Home |
Courses |
Research |
Publications |
Curriculum Vitae |
|
I
am an Associate Professor of Biology
at Ashland
University in Ashland,
OH. I am the current Director of AU's Environmental
Science
Program.
I specialize in aquatic ecology. I have worked in small lakes, warm coastal estuaries, and a large ocean region in the Arctic called the North Water. My students and I now work at two field sites several miles from campus. Recently, we began measuring physical and chemical characteristics of some very dynamics wetlands at the Black Fork Wetlands Preserve. |
 Patty Saunders at Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island,
Canada
|
 An image of Sites Lake, OH, with the GPS location of some depth soundings marked. |
For
several years, my
research students and I have spent time studying the ecology of
zooplankton in Sites Lake in Richland Co.,
OH. We spend even more time in the lab using a variety of
analytical tools.
We are interested in food webs and how they are affected by habitat differences. One recent piece of this project has looked at how small crustaceans respond to the "smells" of other species in the water. We have been testing methods that allow us to observe their behavior when exposed to species like bluegill fish (a predator) or Ceratophyllum (an aquatic plant). |
|
In
spring (odd years), my Limnology
class takes a week-end field trip to Lake Erie. We focus
on coastal wetlands and estuaries. We study the dynamics
and variety of habitats found in these ecosystems. In
Spring 2009, biological
diversity was represented by massive numbers of plankton species
and 25 species of birds, including sandhill cranes and bald
eagles! Our Spring 2011
field trip emphasized human impacts on sites across northern Ohio, from
more rural to more urban landscapes.
Limnology is next offered in Spring 2013. |
 Jessica Parant (AU'09), Sherry Chronister (AU'09), and Valerie Peck (AU'09) sample the lower estuary at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, Huron, OH. |