Environmental education for Lynchburg College students is being enhanced by increasing the use of the Center as a primary field site for a variety of School of Science courses.
For example, introductory biology, chemistry and environmental science classes average three on-site sessions per semester, serving roughly 200 students. Summer field-oriented courses, conducted entirely at the Center, will be introduced by the '04/'05 school year.
The Education & Research Center laboratory is being equipped with state-of-the-art teaching and research equipment. Examples include field biology equipment, microbiological equipment, environmental chemistry instrumentation, digital data loggers, a weather monitoring station, and GPS units and GIS software.
Watershed research initiatives have been developed that involve faculty working closely with students on research projects. Specific emphases include:
- an inventory and study of local flora and fauna
- long-term monitoring of terrestrial and freshwater habitats
- land-use and water quality relationship studies
- assessment of wetland function and restoration
- archeological studies
- geologic and geomorphological surveys
- public policy analyses
Following are examples of watershed research projects that have been conducted in the past couple of years by Lynchburg College faculty and students at the Center. Most of these projects have resulted in a scholarly "senior thesis" paper and presentation by the students.
- Trophic level interactions in the ponds at the CNSC and development of ecological models describing freshwater food webs.
- The effects of nitrogen deposition on the depletion of soil nutrients at the CNSC.
- The correlation between the extent and type of riparian vegetation with selected measurable water quality parameters at the CNSC.
- Fecal coliform levels and bacterial loads in Sheep Creek within the Big Otter River watershed as related to agricultural land use.
- Comparison of nitrate composition and riparian width along the Big Otter River.
- Abiotic variables and microbiological water quality in an agricultural landscape.
- A mathematical model describing the population dynamics of a four-species predator-prey scenario involving daphnia (at two developmental stages), certain invertebrates, and fish.