Edna and I just returned from an amazing trip to Cienfuegos, Cuba, to join our colleagues from Dauphin Island Sea Lab, including Alison Robertson, to study algal blooms in freshwater and marine systems. Honestly, this might have been the best field trip I have ever had. The people we worked with could not have been more welcoming and supportive. I hope to return soon.
Pandora’s meta-analysis project has been published in Aquaculture. This is the 21st paper produced from the class and first lead by an MS student. You are awesome, Pandora. Wadsworth, P., A. E. Wilson, and W. C. Walton. 2019. A meta-analysis of growth rate in diploid and triploid oysters. Aquaculture 499:9-16.(PDF)
August 2018
This month has been incredibly busy…
Lily and I attend SIL in Nanjing, China, as well as seeing our friends at Nanjing Normal University. On the way, we saw The Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Incredible experience!
Our REU Site has ended after 10 productive weeks. We have had some terrific groups in the past, but this is probably the best. I am expecting several papers to be produced from this cohort. Good job,y’all.
Our NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity proposal has been funded! I am psyched to be working with Dave Hambright and Lee Krumhotz (University of Oklahoma), Hans Paerl (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Morgan Steffen (James Madison University) to better understand HABs. We are looking for students to join us to work on this project. Interested? Contact me.
I was recently elected to join the National Harmful Algal Bloom Committee, which helps motivate research, education, and policies related to algal blooms. Looking forward to joining the team.
I was just notifed that I am the southeastern US winner of the 2018 USDA Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching award. My great students share this award with me. One of the nice perks of this award is that I get to participate in the awards banquent in one of my favorite cities, New Orleans.
Mary’s class project has been published! Congrats, Mary and Althea! Your persistence paid off. Delaney, M., A. ArchMiller, D. P. Delaney, A. E. Wilson, and E. J. Sikora. 2018. Effectiveness of fungicide on soybean rust in the southeastern United States: a meta-analysis. Sustainability 10:1784. (PDF)
Mario has returned to Brazil to complete his PhD next month and then join the drinking water industry. He will be greatly missed but we know that we will see him again.
Yang’s limnocorral experiment showing strong effects of hydrogen peroxide treatments on toxic cyanobacteria in an aquaculture pond has been accepted for publication. Cool study, Yang. Yang, Z., R. P. Buley, E. G. Fernandez-Figueroa, M. U.G. Barros, S. Rajendran, and A. E. Wilson. 2018. Hydrogen peroxide treatment promotes chlorophytes over toxic cyanobacteria in a hyper-eutrophic aquaculture pond. Environmental Pollution 240:590-598. (PDF)
Edna, Lily, and I lead educational events at the Lee County Water Festival. It was great to work with our local 4th graders.
April 2018
Our paper showing strong, clear short- and long-term effects of REU experiences on participants has been accepted at BioScience. Anyone who has experience working with REU programs won’t be surprised by our findings, but we hope that our study will encourage more students and faculty to be interested in participating and leading REU programs, respectively. Wilson, A. E., J. L. Pollock, I. Billick, C. Domingo, E. G. Fernandez-Figueroa, E. Nagy, T. D. Steury, and A. Summers. 2018. Assessing science training programs: Structured undergraduate research programs make a difference. BioScience 68(7):529-534. (Website) (Editor’s Choice)
Edna lead a great outreach event at our local museum. All the kids wanted to look through the scope to see Daphnia!
Edna and I gave an outreach talk about Secchi disks to a great group of high school students. Definitely future limnologists.
Rachel Zitomer (2012 REU student) just learned that she was awarded an NSF GRFP to attend Oregon State University this fall. Good work, Rachel!
Our German buddy, Bettina Welz, came back to visit us for spring break! We miss Bettina.
March 2018
LeeAnn just learned that she is a recipient of an AU Undergraduate Research Fellowship that she will use to conduct an awesome experiment she proposed next academic year. Congrats, LeeAnn!
Another great prison outreach event with Edna and Ash Abebe at Staton Correctional Facility. Our students were incredible, as always.
Our extension article describing some of our efforts to use ecology to control toxic algae in aquaculture is out. Wilson, A. E.,E. G. Fernandez, R. Buley, and L. A. Roy. 2018. Is sustainable control of toxic algae a reality for catfish aquaculture? Fish Farming News 2018(1):7-8. (PDF)
Edna’s and my short extension article targeting drinking water utilities dealing with toxic cyanobacteria has been published. In short, we strongly encourage all water resource managers to get a microscope and some training to identify phytoplankton in their waterbodies. Wilson, A. E. and E. G. Fernandez-Figueroa. 2018. Preparing water resource managers to identify and measure toxic cyanobacteria. Streamlines Spring 2018:18. (PDF)
Our cow pond paper is finally out. In this study, we learned that cow access to ponds can reduce abundance of toxic cyanobacteria due to increased bioturbation (i.e., cows walking in ponds makes them muddy!). Wilson, A. E., M. F. Chislock, Z. Yang, M. U.G. Barros, and J. F. Roberts. 2018. Pond bank access as an approach for managing toxic cyanobacteria in beef cattle pasture drinking water ponds. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 190:247. (PDF)
Our REU Site in Warm-water aquatic ecology is nearing the end of our student recruitment efforts. We have got a bunch of awesome undergraduates heading to Auburn this summer. It will be another terrific REU summer.
My old pal from NSF, Sophie George, invited me to visit her at Georgia Southern to share some of my lab’s research. It was a great trip!
The n-fixation master, Thad Scott, finally offered a hands-on training session for me. The trip to Baylor was excellent. Lots of great food, fellowship, and n-fixation. I also happened along the Fixer Upper compound during a morning breakfast hunt. I had no idea what the Magnolia Market was (thanks to a lack of cable tv for many years) but learned that it is the center of the Waco universe.
January 2018
Bryant’s thesis has found its way into circulation at Freshwater Science. Nice job, Bryant! Baker, B. C., A. E. Wilson, and J. T. Scott. 2018. Phytoplankton N2 fixation efficiency and its effect on harmful algal blooms. Freshwater Science 37(2):264-275.(PDF)
The WilsonLab is growing again! We are excited to welcome three new undergrads, AnaSara Kipp, Kate Baker, and Harris Pride, to the team.
Yusuf recently learned that his work defining river plumes in Lake Michigan using stable isotopes has been accepted for publication. Great job, Yusuf. This is the first paper from our Lake Michigan river plume project. Jameel, Y., S. Stein, E. Grimm, C. Roswell, A. E. Wilson, C. Troy, T. Höök, and G. Bowen. 2018. Physicochemical characteristics of a southern Lake Michigan river plume. Journal of Great Lakes Research 44:209-218.(PDF)
Ryan’s meta-analysis class project focused on the value of bird carotenoids for evaluating individual animal quality has been published. Good job, Ryan! Weaver, R. J., E. S. A. Santos, A. M. Tucker, A. E. Wilson, and G. E. Hill. 2018. Carotenoid metabolism strengthens the link between feather coloration and quality. Nature Communications 9:73.(Website)
Yang has departed the lab. It has been a great year. We will see you again in Nanjing this August at the SIL meeting!
I had to drive through Alabama’s earliest blizzard to give a seminar at the University of Alabama. The rivalry between our schools knows no boundaries. Trip was excellent, thanks to Jen Howeth. Roll Tide!
My teaching and research efforts were recently honored by the College of Agriculture. I truly appreciate both awards but of the two, I am most excited about the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Instruction that would not be possible without the hard work of my many fantastic students. My buddy, Sushil Adhikari, received the College of Agriculture High Impact paper award. Good job, Sushil!
I was fortunate to spend two days in west Alabama (beautiful Demopolis and Greensboro) to talk with catfish and shrimp farmers about their production struggles. Excellent meetings and even better food!
November 2017
I recently learned that all of my service for ASLO has paid off. I am officially an ASLO Fellow!
This year’s 9th US Symposium on Harmful Algae was a huge success. Not only did Edna receive the best student poster (you rock, Edna!), our (Alison Robertson, Dave Hambright, and Matt Waters) proposal to host the next Symposium in November 2019 at Orange Beach, Alabama, was selected. We have lots of work to do between now and then.
Edna was awarded 2nd place for her poster about our drinking water project in the College of Agriculture Graduate Student Poster Showcase. Good job, Edna. We will need to invest in a new shelf to hold all of your awards.
I had the opportunity to return to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management Annual Surface Water meeting in Montgomery for the third year in a row. This year, I was able to share exciting results from our state-wide drinking water reservoir survey.
Edna was just formally honored by the AL/MS AWWA for her research. Congrats, Edna!
My family got a chance to return to Arlington, VA, to see our old friends. It was an awesome reunion.
My trip to Hanover, Germany, to participate in the DynaTrait conference was incredible. A whole week of eco-evo talks focused on freshwater plankton. How can things get better? Oh yeah, I got to see some of my European buddies.
Romi’s meta-analysis project has been accepted for publication. This is the fastest turnaround time for any paper from my meta-analysis class. Good job, Romi! Novriadi, R. 2017. A meta-analysis approach toward fish meal replacment with fermented soybean meal: effects on growth performance and feed conversion ratio. Asian Fisheries Science Journal 30(4):227-244. (PDF)
September 2017
Edna and I were invited to my alma mater, Young Harris College, to do some recruiting for our graduate program and our new REU Site. Their campus is beautiful.
Bettina has left the building to return to Germany to start her graduate research. Bettina, you are already missed. Thanks for joining us. You are awesome.
Nathan Hartline, a past AU student, asked me to help do some limnological sampling of DeKalb county fishing lake to figure out why the fish community is doing so well. I blame good fisheries management.
Bettina and I were able to sample some catfish ponds in west Alabama before starting a whole pond experiment. Lots of algae!
Things continue to get busier. We just learned that our USDA-NIFA proposal to use super Daphnia to control toxic and off-flavor producing cyanobacteria in aquaculture ponds has been funded. We finally get to run a huge, funded whole pond field experiment! Thank you, USDA!
August 2017
The lab is growing! Welcome to Riley (new PhD student), Trevor (undergrad researcher), Bettina (DAAD Rise scholar), and Madeline (undergrad researcher). Work hard!
Thanks to our friend, Jaquice Boyd, from Birmingham Water Works, and the AL/MS AWWA, the lab had a fun-filled night watching the Montgomery Biscuits. Go Biscuits!
July 2017
Mario Barros, a PhD student from the Universidade Federal do Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil, just joined the lab for a year. Edna, Mario, and I had a chance to get in our green ponds, and Mario is still around. That is a good sign.
June 2017
My family just returned from an awesome week at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. We saw lots of critters, including brown and black bear, pronghorns, elk, many birds, and uinta squirrels. We will be back. Plan your trip today.
As part of our AgR SEED project to study algal toxins in Alabama drinking water systems, we are organizing a workshop to train utility professional and state agency scientists about harmful phytoplankton and their toxins. We even got some folks excited about learning how to measure algal toxins with ELISA.
Edna and I were invited to talk with incoming freshman participating in the College of Sciences and Math’s STEM Bridge program about undergraduate research. I think we might have convinced them to get involved with research this fall.
May 2017
I am thrilled to report that our Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) proposal to extend our REU Site in warm-water aquatic ecology has been funded. The program will occur during the summers of 2018-2020.
I have recently joined the editorial board for the journal, Harmful Algae, and look forward to seeing many exciting and interesting HABs manuscripts.
Kai’s persistence has paid off. After several revisions, his interesting paper showing that elevated temperature can impact maternal effects associated with Daphnia tolerance to toxic cyanobacteria has been accepted for publication! Lyu, K., L. Zhang, L. Gu, X. Zhu, A. E. Wilson, and Z. Yang. 2017. Cladoceran offspring tolerance to toxic Microcystis is promoted by maternal warming. Environmental Pollution 227:451-459. (PDF)
Jess recently received 3rd place for undergraduate oral presentations in the science and technology section of the Auburn University This is Research Symposium. Good job, Jess!
I recently participated in the Lee County Water Festival where I was able to teach hundreds of 4th graders about (edible) aquifers. This was a great, important event to educate our future leaders about protecting and managing our precious freshwater resources.
I love this National Geographic story about geniuses. This statement from Terence Tao is so true. What really matters is “hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck.”
Christian Moldaenke, from bbe Moldaenke, visited the lab to use some of his company’s new tools to study our green ponds. It was a very productive and fun visit and gave the lab a chance to get together for a needed cookout.
April 2017
I was able to spend several days in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and got to see beautiful beaches, rainforests, and cities as well as some old friends.
March 2017
Edna just got the fantastic news that she is being awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! I am so proud of her. Time to get to work with those pesky Daphnia.
Auburn just released a nice news release about the 14 new GRFP fellows at the university. This is a record! War Eagle!
More good news! My past PhD student, Michael Chislock, has just accepted a faculty position at SUNY-Brockport to become their new limnologist. Congrats, Michael!
Laurel’s REU project was recently accepted at the Journal of Coastal Research. This is our REU Site’s 20th REU student publication. Good work, Laurel and Chris. Low, L. and C. J. Anderson. In press. The threat of a nonnative, invasive apple snail to oligohaline marshes along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Coastal Research.
Jessica’s meta-analysis project was accepted for publication in Contemporary Economic Policy. This is our 17th class publication and first in economics. Very cool, Jessica! Merkle, J. and M. Phillips. In press. The wage impact of teachers unions: a meta-analysis. Contemporary Economic Policy. (PDF)
As expected, ASLO in Honolulu was a great time. I was able to participate in a leadership workshop with John Downing and Debbie Bronk, co-organize a 2.5 day-long session on HABs, see many old friends, and hangout on the beautiful beaches.
Edna and I were able to visit Tutwiler to give an outreach talk about eutrophication. This was our first visit to a women’s prison in Alabama. It was one of the best outreach events to date. Incredibly smart and engaged students.
Tammy DeVries organized an incredible Wonders of Water program for two local Girl Scout troops. I talked about drinking water treatment as well as what microscopic creatures live in lakes that we don’t want in our drinking water. The Girl Scouts enjoyed looking at phytoplankton, zooplankton, and macroinvertebrates under the scopes. Definitely future aquatic ecologists.
Edna gave a great talk about our Daphnia consumer offense research at the Association of Southeastern Biologists in Montgomery, AL.
February 2017
We just learned that Bettina Welz from the Universitat Heidelberg (Germany) will be joining the lab this summer through a DAAD Rise scholarship. We look forward to seeing you in Auburn, Bettina. Alan
I recently led a HABs webinar for nearly 100 water utility professionals in KY-TN through the Kentucky-Tennessee Water Environment Association. I discussed some of our findings from our USGS project focused on forecasting blooms in the southeastern US. Participants had some challenging questions for me related to monitoring HABs as well as the effects of wastewater on eutrophication dynamics.
January 2017
I had an opportunity to serve on the technical advisory committee for the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) who will thoroughly evaluate fluorescence-based tools for studying harmful algal blooms in marine and freshwater systems. A week in Monterey, CA, is good for the soul. Plus, I was able to meet with HABs scientists from around the world and watch the jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
