Hydro: of, pertaining to, furnishing, indicating or noting water, liquid or fluid.
Quest: act or an instance of pursuing something, a search, an expedition, to seek.
The Science:
Our planet is a dynamic system. The earth's geology, chemistry and biology are in constant change.The interactions between these components prescribe the evolutionary boundaries of living systems. In fact, active geo-chemical processes directly influence plant production and the dependent insect community. Research and observation of patterns in the natural world illustrate past events. Often, these patterns can be used to predict future responses to changes in boundary conditions.
Science is, at its heart, a quest for knowledge and understanding of the world around us - in our case an understanding of the alpine boundary conditions.
The purpose of our year long sabbatical is to conduct research in the Swiss Alps to predict impacts of alpine glacier recession on stream macroinvetebrates. In this alpine region, receding glaciers reveal terrain that has not been exposed to the atmosphere for centuries and perhaps longer. Geologic processes expose new rock surfaces, and glacial melt-water dissolves nutrients to supply stream systems with the foundation chemicals for building ecosystems.
Receding glaciers provide a natural experimental setting for testing predictions on the impacts of landscape transformation caused by climate change. This research builds upon interdisciplinary work done in Switzerland in 2009 and comparative follow-up work done in Wyoming's Wind River Range in 2010. As a result of these research efforts, we can make limited conclusions on glacial-stream plant production, alpine organisms using these plants in the food chain and assessments on two comparative northern-hemisphere glacial systems.
One goal of the sabbatical research is to quantify determinants of change in alpine aquatic biodiversity in order to predict the biological future of alpine landscapes and their waters; specifically, 1) determine how landscape processes (like glacial recession) influence species distribution, biodiversity, and population dynamics of stream invertebrates, and 2) distinguish between normal stream evolutionary processes and local environmental change due to glacial recession. To meet the latter, we need a longer scientific record like that established in the Swiss Alps. This research will utilize and benefit from the decades-long data collected by EAWAG (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) while conducting additional monitoring and research at well established research sites.
Other Benefits
In modern academic circles, a sabbatical is an extended absence in a career to fulfill a goal outside the usual work week, e.g. writing a book, conducting research, etc. My sabbatical is an opportunity to increase my proficiency in aquatic ecology and return to Western Wyoming Community College with new laboratory modules in Environmental Science, Chemistry and Dynamics.
Secondly, and just as important, it is a chance to visit a different country and culture, sharpen my German language skills, enjoy Switzerland with my wife and have time for contemplation and reflection. In Robert Pirsig's book,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he laments the lack of time off from teaching and the resulting dullness in which a once creative professor "become(s) an automaton saying the same dull things over and over...". A year of sabbatical leave is my antidote.