Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Visitors: Our campus will be open for Labor Day this Monday! Come enjoy the last #holiday weekend of the summer, with a walk on one of our four trails. We'll be open both Saturday and Monday from 8am-5:30pm. (We're still closed on Sundays.) Thanks to our hardworking security staff, whose extra work has enabled us to remain open for more federal holidays this year. To plan your visit, check out our website at https://lnkd.in/ekeGvfZm 📸 by Kristen Goodhue

Visitors: Our Reed Education Center will be open to the public again this Friday! Please park in the paved lot in front of the building, and watch your step for any remnant construction debris. For details or to plan your visit, check out our website at https://serc.si.edu/visit 📸 Karen McDonald

#InternSpotlight Meet Valerie Chen, a rising senior at The George Washington University majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. This summer Valerie dove into all things fungi with the Molecular Ecology Lab here at SERC! When not studying fungi, you can find them baking a tasty treat or creating cyanotype art. Valerie’s research took place in SERC’s TEMPEST experiment, where scientists are flooding parts of a forest to mimic intense rainfall and storm surges. For their project, Valerie collected plant and soil fungi data from the TEMPEST forest after its third flooding event earlier this summer. Valerie sought to understand the ecosystem's response to flooding by studying changes in fungi and plant composition. They also took soil cores from the test plots to do DNA analyses back in the lab. “My favorite part of my internship has been surveying plants in the TEMPEST plot....I’ve been able to enjoy foraging a delicious chicken-of-the-woods mushroom, find beautiful pipevine swallowtail and slug moth caterpillars, and have the company of amphibian friends in the plots watch me survey,” said Valerie. Valerie’s goal after graduating this fall is to continue their pursuit in fungi or plant research. 📸 by Valerie Chen and Josie Basch

We're #hiring! Our Biogeochemistry Lab is taking applications for TWO new scientists this September: a research #technician and a postdoctoral #fellow. You'll work on the COMPASS project investigating how coastal upland forests are transforming into wetlands—which includes our forest flooding experiment, TEMPEST. Both positions are located on our campus in Edgewater, Maryland, and last one year with the potential for renewal. Apply by Sept. 30. Get details about both positions at https://lnkd.in/eyeTmUM8 #ScienceJobs

Tonight at 7pm ET: Step into the mysterious and sneaky world of #orchids, with Smithsonian botanist Dennis Whigham! Lady's slipper orchids like this yellow lady's slipper are infamous for tricking their pollinators. For all their eye-catching beauty, they don't offer a nectar reward to the bees and other insects that pollinate them—and the pollen they offer is generally too sticky for the insects to eat. Lady's slipper orchids have another talent: They can lie dormant underground for years without flowering, and reemerge when conditions are just right. Learn more fascinating #orchid facts, at our next free science webinar tonight Sign up on Zoom to join live or to receive a link to the recording: https://lnkd.in/eg_XFeFJ #OurSustainablePlanet

#InternSpotlight Meet Mona Patterson, our science writing intern and author of all the other #InternSpotlights this summer! (We didn’t make her write her own.) Mona is a rising senior at Chapman University, where she studies broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking with a minor in environmental science. In her free time, she enjoys making art out of stone, wood and other natural elements. In addition to her social media work this summer, Mona wrote stories about orchid-finding dogs, oxygen loss in the ocean, plants that are evolving shallower roots and the volunteers who found 1,000 beetle species on the SERC campus. “My interview with beetle hunters Charlie and Sue Staines prompted me to look closer at the little creatures that call Earth home,” Mona says. “Now every time I go outside, I’m always trying to find a new insect or work on my fear of spiders.” When she returns to Chapman, she’s looking forward to filming a short documentary abroad as part of her school’s “Community Voices” course. She hopes to pursue a career as a science journalist after graduation. You can read Mona's beetle-hunting article and other work from this summer on our Shorelines blog: https://sercblog.si.edu/ Photo courtesy of Mona Patterson

One bay, two satellites and three easy steps to participate in this weekend’s Satellites and Samples! 💧🛰️🛰️ On Saturday, Aug. 17, join our #ChesapeakeWaterWatch project as two high-resolution imaging satellites pass over the Chesapeake Bay. The water samples you collect will help “train” these satellites to accurately monitor water quality from the sky! #ParticipatoryScience #SatellitesAndSamples All you need to do is: 1. Collect a water sample in a water bottle from the Bay or a local, coastal river 2. Fill out a data sheet (found on the event page - link below) 3. Drop off your sample and data sheet at a drop off location near you! Visit the event page for details on how to print a data sheet, how to collect your water sample or to find a drop off location near you: https://lnkd.in/eYGaP5YA

Next Tuesday at 7pm ET: Did you know North America has more than 200 native #orchids—and over half are threatened or endangered somewhere they once flourished? This showy lady's slipper #orchid is endangered in six states, and is thought to have vanished here in Maryland. On Aug. 20, join Dennis Whigham, SERC's orchid guru and botanist emeritus, for a glimpse into the mysterious #orchid world. Discover their unlikely beginnings as “dust seeds,” to the microscopic fungi they depend on to thrive, to their quirky—or downright sneaky—strategies to get pollinated. He'll also reveal how orchid aficionados can help save these flowers, through initiatives like the North American Orchid Conservation Center. This event will be recorded! Sign up on Zoom at https://s.si.edu/3Aummo8

#InternSpotlight Meet Tessa Forth, a rising junior at Lewis & Clark College majoring in environmental studies with a minor in earth systems sciences. Tessa is passionate about understanding what makes coastal ecosystems tick. Aligning perfectly with her passion, she is interning with the Smithsonian Marine Conservation Lab here at SERC. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting and thrifting. At SERC, Tessa focuses mainly on #bluecarbon ecosystems: coastal and marine areas that capture carbon and help naturally mitigate climate change. She does lab work to quantify blue carbon sequestered in Panama’s mangroves and Mexico’s cenotes (freshwater sinkholes), and analyzes data comparing carbon stock estimates across the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion. She also uses GIS mapping to track mangrove extents over time and creates interactive story maps to showcase ongoing marine conservation projects happening within the lab and its partners. “I’m lucky enough to sink my teeth into multiple facets of coastal research,” says Tessa. “Since I grew up in the tropics, giving back to these regions and giving them a platform to strengthen their capacity is especially significant to me. Getting to contribute to the data and communicate their impact, knowing how meaningful this is to the futures of coastal ecosystems and societies, is truly important.” Tessa is excited for what the future of coastal conservation holds and hopes to continue her involvement beyond this summer. 📸 by Hannah Morrissette

Dear Smithsonian Institution, Your nerdy science colleagues at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center hope you have a wonderful 178th birthday tomorrow. (Really, you don't look a day older than 150.) Also, we would like to thank you for the trust you put in us 59 years ago, when you helped us turn an abandoned dairy farm into a hub for science and discovery on Chesapeake Bay. We wouldn't exist without your support. We hope you like what we've done with the place. Sincerely, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center #Smithsonian178 Image description: The top black and white photo shows the dilapidated Java Dairy Barn, with windows and boards missing and holes in the roof. The bottom photo shows a sidewalk lined with tall green plants and black-eyed susans, leading up to the Mathias Laboratory with a double rainbow above it. The Charles C. Mathias Laboratory was the first building at the Smithsonian to earn LEED-Platinum status for green building. Bottom photo by Kim Holzer.