{"id":62,"date":"2016-11-06T14:22:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T19:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/?p=62"},"modified":"2019-11-19T13:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T18:23:55","slug":"rivers-of-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/2016\/11\/06\/rivers-of-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivers of Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a third of Americans getting their drinking water from rivers, according to\u00a0americanrivers.org<\/a>,\u00a0the health of those bodies of water is vital for people, animals and the environment. But what influence do humans have on those waterways?<\/p>\n

Ball State biology professor\u00a0Mark Pyron<\/a>\u00a0is investigating this question by comparing North American river ecosystems that have been modified over time to more pristine Mongolian rivers. He\u2019ll do this with an award of more than $190,000 that\u2019s part of a $4 million-plus National Science Foundation grant.<\/p>\n

Research underway<\/h5>\n

Pyron is working with scientists and graduate students from nine universities including Ball State, the University of Kansas, and international universities such as the National University of Mongolia. James Thorp of Kansas leads this project.<\/p>\n

This five-year research project began in the summer of 2015. Part of their study includes collecting samples of fish, insects and plants from rivers in California, Nevada and Utah, plus Mongolia. They are studying more than a dozen rivers until 2020, focusing on semiarid shrublands, mountain steppe shrublands, and short-to-tall grassland ecoregions.<\/p>\n

These three ecosystems are all river basins \u2014 land that drains water and sends it to a river. Semiarid shrublands are basins where rivers either dry at a final point or enter a landlocked lake. Mountain steppe shrublands and short-to-tall grasslands are basins whose rivers eventually reach an ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimarily, we\u2019re going to test Jim Thorp\u2019s idea for river ecosystem synthesis, which is a prediction that rivers function as small units that are impacted by the local hydrology and local geology,\u201d Pyron said. According to Pyron, the group is studying how food webs, the food chain in an ecological community, change as functions of rivers, as well as how they change in response to factors such as dams and human influences.<\/p>\n

A tale of multiple rivers<\/h5>\n
\n
\"Mark

Mark Pyron (White cap) is joined by other researchers at the Eg River, Mongolia<\/p><\/div>\n

Mark Pyron (White cap) is joined by other researchers at the Eg River, Mongolia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When asked about the expected differences between North American and Mongolian rivers, Pyron said, \u201cOne of the overlying differences is just there are fewer species there.\u201d He also lists differences in geology, ecological conditions and evolution as contributing factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cool thing is that rivers that have no exotic species \u2014 there\u2019s nothing introduced there. We can look and we can ask, \u2018Is this what a river naturally functions like?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

This project may be the last opportunity to study Mongolian rivers in their pristine state. The Mongolian government is planning to build hydroelectric dams in some of their rivers within 10 years.<\/p>\n

As a member of Ball State\u2019s Aquatic Biology and Fisheries program, Pyron\u2019s main focus on the project is studying fish. He and his team will use tissue samples from fish and look at isotope levels to better assess questions related to food webs. Fish collection will be different in each country. In the U.S., they will use backpack electric fishers and nets and in Mongolia, they plan to use rod and reel. Other researchers will focus on insects.<\/p>\n

Advice<\/h5>\n

Pyron said Ball State students are motivated to assist with the research. \u201cI\u2019ve got two graduate students who are going to be doing the field work with me. They\u2019re both going to use a portion of this research as part of their dissertations. So they\u2019re heavily involved in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pyron has a lot of advice for students considering a career in research or biology. \u201cIt\u2019s probably more important that you find an area that really interests you rather than something that\u2019s going to sell. It\u2019s more motivating to do research that you\u2019re interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said that if the area doesn\u2019t sell, you\u2019re less likely to get funding for research. Pyron suggests being open to multiple paths of research and willing to modify things to fit funding opportunities.<\/p>\n

Because of Ball State\u2019s flexibility in research, Pyron has been able to follow a path that fits his interests and funding needs. He\u2019s thankful for his research opportunities, especially traveling to Mongolia and the Western U.S. where he sees \u201creally cool\u201d sites and creates contacts with students and researchers at other universities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was written by Briana Lomax<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a third of Americans getting their drinking water from rivers, according to\u00a0americanrivers.org,\u00a0the health of those bodies of water is vital for people, animals and the environment. But what influence do humans have on those waterways? 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