Our geo-science and environmental science students hail from a wide range of institutions and disciplines. All are interested in scientific research and are participating in our study of biogeochemical processes in northern upland and wetland ecosystems.
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Lily Zhao University of Chicago Biology major My research project is to examine reindeer diet in northern Norway and Sweden since 1909...to see whether reindeer diet has changed over the last 100 years. This is an important question in relation to climate change and Sami herding practices. Warming is correlated with an increase in vascular plant production, which has in turn is correlated with declines in lichen biomass. A dietary analysis provides information on levels of lichen versus graminoids, forbs, fungi and shrubs each reindeer was consuming... Diet will be analyzed by measuring stable isotope compositions (13C/12C and 15N/14N). 15N/14N composition may also be used to indicate levels of physiological stress on the specimens.
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