Research Projects – Brooklyn Urban Ecology and Environment Program (BUEE)

Student Project: Assessing natural and nature-based shoreline features (Branco Lab)

bbranco — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 16:50:10 +0000

Natural and Nature Based Shoreline Features (NNBF) are being integrated into coastal resilience strategies due to the variety of services that they provide. These services may include ecological enhancement, flood risk reduction, and socio-economic benefits. A new statewide framework for monitoring the performance of NNBF relative to other shoreline types will help shape NY State policies and practices for shoreline management. This summer, we will be applying the framework at sites around Jamaica Bay including the newly completed living shoreline project at the West Pond in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. BUEE students will work with our partners to collect field data and interpret finding to better understand the value of NNBF for coastal climate adaptation.

Student Project: Trace metal contamination in bioswale soils: an indicator of urban air pollution? (Cheng Lab)

zcheng — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:16:13 +0000

Thousands of bioswales had been built in New York City. Each of them helps infiltrate thousands of
gallons of stormwater runoff from streets, alleviating the pressure on wastewater treatment plants and
reduce the combined sewer overflow – the leading cause of water quality problem for major cities.
These bioswales also accumulate pollutants in the runoff, thus could serve as an indicator of air quality
around the bioswale. Topsoil samples have been collected from dozens of bioswales in New York City.
We are looking for a student to perform lab and data analysis, to investigate the potential relationships
between soil metal contents, land use, traffic density, and other variables.

Student Project: Quantifying soil quality improvements of leaf mulch incorporation (Cheng Lab)

zcheng — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:12:35 +0000

Leaf mulching and subsequent incorporation into soils in situ have been piloted in New York City, as a
means to reduce the labor and cost of leaf collection and offsite transportation, as well as to promote
beneficial use of organic waste to improve soil quality for vegetation and stormwater infiltration. This is
an excellent example of efforts to reduce carbon footprint and to achieve carbon neutral by 2050.
However, such improvements have not been quantified or even validated in the field. We are looking for
a student to perform field and lab measurements, to work alongside with NYC agency staff as well a
graduate student at Brooklyn College.

Student Project: Disturbed and diverse: Soil and green infrastructure microbial communities of New York City (Muth Lab)

trmuth — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 21:34:45 +0000

Human activity in cities alters the biodiversity of insects, plants, and animals – frequently lowering the biodiversity and replacing native species with introduced species. Changes in urban biodiversity impact the health and resilience of urban ecosystems. Urban soil microorganisms contribute to important ecosystem services, such as biogeochemical cycling, decomposition, and plant growth promotion. We and others have found that the biodiversity of soil microorganisms increases in urban soils that have been heavily impacted by human activity. This holds true for the soils present in NYC green infrastructure sites such as green roofs, tree pits and bioswales. We hypothesize that human activity increases the number of microenvironments, or tiny niches, within the urban soils, and these niches support a diverse community of microorganisms. To test this hypothesis, this BUEE project will extend beyond our initial work to include a wider range of urban soil types and expand our analyses to include fungi and cyanobacteria. We will collect and analyze soil microbiome DNA samples from multiple sites across NYC, and to employ newly developed PCR primer sets that target a wider range of microorganisms. We expect that results from this project will contribute to a better understanding of urban soil microbiome diversity and resiliency. These findings could provide urban planners with insight on how green infrastructure soils can be managed to maximize their ecosystem services.

Student Project: Targeting the duckweed microbiome for improved phytoremediation of urban waters (Muth Lab)

trmuth — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 22:00:48 +0000

Duckweeds, small aquatic plants that grow on the surface of still waters, are commonly observed in lakes and ponds, including those in Prospect Park, Central Park, and other NYC parks. With 37 species and five genera, duckweeds are found on every continent except Antarctica and native to every state in the United States. Duckweeds have innovative applications that include their use in phytoremediation of polluted waters and a source for biofuel production. Plant microbiomes affect plant growth and health, nutrient utilization, and plants’ responses to chemical, environmental, and biological stressors and pollutants. Advances in genomic sequencing and metabolomics analysis allow us to systematically study the interactions between plants, exudates, and microbiomes, and to fill gaps in our understanding of how microbiomes beneficially and antagonistically interact with plants, such as duckweeds, as they take up nutrients and respond to chemical pollutants.

Duckweeds present an excellent system to study microbiomes and the molecular interactions that shape the composition and metabolic potential of the plant and its microbiome. The goals of our research are to develop duckweeds colonized with microbiomes optimized for site-specific remediation of urban pollutants, and to manipulate microbiomes to alter the metabolic activity of host duckweeds in order to improve the composition of their biomass for as a stock for food or biofuel. The modified duckweed-microbiomes represent a novel and significant resource that has not been available previously, and it will lead to greater flexibility and specificity in remediating sites that pose a risk to urban residents and natural resources. As duckweed is globally distributed and can grow quickly in mild to extreme climates, duckweed also has great potential for intensive agricultural production to fulfill the food and fuel needs of a growing population. Our proposed research targets the goals of 1) responding to climate and energy needs, 2) sustainable intensification of urbanization, and 3) sustainable use of natural resources.

Students working on this BUEE project will spend time in the field collecting duckweeds from lakes and ponds around NYC and will work in the lab to determine if duckweed species type and location influence the duckweed microbiome. The data collected on this project will be important in determining if duckweed microbiomes can be modified to promote nutrient removal and phytoremediation of contaminants from the waters of NYC, and if changes in microbiome diversity allow duckweeds to adapt quickly to a changing climate and increasingly stressful environments associated with cities.

Student Project: The dynamics of reproductive behavior in nearshore pipefish (Wilson Lab)

Tony Wilson — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:10:57 +0000

Animal reproductive behavior can be influenced both directly and indirectly by anthropogenic impacts. New York’s waterways are home to a diverse aquatic community that inhabit a distinctive urban ecosystem. These species may face unique challenges due to their close proximity to human populations.

BUEE students participating in this project will explore reproductive behavior in the northern pipefish (Syngnathus fuscus), a species with a highly developed form of reproduction, male pregnancy. While the majority of pipefish species are genetically polygamous, the northern pipefish mates almost exclusively monogamously – the explanation for this exceptional reproductive mode is unknown. The collection of pregnant males and their offspring allows us to track how reproductive strategies change over space and time, and how these strategies may be influenced by local ecological and environmental conditions. Students will carry out fieldwork on local populations of pipefish, and participate in behavioral experiments in Brooklyn College’s Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center aimed at determining what factors drive reproductive decisions in this species.

Student Project: Adaptive immunity in nearshore environments (Wilson Lab)

Tony Wilson — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:10:20 +0000

Adaptive immunity and immune memory are defining characteristics of higher vertebrates. The ability to retain a record of prior infection allows the immune system to learn through experience and to respond rapidly upon secondary exposure. While the majority of vertebrates have a fully functional immune system, seahorses have a simplified system, providing a tractable experimental model for studying host-pathogen coevolution. Seahorses inhabit both pristine environments with minimal human impacts, and urban sites heavily impacted by human activities. How do these environmental differences influence the functional genetic diversity of seahorses inhabiting these environments?

BUEE students involved in this project will use genetic and genomic methods to probe immune diversity in natural populations of seahorses inhabiting nearshore environments. Depending on student interests and experience, this project could involve the development and testing of immunological tools to explore immune function or expand into more comparative studies, investigating how the functional immunity of nearshore inhabitants is influenced by the conditions of their surrounding environment.