Student Leslie Scopes Anderson, Dr. William Miller Geology

HSU student, Leslie Scopes Anderson recently completed a beginner's fossil guide for Humboldt County entitled "Unearthing Evidence of Creatures form Deep Time". The work details five sites in our area where ancient marine fossils can be found, complete with maps, photos, descriptions and directions. It will be used for fossil classes in the geology dept., and is also available for download by any student at the Geology website. The project took three semesters to complete, under the direction of Dr. William Miller.

Faculty William Wood Chemistry

On February 9, William Wood, HSU Chemical Ecologist gave a lecture to the California Native Plant Society: titled “Chemicals – the Language of Plants.” This talk covered how plants use chemical to "talk to other plants.” It also covered many of the toxic compounds plants make to keep from being eaten. Humans now use many of these toxic plant compounds as modern medicinal drugs.

Faculty Lori Dengler Geology

Lori Dengler represented the United States at the 7th International Workshop on Coastal Disaster Prevention, held January 26 - 28 in Tokyo Japan and presented a paper "Building Tsunami-Resilient Communities in the United States".

Faculty Matt Nelson (grad student) and Sean Craig (faculty) Biological Sciences

Published a paper in Marine Ecology Progress Series this week entitled:

"Role of the sea anemone Metridium senile in structuring a developing subtidal fouling community"

Vol. 421: 139–149, Jan 17th, 2011

link to full paper (open access):

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps_oa/m421p139.pdf

Faculty Mark A. Colwell Wildlife

Wilson, C.A., & M.A. Colwell. Movements and fledging success of Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) chicks. Waterbirds 33:331-340.

Faculty Mark A. Colwell Wildlife

Co-authored several recent papers, including:

Colwell, M.A., N.S. Burrell, M.A. Hardy, K. Kayano, J.J. Muir, W.J. Pearson, S.A. Peterson, and K.A. Sesser. 2010. Arrival times, laying dates, and reproductive success of Snowy Plovers in two habitats in coastal northern California. Journal of Field Ornithology 81:349-360.

Muir, J.J., & M.A. Colwell. 2010. Snowy Plovers select open habitat for courtship scrapes and nests. Condor 112:507-510.

Mullin, S.M., M.A. Colwell, S.E. McAllister & S.J. Dinsmore. 2010. Apparent survival & population growth of Snowy Plovers in coastal northern California. Journal of Wildlife Management 74:1792-1798.

Wilson, C.A., & M.A. Colwell. Movemen

Student HSU Logging Sports Team

Humboldt State University’s Logging Sports team captured first and second overall in the annual California Conclave competition in November, hosted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and held at the Cal Poly Swanton Pacific Ranch just north of Santa Cruz. A contingent of 24 HSU students participated and many of them placed first in individual events. They competed with teams from Cal Poly, UC Berkley, Modesto Junior College and Central Oregon Community College. HSU senior Jess Engle captured the Belle of the Woods award for the overall best female competitor.

The event set the stage for the 72nd annual Association of Western Forestry Clubs Conclave, which will be hosted by Cal Poly at its San Luis Obispo campus March 21-25, 2011. It will feature competition among 12 schools from the Western U.S.

Alumni Jeff Dunk Environmental Science & Management

Jeff Dunk co-authored the following article which recently appeared in the journal Conservation Biology:

CARROLL, C., D. S. JOHNSON, J. R. DUNK, AND W. J. ZIELINSKI. 2010. Hierarchical Bayesian Spatial Models for Multispecies Conservation Planning and Monitoring. Conservation Biology 24:1538-1548.

Faculty William F. Wood Chemistry

A major focus of William Wood's research has been the investigation of antibiotics naturally excreted from mammalian skin glands. This December his latest contribution to this area was published in Scientia Pharmaceutica, the Austrian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It describes a series of antimicrobial compounds that were prepared using a compound from an African antelope as a model.

William F. Wood, “Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of Long-Chain 3,4-Epoxy-2-alkanones” Scientia Pharmaceutica 78, 745-751 (2010). doi:10.3797/scipharm.1009-02

Faculty Lonny Grafman Environmental Resources Engineering

Interviewed by Thrivable.net on Savoring Optimism - http://bit.ly/thr1ve.

Faculty William Wood Chemistry

An article titled “Bird Photography” and 12 photographs was published in the November issue of Redwood Snapshots, a publication of the Redwood Camera Club.

Photographing birds has long been an important aspect of William Wood’s nature photography. In this article he describes techniques for successfully photographing these animals

Student Whitney Butler, Whitney Schimke, Alexander Taylor, Ryan Camera and Tyler Hullquist Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Students and faculty from the HSU’s Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources recently travelled to Albuquerque to take part in professional meetings and compete in the Society of American Foresters (SAF) Quiz Bowl at the society’s annual convention in October.

HSU sent five forestry students, Whitney Butler, Whitney Schimke, Alexander Taylor, Ryan Camera and Tyler Hullquist, to compete. The contest brought together student teams from universities across the country to demonstrate their knowledge in a wide variety of forestry disciplines.

Forestry and Wildland Resources Department Chair Ken Fulgham and Professor Han-Sup Han attended the five day convention, where Fulgham presented a poster titled “Long-term, Post-Fire Dynamics of a Sagebrush Steppe and Western Juniper Community.” It summarized nearly thirty years of post-fire vegetation monitoring of sagebrush rangelands in Modoc County in Northeastern California. Dr. Han participated in the McIntire-Stennis meetings as the HSU-Administrative Technical Representative (AT-R).

Student Kymberly Gustus, Annayal Yikum and Yesenia De León, Biological Sciences

Biology majors Kymberly Gustus and Annayal Yikum, along with Wildlife major Yesenia De León, won the award for best poster in Neuroscience at the SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) conference held on Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 in Anaheim, Calif.

The undergraduate student’s poster was entitled: The effects of histamine on escape behaviors and giant nerve fiber conduction velocity in the blackworm Lumbriculus variegatus. Their research was conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Bruce A. O’Gara. Annayal, Kymberly and Yesenia are interns in the Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) Program in the Biological Sciences.

Student Sam Aguilar, Phil Chaon, Brian Fagundes, Dave Spangenburg and Amy Leigh Trost Wildlife

Humboldt State University’s highly successful Wildlife Quiz Bowl Team won the 2010 National Wildlife Quiz Bowl Oct. 5 in Snowbird, Utah, marking HSU’s ninth victory in 11 years in the national and regional contests.

In the latest 17-team national competition, Humboldt State blanked Michigan Tech 135-0, beat Texas A&M;120-55, trounced the University of Wyoming 110-15 and downed Penn State 95-20.

The tournament was part of the National Wildlife Conference in Snowbird, and the HSU team comprised five undergraduates: Sam Aguilar (Wildlife major), Phil Chaon (double major, Wildlife and Zoology), Brian Fagundes (double major, Wildlife and Geography), Dave Spangenburg (Geography major, Wildlife minor) and Amy Leigh Trost (Wildlife major).

Faculty Jeff Dunk Environmental Science & Management

Jeff Dunk co-authored the following paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management:

ZIELINSKI, W. J, J. R. DUNK, J. S. YEAGER, AND D. W. LAPLANTE. 2010. Developing and Testing A Fisher Landscape Habitat Suitability Model for interior Northern California. Forest Ecology and Management 260:1579-1591.

Faculty Richard A. Paselk Chemistry

Rich Paselk (Chemistry) presented a paper (5 October 2010) at the XXIX Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science in Florence, Italy : "The Display of 20th-Century Scientific Instruments at Humboldt State University,"

Faculty Mark Hemphill-Haley Geology

Along with HSU Environmental Systems - Geology graduate student, Paul Sundberg, participated in 10 day post-earthquake reconnaissance of the September 4, 2010, M 7.1 Darfield earthquake near Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand. Worked with members of New Zealand GNS Science, Canterbury University and Penn State University to describe and document surface rupture and strong motion evidence produced during the earthquake.

Faculty Lori Dengler Geology

Named to the Board of Directors of the California Integrated Seismic Network, the automated rapid dissemination system of earthquake information for emergency responders and earthquake professionals in the United States.

Faculty Matthew Hurst Chemistry

Published an article in the journal Continental Shelf Research on the unusually high levels of bioavailable particulate iron and how it may be responsible for the high productivity found on the Bering Sea shelf.

Hurst, Matthew P., Aguilar-Islas, Ana M., and Kenneth W. Bruland (2010). Iron in the southeastern Bering Sea: Elevated leachable particulate Fe in shelf bottom waters as an important source for surface waters. Continental Shelf Research, 30, 467-480.

Faculty Dr. Han-Sup Han and Dr. Aaron Hohl Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Dr. Han-Sup Han and Dr. Aaron Hohl, recently presented their research at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Congress meeting in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Hohl presented his research on modeling the potential risk and implications of forest and grassland fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) in the Ukraine. Dr. Han presented his research on the collection and transportation of forest biomass for energy in the western United States.