Jason Hill: "So, COVID-19, what are the chances you'll let us pack into a crowded pub this winter to get our science on in person?"
COVID-19: [silence]
Jason Hill: "Yeah, I thought so."
Folks, we here at the Suds & Science Galactic Headquarters (AKA Hartford, Vermont) were ready to meet back in person for PowerPoint-free science conversations with a pint in hand, but sadly that's not on the books for this winter or spring (#OmnicomCovidVariant). Like all of you we're definitely experiencing Zoom-fatigue, but the health of our community comes first, and Suds & Science will (reluctantly) be an online series in 2022. The biggest upside--we'll be able to bring in scientists to present from farther away (folks that could never drive here) and none of you will have to brave icy Vermont roads to get to Suds & Science.
Hosted by VCE biologist Jason Hill, Suds & Science started as a science discussion series led by a visiting scientist at one of our local brewpubs. Besides the science (from alpine plants to stone tool use by early humans to giraffe conservation), the best part of Suds & Science was meeting and engaging with other fans of science while gaining an understanding of someone's scientific research. When COVID-19 hit, though, we went virtual, and we'll stay virtual for the 2022 season (January-May) as scientists present their research ~40-minute webinar format. Rest assured, we'll still have plenty of time for questions and engagement with our speakers.
Interested? Of course you are, and it's easy to participate. Talks will be held over Zoom, are meant for all ages, and run from 7-8 pm. There will be a registration link for each talk (posted below), but you do not need a Zoom account to join and participate. If you have any questions, just reach out to Jason at .
January 4, 2022 (Tuesday): Laura Plimpton [ Columbia University ]—The Diets of Feral Cats in Urban Colonies. Laura is a PhD student in the Eco-Epidemiology Lab, and is interested in the role of anthropogenic drivers in the transmission of diseases from animals to humans. Video available here!
February 1 (Tuesday): Jay Kelly [ Raritan Valley Community College ]—Impacts of Overabundant Deer and Invasive Plant Species on Forest Understories in Northern NJ. Dr. Kelly is a professor at the RVCC Center for Environmental Studies, and studies the effects of urban deer populations on forest health. Video available here!
March 2 (Wednesday): Kayla Perry [ Kent State University ]—How does urbanization shape the insect communities found in cities? Dr. Perry is a post-doctoral research in the Bahlai Lab, investigating the ‘effects of environmental change on insect communities across spatial and temporal scales using a variety of quantitative approaches’. We'll meet on a Wednesday this time to avoid conflict with Vermont's Town Meeting Day on March 1st. Video available here!
April 5 (Tuesday): Christine Cairns Fortuin [ University of Georgia, Forest Entomology Lab ]—Forest bees: The role of forest resources in wild bee conservation and management. Dr. Cairns Fortuin's research "focuses on wild and native bee species in southeastern forests, and how forest management, pesticides, and catastrophic wind disturbances affect wild bee communities and nesting success." Video available here!
May 3 (Tuesday): Kara Belinsky [ SUNY New Paltz ]—How can we design better suburbs, forest preserves, and clean energy infrastructure for wildlife and humans? Dr. Belinsky studies the behavior, ecology, and conservation of songbirds and the response of invertebrate communities to solar array development. Video available here!
Selected Past Talks to Watch
The Diets of Feral Cats in Urban Colonies
January 04, 2022Laura is a PhD student in the Eco-Epidemiology Lab, and is interested in the role of anthropogenic drivers in the transmission of diseases from animals to humans. Watch it here! »
A community approach to conserving rare plant communities in the Pinelands
January 05, 2021VCE's own Dr. Ryan Rebozo walks a through a conservation strategy that involves bringing diverse stakeholder groups together at the table to conserve for a common cause: rare beach and bog plant communities. Watch it here! »
Urban heat wave effects on human and environmental health
February 02, 2021Dr. Vivek Shandas from Portland State University, and founder of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab. Watch it here! »
Insect conservation in a warming world
March 02, 2021Dr. Angela Laws is an Endangered Species Conservation Biologist and Climate Change Lead for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Watch it here! »
Life on the edge: alpine plant communities
April 06, 2021Dr. Simone Whitecloud's (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory [CRREL]) research uses experimental approaches to investigate the competitive and cooperative (synergistic) actions of plants in the White Mountains (where 30% of the vegetation is left over from the last ice age) and the Arctic. Do different plant species actually facilitate each other in harsh environments by modifying soil moisture or moderating the localized effects of weather? Watch it here! »
Community-based conservation of migratory amphibians
February 04, 2020Every year, on the first warm, rainy nights of spring, thousands of salamanders and frogs emerge from their winter retreats to make their way to nearby vernal pools to breed. Unfortunately, many individuals are killed when their journeys take them across busy roads. Brett Amy Thelen of the Harris Center for Conservation Education joined us to describe her longstanding citizen science effort to document and reduce migratory amphibian road mortality. This effort recently resulted in New Hampshire’s first “Big Night” road closures to provide safe passage for amphibians. Watch it here! »
The conservation status and uncertain future of Vermont's native bees
March 03, 2020Did you know there are over 300 species of wild bees in Vermont? At least, that's the current estimate - but since there has never been a full survey of the state’s bees, it is very difficult to know whether Vermont's bee populations are healthy or declining. Enter the Vermont Wild Bee Survey (VTBees). This ambitious, multi-year project represents the first step in assessing bee populations across Vermont. Last summer, the VTBees team collected more than 9,000 specimens throughout Chittenden County. Then, in an effort to build a comprehensive database of Vermont's bee fauna, the team spent the winter tracking down specimens in museums around the state. They found many surprises in 2019, and they’re certain many more are yet to come. Spencer Hardy of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies joined us to discuss all things buzzy and fuzzy, and to dish out the inside scoop about the trials and tribulations of studying bees, and the current status and future plans of the VTBees project. Watch it here! »
Stone tools: exploring the lives of New England's first human inhabitants
January 08, 2019Over 12,000 years ago what would become New England was a very different place. Open tundra in place of forests, huge herds of migratory caribou replacing our familiar whitetails and moose. This was the world of the Paleoindians, the first human populations to settle this area. While our knowledge of these first Native American groups is limited to stone tools, these materials can help us understand life during the Ice Age here in our own backyard. Dr. Nathaniel Kitchel, Dartmouth College. Watch it here! »
Monarch butterfly migration and the power of citizen science
March 05, 2019Known for its beauty and spectacular migration, the monarch butterfly is Vermont’s state insect. Last summer the butterflies were unusually abundant, but during the past decade they’ve become increasingly rare. What’s behind the fluctuations we see in monarch numbers? Elizabeth Howard, Journey North. Watch here! »
A Tall Order: Studying Giraffe Ecology and Conservation in the Savannas of Uganda
May 07, 2019The future of the giraffe is far from certain: over the past 30 years, giraffe numbers across Africa have declined by over 40%. The causes of this decline are undeniably complicated but dedicated teams of conservationists, researchers and rangers are working across the continent to understand and reverse these alarming trends. Dr. Michael Brown, Dartmouth College. Watch here! »
Backyard crickets and tropical katydids: The amazing world of insect sound and vibration
November 07, 2017The ability to detect, process, and react to cues in the environment underlies nearly every aspect of an animal’s life, from finding mates and food to avoiding predators. Therefore, to understand organisms, we must understand how they recognize stimuli to make decisions and how the process of recognition evolves, diverges, and interacts with ecological context. Dr. Laurel Symes, Dartmouth College. Watch here »
Don’t stress! Evolutionary explanations for why stress affects our health
January 09, 2018What are the evolutionary origins of stress, and how do environmental experiences shape patterns of human biology and health? The answers to these questions may provide insight into how poverty, trauma, and ethnic discrimination affect health. Dr. Zaneta Thayer, Dartmouth College. Watch here »
How warmer soils can affect climate change: From the Arctic to your backyard
February 06, 2018What do dog sledding and being stalked by a polar bear have to do with the terrestrial carbon cycle? Come find out, with a Whistling Pig Red Ale in hand, while casually learning about the interactions among plants, soils, and atmospheric CO2. Dr. Caitlin Hicks Pries, Dartmouth College. Watch a video of the presentation. »
The Social History of Invasive Beavers in the Fuegian Archipelago, Chile
May 01, 2018The year: 1946. An Argentinian Navy vessel introduced 50 North American beavers to the southern tip of South America. The intention: to create fur trading opportunities. The result: 60 years later there are >100,000 beaver, and they have fundamentally changed the ecosystem. Dr. Laura Ogden, Dartmouth College. Watch a video of the presentation. »
Bugs, aliens, and New England’s forests
March 07, 2017Dr. Aaron Weed, ecologist and Northeast Temperate Network Program Manager for the National Park Service, discussed his recent work on the biology and ecology of forest pests, how they impact individual trees to entire forests, and what this means for our local forests and the services we derive in a changing climate. Watch a video of the presentation. »
Introducing Homo naledi
November 01, 2016Suds & Science returned to the Norwich Inn on Tuesday, November 1st at 7pm. Paleoanthropologist Dr. Jeremy DeSilva, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, introduced us to Homo naledi - a new human ancestor from the cradle of humankind in South Africa. Jeremy has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda, early human fossils in Museums throughout eastern and South Africa, and his anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. Watch it here! »
Sex, Drugs and Bees: plant chemistry and pollinators
September 09, 2015Many plants rely on flower visits by pollinators such as bees in order to reproduce. When bees consume nectar and pollen, they must cope with naturally occurring plant secondary chemicals, substances usually associated with plants' defense against herbivores. Why would plants expose their pollinators to these chemicals? How do they affect bee health? And what are the consequences of plant chemistry for pollination of wild and cultivated plants? Leif's talk will draw on his research in Vermont exploring effects of plant chemicals on bumble bee--parasite interactions and bee foraging behavior. He'll also address the importance of wild bees to agriculture and ongoing efforts to halt their decline. Dr. Leif Richardson is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. He previously completed a PhD at Dartmouth College and served as State Lands Ecologist with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. He contributed to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies Bumble Bee Atlas project. He lives in Montpelier. Watch it here »
Presettlement Forests of New England
May 05, 2015Dr. Charlie Cogbill has spent a large part of his career studying a forest that no longer exists: the pre-settlement forest in New England and New York. His primary research tools are archives, located in town halls and other repositories, of land surveys made during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of these archives contain “lotting” surveys – the survey by which the proprietors of a new town divided the town into lots, which were then sold or granted to the earliest settlers. At each lot corner, the surveyors tended to place a monument, often a post or stake or a pile of stones. They also routinely made mention of a nearby “witness tree.” Through statistical analysis and a reliance on his background in field ecology, he has been able to paint a detailed and localized picture of what the forests of New England and New York looked like back when those forests were being settled by Europeans. Watch it here »
Revisiting Loons
April 07, 2015VCE loon biologist, Eric Hanson, just got back from a regional meeting of loon biologists and managers, Eric will share new research on migration, translocation experiments, red-throated loons, social chaos, and lead toxicity. Where the stories will go from there is anyone’s guess, but it is sure to be an entertaining evening full of lively discussion. Watch Eric's lecture »
