NEWS

Three members of the Louisiana Tech family had an opportunity recently to discuss their research on hurricane impact and study various ecosystems in Utah.

Bogdan Strimbu, an assistant professor of forest biometrics and quantitative silviculture, and two of his students, Matthew Dillon and Bengaman Nyegaard, who both graduated in Spring 2009, presented research that could help reduce and mitigate the negative impact of hurricanes on the landscape at area and international conferences.

Last year, the University of Louisiana System funded this service-learning hurricane research project. The project brought together students from Tech as well as faculty from McNeese State University. The results were presented at the Louisiana Academy of Sciences annual meeting and at the International Association of Landscape Ecology conference in Snowbird, Utah.

Strimbu, Dillon, and Nyegaard discussed some of the theoretical aspects used to analyze landscapes under natural disturbances and worked with some of the most advanced analytical tools used in landscape investigations at the IALE conference. They also discussed how the College of Applied and Natural Sciences, especially the forestry and geographic information science programs, have started the development of a new approach in the analysis of flat areas.

The students also had an opportunity to visit ecosystems surrounding Salt Lake City and saline marshes and sagebrush communities on Antelope Island. On the last day of the conference, participants studied the national forest ecosystems and wildlife from Utah Lake, the largest natural freshwater late in Utah.

Written by Judith Roberts