In This Section:
Chazdon sees forest through trees Robin Chazdon, ecol. & evol. biology
The father of mercury research William F. Fitzgerald, marine sciences

Tropical ecologist studies how rainforests regrow

The destruction of tropical rainforest has for years been a concern of environmentalists. But the forest can regenerate itself if the conditions are right, and UConn's Robin Chazdon is studying how it happens.

Professor Robin Chazdon has been studying the tropical rainforests in Costa Rica for nearly 30 years.

Chazdon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has been working in Costa Rica for nearly 30 years. Since 1997, she has been documenting the regrowth of tropical forest sites near the field station of La Selva.

Chazdon was selected earlier this year to receive the President's Award from the British Ecological Society, an award given once every two years "for high achievement in the field of ecology." Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

In January 1997, Chazdon identified four 2.5 acre sites for long-term study. Today, she has six years of data on how these forests are regrowing, combined with aerial photos, satellite imagery, and accounts from people who have worked there for many years.

"There is a tremendous need to have good measurements of processes in the forest," she says, "and my work is focused on providing some of that detail." One type of data she collects has to do with the availability of light, one of the most important determinants of growth.

Chazdon has studied both the canopy, a forest's uppermost branchy region, and the understory - the part of the forest below the canopy - to discover how a newly established forest, or secondary forest, is different from a mature forest. Her research has documented some important distinctions.

"The secondary forest has a different dynamic from a mature forest," says Chazdon. "There's a lot of turnover in the canopy. The early trees grow fast and are initially dominant, but they won't remain that way in the future."

Using a laser rangefinder to provide highly accurate measurements of tree height, Chazdon has discovered that many of the trees in the naturally regenerated forest areas grow extremely rapidly.

The long-term effect appears to be that allowing forests to re-grow on land that would otherwise not be forested will enhance the removal of carbon in tropical regions, she says.

Chazdon says she would like eventually to hand over all the sites to Costa Rican researchers, but currently the government doesn't have the funds to sustain the studies.

"I view the project as a collaborative effort," she says.

"It's very important to me to contribute to the development of scientific knowledge in Costa Rica."

Chazdon travels to Costa Rica twice a year. Both UConn graduate and undergraduate students participate in her work.
-- Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu

A life-long journey to make a contribution to society

William F. Fitzgerald first became interested in mercury as a graduate student in the mid-1960s after learning of the horrors of Minamata, the Japanese fishing village whose people were devastated by mercury poisoning that was discovered in 1956.

William F. Fitzgerald will be honored by the Geochemical Society for his highly distinguished career.

"At that time, it was the worst industrial poisoning in history and I thought to myself: Here's a chance to make a contribution to society. To prevent poisonings, we need to understand how mercury cycles in the environment," says Fitzgerald, a professor of marine sciences and founder of the Mercury Laboratory at UConn's Avery Point campus.

His lifelong work has earned him a reputation as "the father of mercury research." His distinguished list of accomplishments will be honored in September by the Geochemical Society during its conference in Japan, when Fitzgerald will receive the scientific organization's highest award, the Patterson Medal, which recognizes innovation in environmental geochemistry. The medal memorializes Fitzgerald's scientific mentor, Clair C. Patterson, who first reported the accurate age of the earth and is the scientist who pioneered lead-free gasoline.

"When I looked at the e-mail saying that I was selected for the medal, I couldn't breathe. It's an extraordinary honor," recalls Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald's research at UConn centers on the environmental impact of mercury on both a global and local scale. He is interested in how mercury migrates from air emissions during the burning of coal and waste incineration into rivers and streams, where bacteria can convert it to the highly toxic methylmercury which winds up in the fish that humans eat. Atmospheric mercury from China or Europe, for example, can reach Long Island Sound or its watershed, adding to local sources of mercury from wastewater treatment plants.

Fitzgerald also is studying whether accumulated mercury in the Sound and in New York Harbor is having more of an effect on fish contamination than other sources of pollution in these regions.

Fitzgerald's research recently took him and his students to arctic Alaska, where they flew by helicopter to crystalline lakes to measure the amount of mercury in the lakes' sediment.

UConn's Mercury Laboratory is recognized internationally and Fitzgerald, his colleagues and graduate students have developed many of the collection and analytical procedures used to study mercury. His scholarly work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, among others. In recognition of his many accomplishments, Fitzgerald was among the first group of UConn faculty in 1998 to receive the Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence.
-- Alix Boyle