-year and 4-year institutions are provided the opportunity to perform high quality, relevant, hypothesis-driven research that may not be readily available at their home institution. Students chosen for the program attended introductory classes and workshops for a week at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, NM, learning about climate science and research practices. NM EPSCoR mentors guided the UROP students through research activities for the rest of the summer. On July 30, the UROP participants and students in the New Mexico Tech REU IN THIS (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program presented their research findings and conclusions at the Valles Caldera Science and Education Center. The UROP students reported different challenges in pursuing their research topics, but all were enthusiastic about their findings and about their opportunity to work in the field. The UROP students and topics this year were as follows: Monitoring Sinuositydriven Hyporheic Zones by Seth Crank (Navajo Tech) and Anita Feliciano (Santa Fe Community College); Hyporheic Zone Effects on Water Quality by Emalee Eisenhauer (Western NM University) and Tyler Van Riper (San Juan College); Hydrology and Water Quality of Ancient Acequia Irrigation Systems by Olijahwon Hosteen (Diné College), William Morgan (San Juan College) and Heather Wade (Santa Fe Community College); Climate Influence on Pueblo Agriculture in the Southern Jemez Mountains of New Mexico by Alisha Gonzales (Eastern NM University) and Brody Norton (Eastern NM University); and Stream Hydrology and Geomophology Response to Elk and Livestock Activities in the Valles Caldera National Preserve by Kayla Sawyer (NM Highlands) and Hannah Wilson (Western NM University).

Volume 1 | Issue 1

UROP Students Conclude Research with Presentations

To read more about UROP, visit the NM EPSCoR website.

1 UROP Presentations Undergrad Summer Research 2 NM EPSCoR Education & Outreach 3 EPSCoR Research Focus on Valles Caldera & Spotlight 4 Tri-State Graduate Class & EPSCoR Contacts and Upcoming Events
The 2010 NM EPSCoR UROP Participants. For more photos, visit our Facebook page.

Issue

Enhancing research competitiveness is at the core of EPSCoR. New Mexico EPSCoR invests in climate, hydrology, water quality and socioeconomic research efforts.

Spotlight on: Amanda White
Amanda White received her M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 and 2006, respectively, all in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She had been working as a postdoc at Los Alamos National Lab before becoming part of the New Mexico EPSCoR project in 2009. Amanda is now a postdoc at New Mexico Tech with John Wilson. Her research interests include semi-arid hydrology, mountain hydrology, ecohydrology, and climate change impacts on all three. As part of EPSCoR, she is currently developing surface-water models using USGS’s Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) for our three watersheds of interest: the Jemez River, Rio Hondo, and El Rito Basins. In the next year, she will examine the impacts of climate change on the groundwater/surface-water interactions using downscaled projections of climate data.

UNM Grad student Lauren Sherson, NMT Grad student Jesus Gomez and Navajo Tech Undergrad Seth Crank check their data.

NM EPSCoR Research

Valles Caldera

Climate Science and Hydrology are the focus at the VCNP
The Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) served as the center of much research in 2010. New Mexico EPSCoR is proud to sponsor research at the preserve through various New Mexico higher-ed institutions.
The Valles Caldera is a 12 mile (19 km) wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. The VCNP was created in 2000 when the Valles Caldera Preservation Act was passed, allowing the federal government to purchase the land. NM EPSCoR researchers have used the VCNP in recent years for studies in hydrology, water quality and climate change. The central research challenge of NM EPSCoR is to understand how future changes in seasonal temperature and precipitation will impact snowpack, snowmelt and spring runoff in the mountainous region of north-central New Mexico, which serves as the headwaters for important river systems, including the Rio Grande. As a part of this research effort, a Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system was deployed in the Valles Caldera to study groundwater to surface interaction, especially the upwelling of hyporheic zone discharge. Researchers and students also deployed sondes (used for testing physical conditions of the water), and will eventually monitor water quality instruments inside a 10-foot enclosed cargo trailer that will remain on-site permanently. Several other studies were performed at the VCNP this summer: a study of the transfer of organic carbon from soil to stream and its movement through the hyporheic zone by NM Tech grad students, as well as an investigation of decomposition rates and nutrient contribution of plants to streams by New Mexico Highlands grad students.

Amanda downloading stream flow data at the La Jara Creek Observatory in the VCNP.

For more information on the VCNP, visit their website.

Education and Outreach through EPSCoR New Mexico EPSCoR supports education and outreach activities that contribute to New Mexico citizens’ understanding of climate science.

NM EPSCoR Education & Outreach
2010 Summer Institute for Teacher Professional Development
The 2010 Summer Institute for Teacher Professional Development brought small teams of high school teachers together with project scientists in a five-day Summer Institute held at the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) this past June. Led by the Northern New Mexico Network, the teachers participated in field activities with project scientists, such as equipment deployment and data collection, and created activities to take back to their classrooms. The teachers will gather for two weekend workshops, one in the fall and one in the spring, that will strengthen the bonds within the teacher teams, provide updates and expand the scientific content delivered during the summer, and allow the teachers to share best practices for science teaching.

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is located at 1801 Mountain Road NW.

Climate Science Exhibit Coming to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science receives NM EPSCoR funding to design, fabricate and install a new “Climate Change in New Mexico” exhibit. Jessica Sapunar-Jursich, Director of Education at the Museum, spearheads the project with Dr. Dave Gutzler as the EPSCoR-funded guest curator for the project. Dr. Gutzler is a climatologist on faculty at UNM in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The exhibit itself will expand the current climate exhibit from 110 square feet to 825 square feet. A central feature will be a global representation of climate data using a Magic Science “Science on a Sphere”. A portion of the exhibit will also address regional climate change impacts from the perspectives of local land users. Eileen Everett, the Climate Change Educator at the Museum, will offer numerous Climate Change Education programs in preparation for the opening of the climate exhibit. “Climate Change in New Mexico” is slated to open to the public in May 2011. For more information on education programs at the Museum, visit www.nmnaturalhistory.org.

Contribute to our Newsletter!
Teachers participating in the Summer Institute take measurements in the Valles Caldera.

If you have an article, publication or story you would like to share with the EPSCoR Community, please email Natalie Willoughby, Public Information & Outreach Representative, at [email protected].

Tri-State Graduate Class
NM EPSCoR Joins Nevada and Idaho for Interdisciplinary Modeling
This summer, the Tri-State Consortium sponsored a graduate level class called Interdisciplinary Modeling: Water-Related Issues and Changing Climate.
The Western Tri-State Consortium, comprised of Nevada EPSCoR, Idaho EPSCoR, and New Mexico EPSCoR, offered the class at the University of Nevada, Reno from July 12 to July 30. The class was organized by faculty from Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico, including Dr. Alexander Fernald from NMSU. New Mexico also contributed three other instructors from NMSU and UNM. Based partly on the outcomes of the 2005 Interdisciplinary Modeling of Aquatic Ecosystems Curriculum Development Workshop, this course was designed to address many of the such models might be applied together to address interdisciplinary modeling of climate change impacts on water resources. The course also addressed the advantages and limitations of using models, different spatial and temporal scales that specific disciplines are concerned with, differences in degrees of uncertainty of data and models, interdisciplinary modeling options, communication between disciplines, and interactions with stakeholders and the public.
Students work in the surface-groundwater interactions lab. Instructor: Dr. Sam Fernald, NMSU

challenges often encountered when studying an interdisciplinary subject such as water related issues. Twenty-three graduate students took the class, including three from NMSU and four from UNM. Students were introduced to models that are available in different disciplines and learned how

The class was divided into lectures and a lab, and students used common software to do an interdisciplinary modeling project. As a result, the participating students are better prepared for professional or academic careers in which they interact with peers from other disciplines to address real-work aquatic ecosystem issues. For more information, visit the class website.

New Mexico EPSCoR Contact Information
Dr. William Michener Director (505) 814-7601 [email protected] Dr. Mary Jo Daniel Associate Director (505) 814-7010 [email protected] Natalie Willoughby Public Information & Outreach Rep (505) 814-7500 x. 8111 [email protected]
New Mexico EPSCoR 1312 Basehart Dr. SE University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87106 505-814-7500

UPCOMING EVENTS
2010
Sept. 13-15 Tri-State Diversity Innovation Working Group, Jemez Springs, NM Sept. 17 Science & Technology Day at the State Fair, EXPO New Mexico Sept. 22 Teacher’s Open House, NM Museum of Natural History & Science Oct. 1-3 Distributed Temperature Sensing Innovation Working Group (jharding@nmt. edu to register), Jemez Springs, NM Oct. 18 EPSCoR All Hands Meeting, UNM Technology Park, South Campus Oct. 25 External Advisory Board Meeting, EPSCoR State Office Nov. 6 Family Day with Climate Change activities, NM Museum of Natural History &

Science

2011
Jan. 4-6 Junior Faculty Leadership Training Workshop, Jemez Springs, NM March 17 NSF Day, Location TBA April 6-8 Tri-State Annual Meeting, Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

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