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Why wetlands?

WSU Earth & Environmental Science teamed with Greenon Local High School to teach the importance of wetlands

Earth and Environmental Sciences associate professor, Silvia Newell knows very well the role that different wetlands; constructed, natural, and restored, plays in removing the excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from the ground. These nutrients occur in agricultural areas from the use of fertilizers. Wetlands are buffer zones that help mitigate the effects of the fertilizers. For this reason she wanted to work with a rural school to teach students, who may grow up to become farmers or work on farms, to understand the importance of wetlands as buffer zones between farm fields and surface water. Through undergraduate student Megan Reed, who works in the Newell Lab, they were able to team-up with Greenon Local High School for a shoebox wetlands lesson. 

Reed graduated from Greenon Local High School, a rural high school surrounded by farm fields. She was able to reach out to her former science teacher, and Wright State alum, Tom Jenkins. He was very interested in partnering for the shoebox wetland project. Reed took the lead to develop the project and to work with the students. The lesson was designed to teach students who live in an area dominated by agriculture the importance of natural wetlands to farmers. This lesson aimed to show students how conserving natural landscapes in their area can have larger impacts downstream. To model that concept, students constructed shoebox wetlands of their own design and tested the water flow to see how their wetland functioned as a "natural sponge".  The lesson included a trip to a constructed wetland which helped the Newell Lab conduct actual environmental research. The lesson should motivate students to become more aware of the natural processes around them, and educate them on research opportunities in their area.  

Currently, Professor Newell's work at Wright State focuses on hypereutrophic Lake Taihu in China, Lake Erie, and Ohio waterways. She is interested in the interactions between global climate change, the human impact of the nitrogen cycle, and subsequent changes in ecosystem function. She combines molecular biology and biogeochemical techniques to create new ways to probe one of the most critical questions in ecosystem ecology: What are the feedbacks governing how the nitrogen cycle interacts with Earth’s changing climate?