Director

John Titus
Director of the Center for Integrated Watershed Studies and Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
http://biology.binghamton.edu/titus

Primary interests lie in aquatic plant ecology, especially in determining responses of freshwater plants to environmental change such as that wrought by lake acidification and eutrophication. In this connection, recent research has focused largely on evaluating the importance of carbon dioxide availability as a determinant of aquatic plant community composition. Studies have included the impacts of invasive species on aquatic plants and comparisons of the effectiveness of different species and species combinations for retaining nutrients in natural and constructed freshwater wetlands. Overall research activities include a mix of physiological, population, and community ecology. Research projects have taken place in the Adirondacks, the Upper Susquehanna Basin, and Wisconsin, as well as in the research greenhouse of Binghamton University.

Associate Director

Joseph Graney
Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences and
Environmental Studies http://geology.binghamton.edu/faculty/graney/graney.html

Primary research interests include environmental geochemistry, with a focus on tracking natural and anthropogenic flux of metals through the environment at various spatial and temporal scales. Recent research has focused on watershed-based studies of trace metal fluctuations as indicators of sediment entrainment and transport during storm events, as well as understanding and quantifying source water contributions through metals speciation analyses. Past research projects have included use of lead isotopes and trace metals as tracers of anthropogenic pollution and use of variations in the stable isotope ratios of C, O, H, and S as tracers of environmental processes. His research projects are both local to the Center and as far reaching as the Chesapeake Bay, Florida Everglades, the Great Lakes Drainage Basin, and the Rocky Mountains.

Associate Director

Burrell Montz
Professor, Department of Geography
http://geography.binghamton.edu

Primary research interests include natural hazards, resource management, geographic environmental impact analysis and watershed planning and management, with a land use and policy focus. Recent research has included hazard-related projects, one involving multiple hazards and vulnerability analyses. Another centers on evaluating the effects of flood mitigation policies. Recent projects involve using GIS to model probabilities of multiple hazards and to evaluate vulnerability of populations. Recent conference involvement included a NATO Advanced Study Institute "Coping with Flash Floods" in Ravello, Italy. Project participation spans diverse locations from NY State and regional endeavors to Colorado and Slovenia.

Faculty Associate

Peter Knuepfer
Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies Program, Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies
http://geology.binghamton.edu/faculty/knuepfer/knuepfer.html

Primary research interests include neotectonics, including both active faulting and
tectonic geomorphology; Quaternary geology, especially proglacial lakes in New York; and fluvial geomorphology, especially incision of rivers in response to human and natural disturbances. Specific research locations include tectonic geomorphology of the active Taiwan orogen, tectonic geomorphology of the Southern Alps of New Zealand, fault segmentation in the Philippines and western U.S., proglacial lakes of the Champlain Valley and Finger Lakes areas of New York, post-glacial stream incision in the Finger Lakes, and hydrologic responses to dam construction in the Catskills of New York.

Faculty Associate

Dale Madison
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
http://biology.binghamton.edu/madison

Primary interests include the behavioral and chemical ecology of predator-prey interactions, especially among terrestrial vertebrates. General interests span aquatic ecology, specifically fresh water quality (e.g. sediment load) in relation to the behavioral biology and successful reproduction of selected fish and amphibian species. Past research activities have included studying salmonid breeding migrations in Japan, British Columbia, and in the Great Lakes. More recently, studies have included the assessment of habitat use and descriptions of the breeding migrations and behavior of rare and threatened amphibian species in New York State, specifically the aquatic hellbender and tiger salamanders.

Faculty Associate

Curt Pueschel
Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
http://biology.binghamton.edu/pueschel

Primary interests are in the biology and cell structure of marine red algae. One ongoing research effort is directed towards red algae that deposit calcium carbonate; we are investigating the diverse anatomical and cellular specializations associated with mineral deposition. A second area of inquiry is exploring the hypothesis that protein crystals, which are common cellular inclusions in marine algae, function as a nitrogen store and serve to buffer seasonal nitrogen depletion. Research emphasizes cell structure and biology of the algae, with special interest in the unique intercellular connections, called pit plugs, found in red algae. Explorations of structural variation of pit plugs have involved the examination of over 180 species from around the world. Other projects have addressed chloroplast structure, differentiation and germination of spores, cell wall calcification, protein storage, fungal and viral infections, and calcium oxalate mineralization. Increasingly, interest has been drawn to the ecology of one of the most important groups of red algae, the heavily calcified Corallinales, where the fine cell structure is being examined to elucidate the mechanisms by which coralline algae respond to important environmental factors, such as grazing, surface fouling, and infra- and interspecific competition for substratum. Projects have spanned the globe from the Finger Lakes to the Caribbean and to the Arctic.

Faculty Associate

Karen Salvage
Associate Professor, Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies
http://geology.binghamton.edu/faculty/salvage/salvage.html

Primary interests include groundwater hydrology, contaminant fate and transport in the subsurface environment, numerical modeling of groundwater flow and contaminant transport, and watershed scale hydrology. Recent research projects include hydrogeologic investigations of small watersheds, hydrograph response in headwater catchments, aquifer heterogeneity, sustainable development of groundwater resources, assessment of temporal and spatial hydrologic fluctuations in natural and constructed wetlands. Professor Salvage has conducted research in the Upper Susquehanna River Basin in New York, Alaska, Florida, and Washington State.

Faculty Associate

Weixing Zhu
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
http://biology.binghamton.edu/wzhu

Primary research interests include biogeochemical cycling of essential nutrients in various natural and anthropogenic altered ecosystems, in particular nitrogen (N) deposition, N mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification in temperate forest ecosystems; and the alterations of N cycling in urban – suburban ecological systems. The nutrient emphasis allows involvement in many local and regional non-point source pollution projects, from landscape configuration to nutrient movement at the watershed scale, and results in collaborations with both on-campus and off-campus colleagues. Laboratory studies emphasize an ecosystem approach, specifically the importance of material cycling and fluxes (biogeochemistry), energy fluxes (primary and secondary productions, decomposition), and their relationships with species composition. In terrestrial ecosystems (including wetlands) where most research has been centered, emphasis is on the importance of plant – soil interactions and soil ecology in general. Current projects include N retention in temperate forest soils, N movement cross watersheds with different land-use, exotic species invasion in wetlands, status of mycorrhizae symbiosis and biogeochemical cycling in urban soils, and the functional role of riparian buffer zone. Study areas include small watersheds in the Upper Susquehanna River Basin with varying forest, agricultural, and urban land uses; Binghamton University campus natural woodlots and the Nature Preserve; Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in North Central New York State; an urban-rural gradient forest outside New York City; and a potential salt marsh study site outside Shanghai, China.