This year, we are excited to have a wonderful group of 4 student fellows. Lachlan Bailey is returning to the Island Campus as our Head Fellow and as the Peter Bryan ’80 Island Campus Fellow. The three other students, Lucia Greene, Tanner Burnett, and Charlotte Clark are all conducting research in varied and new areas for the Island campus. We are lucky to have their knowledge and expertise supporting all groups on the island, as well as island maintenance and conservation.
Lachlan Bailey – Supporting Maine Ecosystems: Generating Biorock through Electrolysis
Returning as the Island Campus Head Fellow, Lachlan is continuing to work with Whitney King. His research last year, which included a feasibility study in the channel between Allen and Benner Islands for a hydroelectric generator, determined that there is not enough current in the channel to power the generator. The marine technology company that Whitney and Lachlan are collaborating with, NxMar, has developed a prototype for a PUG (portable underwater generator); however, it requires at least 2 knots of current. Lachlan determined that the maximum current speed in the channel only reaches 1.5 knots. As a result, Lachlan’s research and the collaboration with NxMar has pivoted to the generation of biorock, which is the accumulation of minerals in the seawater around metal structures through electrolysis. Building off of Lachlan’s JanPlan research, he is trialing biorock electrolysis procedures in tanks located on our dock. This research could be used to support the development and growth of biorock to preserve and maintain ecosystems across the state as well as could be used as an accelerator in oyster farming.
Lucia Greene – Allen Island: Religion, Paint, and Self-Discovery
Lucia, with Professor Bevin Engman as her advisor, is exploring the relationship between sea life, humanity, and herself on Allen Island through oil painting. She plans to combine the aesthetic of the island and its surrounding inhabitants with the broader theme within her work. Through deep study and color work, she will work to parse out the almost spiritual connection between the fish, the man, the flesh, the ocean, and the island. This inquiry connects to what she sees as an underlying oceanic devotion of New England, particularly the importance of the seafaring tradition, migrating to the ocean over the summer, and eating seafood. In her exploration of this theme, the island will take center stage. She will use these pieces to support her Senior Capstone project. In practice, this project will involve sustained sketching, observational studies, and photographic documentation of life around the island.
Tanner Burnett – Expanding Island Data Collection through Implementation of Island Sensor Networks
Tanner is working with Chemistry professor and director of the Island campus Whitney King, on a project to expand the sensor network around the Island campus. This project, still in the development phase, will expand the monitoring across the island in order to collect environmental data which could be publicly available to Colby researchers. The deployment of these sensors also is also dependent on the creation of an island database, which will be in collaboration with existing research and data previously collected on the island. Using an extensive network of excel spreadsheets, this data base will be connected to the Colby library and college wide databases to encourage cross disciplinary research and collaboration.
Charlotte Clark – Intertidal Monitoring & Place Based Narratives; Contributions to the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance
Charlotte is working with Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Cait Cleaver ’06, on work that will contribute to the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance’s network of standardized data with the hopes of promoting climate impact literacy throughout the community. Inspired by foundational works such as ecologist Ed Ricketts and author John Steinbeck’s 1941, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research which provided an interdisciplinarily blended work, one that is “science to the scientist, philosophy to the philosopher, and to the average man an adventure in living and thinking” she is planning on combining more traditional ecological surveying with an exploration of place. Her project delves into two main parts; developing intertidal monitoring procedural knowledge and deepening my understanding of place-based narratives. She spends her research days documenting intertidal
species biodiversity using transect and quadrat surveys to measure abundance and diversity as well as placing temperature loggers that monitor hourly intertidal temperature data and contribute to the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance database. Ideally this temperature data would contribute to building an understanding of temperature shifts along the coast of the Gulf of Maine and define patterns of change on a local and or regional scale. On non data collection research days, she spends her time developing my place-based narrative and exploring location, locale, and sense of place in regard to the Island Campus intertidal zones.