When golden-winged warblers and their sweet, buzzy voices take flight on the long journey south wearing what look like miniature backpacks, Gunnar Kramer worries how many will return in the spring.

“These birds are very uncommon and have been declining severely in some parts of their range for more than 50 years – more than most other species of birds in North America,” Kramer said. “To help preserve them, we are learning exactly where they go for the winter and how they get there.”

Gunnar Kramer holding a golden-winged warbler, which is carrying a geolocator. Researchers attached the tiny backpack to the bird in 2015 and recovered it in 2016. The data on the geolocator will help Kramer understand the warbler’s migratory route and winter location.

Kramer, a Minnesota-native who studies birds as a Ph.D. student at The University of Toledo, uses cutting edge technology to identify migration routes the tiny birds take once they leave their spring and summer nesting grounds.

The songbirds, which are about the size of a ping pong ball and weigh less than three pennies, travel thousands of miles, and Kramer is mapping their journey using what are called light level geolocators.

“Golden-winged warblers breed throughout the Great Lakes region and the Appalachian Mountains,” Kramer said. “We know they spend the winter somewhere in Central and South America. However, nothing is known about where specific populations settle down.”

The graduate student in the Department of Environmental Sciences was recently honored for a talk he gave at the North American Ornithological Conference in Washington, D.C., about his pioneering research on the silvery gray birds with yellow-crowned heads who are under consideration for federal Endangered Species protection.

The American Ornithologists’ Union awarded Kramer the Council Student Presentation Award at the gathering of 2,000 birding professionals from all over the world.

“The goal is to help improve conservation efforts to boost their numbers,” Kramer said. “If we can figure out golden-winged warblers, we can help the other species make a comeback.”

Kramer and Henry Streby, UT assistant professor and ornithologist, have been looping tiny backpacks around the legs of these birds for three years.

Geolocator recovered from a golden-winged warbler after a full year of recording data. The bird carried this unit for more than 5,000 miles.

Figure-eight harnesses secure the backpack, which contains a battery, a computer chip and a light sensor. The whole thing weighs less than half of a paper clip and does not inhibit flight or movement.

“We were the first people to put this type of technology on a bird this small,” Streby said. “We developed the tiniest methods for the tiniest birds, and now we’re helping people do the same thing with many other species.”

“The light sensor records ambient light and stores it with a time stamp on the unit every couple minutes,” Kramer said. “We are using differences in day length to predict daily location of the birds throughout the year. Based on how long the day and night are, you can tell approximately where you are on the planet.”

So far more than 100 light level geolocators have been recovered from birds who made the return journey to various locations up north.

Though the research is not complete, preliminary results show golden-winged warblers from declining populations spend their winters in South America on the border of Venezuela and Columbia. The stable population of the species who breed in Minnesota spend the winter spread out through Central America from southern Mexico down to Panama.

A golden-winged warbler carrying a geolocator in Minnesota.

“There might not be anything we may be able to do up here on the breeding grounds to help preserve this species of warbler if the limiting factors for these populations are on the wintering grounds,” Streby said. “Factors like loss of habitat or human disturbance might be influencing the populations in the wintering grounds to a different effect. Countries have different conservation policies. There are countries that can afford to take care of bird habitat and those that cannot. We have a responsibility to help them.”

These UT researchers are collaborating with scientists from various universities, including the University of Tennessee, the University of Minnesota and West Virginia University.

Funding is provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation.

Click here to watch a video showing how the geolocators are put on the birds.

In approximately 40 percent of infertile couples, the male partner is either the sole cause or a contributing cause of infertility. Of these cases, only half can be attributed to a known cause.

A University of Toledo biologist hopes to learn more about what causes infertility in men with support from a National Institutes of Health grant.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has awarded UT Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Tomer Avidor-Reiss a two-year $147,500 grant to support his research entitled, “A Genome-wide Drosophila RNAi Screen for Regulators of Centrosome Reduction.”

The study’s outcomes are expected to advance the understanding of how and why centrosomal proteins decrease during sperm formation. Those centrosomal proteins are specialized subunits within an animal cell that serve as the main microtubule organizing center and regulate the division and duplication of DNA.

“Infertility is a problem for one in eight couples. Often we see sperm cells that look normal, but when they fertilize the egg there are abnormalities in the embryo,” Avidor-Reiss said. “This study has provided the first insight into a molecular mechanism that regulates centrosome reduction and the first direct evidence this process is essential for post-fertilization embryonic development.”

“Once again The University of Toledo is the recipient of research grants for breakthrough discoveries,” said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. “This time it’s for the challenge of identifying contributing factors for male infertility, early stage miscarriages and developmental diseases, and, hopefully, finding new treatments.”

Kaptur is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has oversight over the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Before the fall semester begins, a group of 20 undergraduate students at The University of Toledo is heading west for the mountains, hiking, hot springs and hope of an antelope siting.

“I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon,” Angela Williams, a UT junior majoring in geology, said.

The National Park Service turns 100 years old this month, and a geologist at The University of Toledo is taking his class on the two-week field trip to celebrate.

“Although national parks commonly are featured on my trips, this year’s excursion includes more parks than we have ever visited in a single trip in honor of the centennial,” said Mark Camp, associate professor of geology in the Department of Environmental Sciences. “There is no better way to see the geology and natural history of the United States than to explore our national parks. Many were created simply to focus on one landscape feature, like a cave or volcano.”

The group departs 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 6 from Bowman-Oddy Laboratories.

The tour through Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nebraska called “Cavalcade of Parks” is packed with visits to 20 parks, monuments and recreation areas in the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau regions.

UT students at Badlands National Park in South Dakota during a previous field trip.

Locations include Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.

“I’m looking forward to finally being able to say I’ve been to every national park in Utah,” said Williams, a Toledo native who has already visited 25 national parks. “Each park is full of its own history. The National Park Service has been able to save so much of this country – not just the natural environment and animals, but a lot of the parks incorporate battle sites, forts and amazing manors where people lived.”

Students will spend most evenings at campgrounds in state or national parks and return to UT Friday, Aug. 19. A $200 field trip fee covers student expenses for camping and motel costs, as well as admissions fees to the parks.

Undergraduate students from across the country who spent the summer researching water health at The University of Toledo will share their findings today during a poster gala at the UT Lake Erie Center.

The students enrolled in UT’s National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer program “Using the Lake Erie Sensor Network to Study Land-Lake Ecological Linkages” will display their work 2-4 p.m. this afternoon (Wednesday, July 27) at the Center, located at 6200 Bayshore Rd. in Oregon.

University of Toledo Lake Erie Center

The program places undergraduate science and engineering students in UT laboratories to provide mentoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) research and careers. Topics explored this summer include a performance assessment of green storm water infrastructure, detection and prevention of invasive species from retail stores, using geographic information system (GIS) to characterize water usage in the Lake Erie western basin, water treatment options for the removal of cyanotoxins, VHS fish virus in the Great Lakes, analyzing historical microcystin data and improving the ELISA method for measuring microcystin concentrations.

The research projects were conducted by students from UT, Bowling Green State University, Cheyney University, Iowa State University, Pitzer University, University of South Carolina, University of Colorado, Central State and Hanover College.

The migration of cancer cells away from the primary tumor and their subsequent metastasis to distant organs is the leading cause of mortality among breast cancer patients.

A University of Toledo biologist is the recipient of a two-year, $151,100 grant from The National Institute of Health’s National Cancer Institute to study how cancer cells spread in the body.

Dr. Rafael Garcia-Mata, assistant professor of biological sciences, will lead a UT Department of Biological Sciences research laboratory to conduct new cancer research entitled, “A Novel RhoG Protein Interaction Network in Invadopodia.”

Cancer cells gain the ability to invade other tissues and enter the bloodstream by forming actin-rich membrane protrusions called invadopodia that degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM).

Dr. Rafael Garcia-Mata

“This study is one of three our lab is currently conducting to learn more about how triple negative breast cancer metastasizes in the body,” Garcia-Mata said. “It is our goal to learn more about how these protrusions form and to identify the upstream regulators and downstream effectors of the formations. Once we understand how these invadopodia form, we can begin to research treatments to prevent or slow their progress.”

“There is exciting medical research ongoing at The University of Toledo,” said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. “This new two-year award is a credit to UT’s high-quality basic research which is typically unheralded work requiring several years of diligence and persistence. But this research often results in powerful breakthroughs that benefit untold millions. It is important that federal funds continue to support such basic medical research.”

Kaptur is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has oversight over the National Cancer Institute.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (July 22, 2016)

There’s another option for items like coffee grounds, fruit peels, grass clippings and dryer lint besides the landfill.

The community is invited to learn the basics of home composting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 16 at The University of Toledo Stranahan Arboretum, 4131 Tantara Road.

Children and adults are welcome to participate in the free educational event titled “Composting Cups.”

Participants will learn how to start a compost pile and create a starter kit to take home.

“Plants need nutritious food, just like people do,” said Pam Struffolino, event coordinator at the arboretum and research operations manager in the Department of Environmental Sciences. “Composting is an example of decomposition, the final stages of the food web. Decomposers, like worms, break down food scraps and grass clippings into new soil and return the nutrients locked inside back into the soil for plants to use. It’s a process that reduces the need to buy commercial fertilizers and creates a more sustainable environment.”

Water quality researchers at The University of Toledo Lake Erie Center who make daily E. coli forecasts for the public beach at Maumee Bay State Park are helping the U.S. Geological Survey develop a model to estimate the level of harmful algal blooms in Ohio waters.

Sampling is underway for the USGS-led project at seven water treatment plant intakes and four recreational sites throughout the state, including the public beach at Maumee Bay State Park.

USGS scientists and water treatment plant managers will join the UT team as they take samples at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 13 at the beach.

“We are helping the USGS build a database in order to be able to make real-time predictions for toxins, like microcystin, in Lake Erie and inland lakes in northeast and southwest Ohio using environmental factors such as turbidity, pH, phycocyanin and water level change, instead of waiting for test results,” Pam Struffolino, UT Lake Erie Center research operations manager, said. “The goal is to use the standard toxin-measuring methods to verify the model – similar to how we developed our swimming safety nowcasts for bacteria levels.”

“Site-specific models are needed to estimate the serious public health concern from toxin concentrations at a water intake or beach,” said Donna Francy, a USGS hydrologist and water-quality specialist. “Models help estimate toxin concentrations so that swimmers and boaters can be warned and water treatment plants can take measures to avoid or appropriately treat the raw water.”

Scientists are scheduled to collect data at the sites several times a week through algal bloom season this year. This marks the third year of collecting samples for the project.

For more information about the project, go to oh.water.usgs.gov/micro_projects_hab_predictions.htm.

The University of Toledo has been selected to join a prestigious association that includes many of the top astronomy programs in the nation.

In recognition of the astronomy and astrophysics program’s strengths in research, education and outreach, UT was admitted as the 41st member of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which goes by the acronym AURA.

AURA operates world-class astronomical observatories, including the National Science Foundation’s Gemini Observatory, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, National Optical Astronomy Observatory and National Solar Observatory, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Space Telescope Science Institute. 

The association’s role is to establish, nurture and promote public observatories and facilities that advance innovative astronomical research.

“We are impressed with your strong astronomy program and with your commitment to the future,” AURA President Matt Mountain wrote in his welcome letter to the University. “It is our mission to advance astronomy and related sciences, to articulate policy and respond to the priorities of the astronomical community, and to enhance the public understanding of science. We do this by developing and operating national and international centers that enable merit-based research by members of the astronomical community. I believe and trust that The University of Toledo and AURA have many goals and objectives in common.”

“It was very exciting to learn that our application was accepted and we were elected to become a member,” said Dr. Karen Bjorkman, dean of the UT College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Helen Luedtke Brooks Endowed Professor of Astronomy. “If you look at the list of members of AURA, it really is a who’s who of some of the best astronomy programs in the country, and for us to be added to that list is a recognition of the level we have been striving to reach.”

AURA was founded in 1957 and has had a strong role in providing input and guidance on matters of astronomy policy.

“It is one of the most important voices for professional astronomers in the United States to have input on decisions made on astronomy in this country,” said Bjorkman, who will serve as UT’s member representative to AURA.

In addition to the now 41 U.S. institutional members, AURA also receives input from four international affiliates in Chile, Japan and Australia. Having a voice at the table on the future of astronomy is key, as are the opportunities for UT faculty and students who will benefit from interactions with colleagues at AURA member universities, Bjorkman said.

UT qualified for membership because of its robust research efforts that include undergraduate and graduate students who experience hands-on training. That research also gets communicated to the community through strong outreach programs via the Ritter Planetarium and Brooks Observatory, Bjorkman said.

“We have a program that has intentionally intertwined education, research and outreach,” she said. “The research we do gets communicated back to community and to the students and to the public. That is an important responsibility of scientists.”

The astronomy and astrophysics programs are housed within UT’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Some examples of the group’s many competitive achievements include two researchers who were among the first to access the European Space Agency’s Herschel far-infrared space-based telescope to study the creation of stars and life cycles of galaxies. Dr. Tom Megeath, UT professor of astronomy, led the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey (HOPS), and Dr. J.D. Smith, associate professor of astronomy, led a team in the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH).

During the past eight years, astronomy researchers at UT have received more than $7.6 million in external funding, primarily from the National Science Foundation and NASA, with a number of discoveries earning national attention.

In 2012, UT entered into a 10-year science partnership with the Lowell Observatory for guaranteed access to the 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope, which provides additional opportunities for research and allows students to become involved in conducting observations at a major facility.

“Astronomy is a science that really gets people excited,” Bjorkman said. “Even if people don’t become astronomers, they get excited about science at young ages and that helps with curiosity and scientific literacy that is important in whatever they do.”

It may be summer vacation, but a group of teachers from school districts across Ohio is spending the week as students with goggles, beakers and chemicals in a science lab at The University of Toledo.

Since March, UT has been training dozens of high school teachers through online classes to teach college courses in biology, chemistry or English as part of an expansion of the statewide College Credit Plus program.

Ohio’s College Credit Plus program allows seventh through 12th grade students to earn high school credit and college credit at the same time for free.

19 high school teachers have been working online to earn qualifications to teach college-level chemistry in their classrooms. 16 of them will be on Main Campus this week for lab classes with UT instructors.

The media is invited as they simulate the effect of pH on food in the stomach by reacting the preservative sodium benzoate with hydrochloric acid from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, June 29 in Bowman-Oddy Laboratories Room 3087.

The chemistry students are teachers from Toledo Public Schools, Belleaire City Schools, Celina City Schools, Centerburg Local Schools, Copley-Fairlawn City Schools, East Muskingum Local Schools, Fayetteville-Perry Local Schools, Findlay City Schools, Indian Valley Local Schools, Lakota Local Schools, Morgan Local Schools, Shadyside Local Schools, Triway Local Schools and Steubenville High School.

English and biology students will take classes on Main Campus at the end of July.

Last year the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education awarded UT $769,000 in grants to develop programs and pay for up to 40 high school teachers to earn a master’s degree needed to teach college-level chemistry, biology or English courses in their high school classrooms.

“By credentialing dozens of high school teachers in our area to teach college courses, we are expanding higher education opportunities for more children,” said Rebecca Schneider, professor and chair of UT’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Judith Herb College of Education.

The teachers who began the 18-month program in March are expected to begin teaching College Credit Plus courses in the fall of 2017.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (June 30, 2016)

For the second year in a row, students from colleges and universities across the country are spending their summer at The University of Toledo for undergraduate research experience and mentoring.

Alex Weeden, a Wisconsin native with a passion for water quality, is preparing to enter her senior year at Hanover College in Indiana by working under the direction of a scientist in the UT Department of Environmental Sciences.

“I am researching the methods of toxin detection in the lake and trying to make that method more accurate,” Weeden said.

From left: Nate Marshall, UT grad student and NSF REU mentor, BGSU senior Hannah Scheppler and Central State University junior Jochannan Mitchell examine a juvenile grass carp, a type of invasive Asian carp, at the Lake Erie Center.

The National Science Foundation sponsors the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

“11 students are working on land-lake environmental problems, including water quality, harmful algal blooms, invasive species and climate change,” said Carol Stepien, director of the UT Lake Erie Center and Distinguished University Professor of Ecology who leads the nine-week program. “This is a wonderful opportunity to help build research skills both in the field and in the lab for the next generation of scientists.”

Media availability for students and scientists as they do fish sampling is from 10 a.m. to noon Monday, June 27 at the UT Lake Erie Center, 6200 Bayshore Road in Oregon.

315 students from 83 colleges and universities applied for less than a dozen slots in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

“Our program targets minority students, veterans, first-generation college students and those that lack undergraduate research opportunities on their home campuses,” Stepien said.

11 students, including one who is returning for a second year, are each paid a $5,000 stipend. The program also pays for the students to stay in residence halls on Main Campus and their travel to and from Toledo.

Song Qian, assistant professor of environmental science, is Weeden’s faculty mentor. Weeden is conducting experiments for Qian’s project to develop a new, more reliable method to measure the algal bloom toxin called microcystin in drinking water.

Alex Weeden, Hanover College senior, outside the UT Lake Erie Center where she is spending nine weeks in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

“The scientific work and bonding with new friends has been a lot of fun,” Weeden said. “It can be difficult at times because Qian is very technical and statistically-minded, but that is why I am here. This is a great opportunity to learn how to measure water quality and how that impacts the community.”

Participating undergraduate students attend the University of South Carolina at Columbia, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Bowling Green State University, Central State University, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Iowa State University, Pitzer College, Hanover College and UT.