Project Background:
When we think of a meandering river, images of the Mississippi or the Amazon typically come to mind: very large, alluvial rivers whose most
stable channel geometry is a mobile, sinuous route across a broad alluvial floodplain. It comes as a surprise to many geomorphologists that mountain rivers with bedrock-floored channels can also have mobile meandering channels. We recently discovered that actively meandering bedrock rivers are common in the Coastal and Central Ranges of Taiwan, an environment prone to powerful tectonic and climatic forcing, and not one in which we would have expected to see such mobile, sinuous channels.  The proposed study will take a close look at these Taiwanese mountain meanders while looking back at previous work carried out in two other, geomorphologically rather different areas of the world:  the
Colorado Plateau and the wine country of western Germany.  Actively shifting meanders have been documented in rivers crossing both these
areas, and a compare & contrast exercise among all three regions will be very informative.  The main task will be to characterize the geometry of the meanders in each area and to gather data on their hydrology and bedrock geology.

Labwork: 3 hours/week (Fall) rising to 6 hours/week (Spring) using Arc GIS software to study river meander geometries.
Remainder of time (3 to 6 hours per week) will focus on literature survey and analysis.

Pre-requisites:  Adequate background in geology and geomorphology; computing skills important; GIS experience would be helpful; a proficiency in German would be a significant advantage in the survey of literature on western German bedrock meanders.

Thesis Mentor Information:
Dr. Colin Stark (geomorphology)
Tel. (845) 3658-742
http://geomorph.ldeo.columbia.edu
cstark@ldeo.columbia.edu

The Fairy Bluebird is an eyecatching species, but is virtually unstudied, both in nature and in captivity.  The Bronx Zoo has 4 breeding pairs, including individuals that were wild caught, captive hatched and parent reared, and captive hatched and handreared.  This summer, interns did some preliminary work, developing an ethogram and taking some basic data on enclosure utilization.  We are interested in investigating behavioral development, including song repertoire and ontogeny, social behavior, habitat preference, nest site characterization and other aspects of their biology.  Birds are housed in natural habitat type aviaries, so observation is non-trivial.  We hope to develop protocols which can readily be applied at other institutions working with this species.

Work: About 4 hours of observation per week, plus  time required to enter data.

 Pre-requisites: A class in animal behavior would be a great plus, but we can provide training, if necessary.

Dr. Christine Sheppard
Curator, Ornithology
Wildlife Conservation Society/Bronx Zoo
csheppard@wcs.org
 or Dr. John Rowden, 718 220 7153, or jrowden@wcs.org

Here are some ideas for senior thesis projects:
1. Project title: Examining relative partition coefficients of different types of organic matter for polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides
Project background: Previous work has shown that biologically-produced organic matter has a high affinity for hydrophobic organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).  In particular, organic matter produced by protozoa has an affinity for PCBs that is an order of magnitude greater than dissolved organic matter found in seawater.  What has not been ascertained by previous studies, however, is the composition of this biologically-produced organic matter and how this composition affects affinity for hydrophobic organic compounds.  This project will seek to address the second question by conducting a series of control experiments with known organic matter types, such as lipids, proteins and carbohydrates.  The affinity of each of these types of organic matter - both alone and in combination with other types - will be determined.  Using these analyses, we will assess the relative contributions of these organic matter types to overall affinity for hydrophobic organic compounds.
Labwork: The affinity analyses involve time-series experiments using headspace vessels.  Each experiment will involve taking aqueous samples at prescribed times over a 56 hour period.  Each sample is then extracted for the target contaminants.  The labwork thus will involve organic solvent extractions and analyses using a gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer.  The time commitment will vary depending on the number of experiments run and samples taken.
Pre-requisites: Two semesters of chemistry, organic chemistry preferred
Mentor information: Elizabeth Kujawinski; Dept of Environmental Science; Barnard College; ekujawin@barnard.edu; (212) 854-7956

2. Project title: Determining the relative concentrations of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates in dissolved organic matter produced by Hudson River protozoa.
Project background: Previous work has shown that biologically-produced organic matter has a high affinity for hydrophobic organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).  In particular, organic matter produced by protozoa has an affinity for PCBs that is an order of magnitude greater than dissolved organic matter found in seawater.  What has not been ascertained by previous studies, however, is the composition of this biologically-produced organic matter and how this composition affects affinity for hydrophobic organic compounds.  This project will address the first question by quantifying the relative quantities of lipid, protein and carbohydrate in the dissolved organic matter produced by protozoa during grazing.  Protozoa have been isolated from the Hudson River and will be used as the test organisms in this study.  Two species will be chosen for this study and dissolved organic matter composition will be assessed for each.
Labwork:  Dissolved organic matter (DOM) will be isolated from protozoa cultures at prescribed time points over a 60-72-hour period.  Initial experiments will be conducted to assess population dynamics in each culture and plan DOM sampling strategies.  DOM samples will then be taken from protozoan cultures and their composition will be assessed by previously published methodologies.  The labwork will involve aqueous sampling, microscope work (counting protozoa), organic solvent extractions and analyses using a GC/MS.  The time commitment will vary according to the number of experiments run and the type of samples to be analyzed.  Anticipated time commitments are approx 5-6 hrs/ week in the fall and 10-12 hours / week in the spring.
Pre-requisites: Two semesters of chemistry (organic chemistry preferred), one semester of ecology
Mentor information: Elizabeth Kujawinski; Dept of Environmental Science; Barnard College; ekujawin@barnard.edu; (212) 854-7956

Hope these are okay.  Let me know if the scope / wording is not appropriate and I will change it.
Thanks,
Liz

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Kujawinski
Assistant Professor
Dept of Environmental Science, Barnard College
3009 Broadway; New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-854-7956
Fax: 212-854-5760
E-mail: ekujawin@barnard.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Background: During the last 60 years, the Hudson River has received input of radioactive contamination from at least 2 different sources.  The first and most significant, has been global fallout, which was a result of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons primarily by governments of the United States and Former Soviet Union.  The second, is contamination resulting from reactor releases at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station located on the Hudson River about 35 miles north of New York City.  This facility began operation in 1962.  A third possible source of radioactive contamination to the region is contamination resulting from activities at the Knolls Atomic Laboratory located on the Mohawk River, which began operation in 1946.

My research entails identifying contributions from different sources of anthropogenic radionuclides relative to global fallout through the measurement of Plutonium and Neptunium isotopic ratios by ion exchange chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). These isotopic signatures are sensitive indicators of origin (i.e. they can be used to differentiate between global fallout and other sources).  By identifying contamination originating non fallout sources in downstream sediments and obtaining accurate geochronologies from lead or cesium isotopes, we gain insight into the specific transport behavior of this type of material.  Because the elements studied are particle reactive, we can also obtain information concerning sediment transport rates as well as transport rates for other particle reactive contaminants (e.g. PCBs, heavy metals, etc.) in the Hudson River.  With this knowledge, we can begin to assess the relative importance of these sources concerning the contamination of the Hudson River region.

The research objectives of this project are to: 1) Determine the history and extent of radioactive contamination originating from sources within the Hudson River region 2) Gain a better understanding of the transport and fate these contaminants. 3) Develop the use of nuclear contaminants derived from local sources as tracers to establish provenance and transport pathways of sediments and particle reactive contaminants in the Hudson River.
 

Required Work: This project will entail assisting in all phases of analysis of 210Pb, 137Cs, Pu isotopes and 237Np in sediments collected from various locations throughout the Hudson River region.  In addition to sample processing and analysis, additional work will include data analysis and perhaps some additional sample collection.

Prerequisites: Common sense, good laboratory skills, mechanically inclined, willingness to work carefully and hard, some data analysis background will be helpful. Must have completed general chemistry I and II or higher (CHEM BC 3338y would be great).  All of the analytical work will take place at Lamont, some meetings could take place at Barnard.

Thesis Mentor Information: Dr. Timothy Kenna (LDEO, Geochemistry) tkenna@ldeo.columbia.edu, Tel. (845) 365-8513.

Background: Plutonium and neptunium have been introduced into the environment primarily as a result of surface and atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons by the governments of the USA and the former Soviet Union (FSR) during the 1950s and 1960s.  Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and U.S. Department of Energy have published a comprehensive study characterizing the Pu and Np isotopic composition of global fallout as it was recorded in soil cores collected from 54 locations worldwide in the early 1970s.  Individual cores were homogenized and sub-samples from each were analyzed for Pu isotopes and 237Np.  The methodology employed, although robust, presents 2 major problems with regard to characterizing the isotopic composition of global fallout through time.  1) Homogenizing the soil core samples destroys any timing information and the resulting isotopic composition is necessarily weighted towards global fallout that was deposited during the main period of atmospheric weapons testing (i.e. the early 1960s).  2) The collection dates of 1970/71 were well before the end of surface weapons tests conducted by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).  The last PRC surface test occurred in 1980.  While there is no doubt that the isotopic composition of average global fallout is well characterized, additional work is still required to characterize the isotopic composition of global fallout as it changed throughout the nuclear age.  This type of information (i.e., isotopic composition changes at specific time horizons) would be an extremely valuable tool with which to provide deposition age information for material (e.g. sediments, soil, and ice) deposited during the last fifty years.  Furthermore, a well-characterized time dependent global fallout signal would allow various sources of non-fallout nuclear contamination to be better characterized and their contributions estimated more accurately.

Required Work: This project will entail assisting in analysis of Cs, Pu and Np in particulate matter filtered from ice cores collected in Central Asia and the Yukon Territories, lake sediments from the Hudson River region, and possibly other locations. In addition to sample processing and analysis, additional work will include data analysis and perhaps some additional sample collection.

Prerequisites: Common sense, good laboratory skills, mechanically inclined, willingness to work carefully and hard, some data analysis background will be helpful. Must have completed general chemistry I and II or higher (CHEM BC 3338y would be great).  All of the analytical work will take place at Lamont, some meetings could take place at Barnard.

Thesis Mentor Information: Dr. Timothy Kenna (LDEO, Geochemistry) tkenna@ldeo.columbia.edu, Tel. (845) 365-8513.

Background: Along with a host of other anthropogenic radionuclides, 241Pu has been introduced into the environment primarily as a result of surface and atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons by the governments of the USA and the former Soviet Union (FSR) during the 1950s and 1960s.  In addition, 241Pu may also be present in material released from nuclear power plants (NPPs), fuel reprocessing, and other nuclear facilities.  The Hudson River contains within its drainage basin two nuclear facilities, the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant (IPNPP) on the lower Hudson near Buchanan, NY, and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) near Schenectady, NY on the Mohawk River, a major tributary to the Hudson.  In addition to global fallout deposition, both of these facilities have released nuclear contaminants to the environment during their respective periods of operation.

My research entails identifying contributions from different sources of anthropogenic radionuclides relative to global fallout through the measurement of Plutonium and Neptunium isotopic ratios by ion exchange chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). These isotopic signatures are sensitive indicators of origin (i.e. they can be used to differentiate between global fallout and other sources).  By identifying contamination originating non fallout sources in downstream sediments and obtaining accurate geochronologies from lead or cesium isotopes, we gain insight into the specific transport behavior of this type of material.  Because the elements studied are particle reactive, we can also obtain information concerning sediment transport rates as well as transport rates for other particle reactive contaminants (e.g. PCBs, heavy metals, etc.) in the Hudson River. With this knowledge, we can begin to assess the relative importance of these sources concerning the contamination of the Hudson River region.

An important and often difficult aspect of this work is obtaining reliable deposition chronologies for the sediment cores.. This is where the 241Pu/241Am age model may prove to be particularly useful.  241Pu decays to 241Am with a half-life of 14.8 years, therefore the 241Pu/241Am atom ratio will change predictably with a function of time.  I currently have an analytical method for 241Pu measurement, 241Am measurement and 241Pu/241Am systematics have yet to be worked out before this potentially useful dating tool can be evaluated.

Required Work: This project will entail assisting in the development of a technique for the separation and measurement of americium by ICP-MS.  Making a series of measurements on selected Hudson River samples, and determining the feasibility of using the 241Pu/241Am ratio to constrain the age of nuclear contamination.  In addition to the work mentioned above, some additional sample collection may also be necessary.

Prerequisites: Common sense, good laboratory skills, mechanically inclined, willingness to work carefully and hard, some data analysis background will be helpful. Must have completed general chemistry I and II or higher (CHEM BC 3338y would be great).  All of the analytical work will take place at Lamont, some meetings could take place at Barnard.

Thesis Mentor Information: Dr. Timothy Kenna (LDEO, Geochemistry) tkenna@ldeo.columbia.edu, Tel. (845) 365-8513.

I would like to propose the following project for a Senior Thesis to
undergraduate Environmental Science majors. Please let me know if more info
is needed.

Thank you,
Alexey

Title: Use of Optical Character Recognition for Digitizing Climate Data

Background: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
recently undertook a project in which they scanned books of weather
data tables for the 19th and early 20th centuries and made images
publicly available. The scanning was done in order to preserve the
information stored in books, whose condition is deteriorating with
time very quickly. Most of this information is not in the current
climate data bases, and conventionally it would require substantial
funding for a large army of typists to digitize these tables of data
and make them available for the use in climate research. (Note that an
image of a table by itself does not provide us with the data: one
needs to covert the image into the text in order to make its content
usable.)  Fortunately the progress is fast in the field of optical
character recognition (OCR): there are already affordable commercial
software packages that can do a decent job in digitizing table
images. Despite their work is not perfect, with some post-processing
of the OCR output, a climatologist can set up a system of an automatic
(or with a minimal human intervention) digitization. However, this has
never been done before.  A first trial version of the OCR
post-processing system has recently been developed in the LDEO Climate
Modeling Group. This project aims at proving a concept of the feasible
use of the OCR technology for the (semi-)automatic digitization of
imaged climate data.

Required work: The project will consist of a few elements: (1)
documenting the content and producing a general itinerary of the
weather data in the NOAA image library; (2) applying the OCR and
post-processing software to some selection of the data, evaluating
performance, making recommendations for the further software
development; (3) performing a piece of climate analysis with the newly
digitized data, and interpreting results in the context of existing
climate information.  A relative size of these elements might be
adjusted to fit better the student's natural inclinations. The project
may require some use of a scanner and of a digital camera.  Some trips
to the NYC libraries may be necessary.

Prerequisites: Not really prerequisites, but rather a list of
skills/inclinations each of which can be used for an advantage in this
project (none are mandatory): fluent reading in foreign languages
(particularly Spanish, but other languages are useful as well),
math/statistical background, computer programming experience,
interest/background in climate of any particular region.

Thesis Mentor Information: Alexey Kaplan (LDEO), alexeyk@ldeo.columbia.edu,
Tel. 845-365-8689

---------------------------------------------------------------
   Alexey Kaplan
   Doherty Associate Research Scientist
   Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
   P.O. Box 1000 / 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964-8000, USA
   phone: (845) 365-8689   fax:   (845) 365-8736
   email: alexeyk@ldeo.columbia.edu