NREL NEWS NOTES

NATURAL RESOURCE ECOLOGY LABORATORY
Colorado State University

No. 20 November and December 1996 & Jan. 1997

Spotlight on Science

Featuring: Tom Hobbs Research Scientist - Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory

The work of scientists at NREL is widely admired by other ecologists, but it is unusual for one of us to be recognized by other disciplines. Tom Hobbs and his colleagues Chris Duerksen, Don Elliot (attorneys at Clarion Associates, Denver) and Jim Miller (Biology Dept., CSU) recently received an award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association for their book, Managing Development for People and Wildlife: A Habitat Protection Handbook for Local Governments. The purpose of the book is to assimilate knowledge of science and law and to make that knowledge accessible to people making decisions on land use that affect wildlife habitat. The book brings together ecological knowledge useful in setting priorities for protecting habitat, with legal, political and economic principles relevant to implementing habitat protection on the ground.

The book is one of the products of the System for Conservation Planning Project (SCoP, pronounced "scope"), which is led by Tom and funded by a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado. Project collaborators at CSU include Tammy Bearly, Dave Theobald, and Jim Zack. Bill Riebsame from the Geography Department at CU also works on the project. The goal of SCoP is to assemble state-of-the-art understanding of the ecological consequences of development for wildlife habitat and to provide tools to planners and decision makers allowing them to foresee those consequences. To that end, pilot efforts are underway in Larimer and Summit counties, where the SCoP team is building on-line information systems that display a wide range of data and analyses on wildlife habitat. At the core of the system is a land use change model built by Dave Theobald that uses historical data on settlement patterns to forecast the spatial distribution of the human population in the future. Users of the system can manipulate the model to examine alternatives for managing distributionof people on the land. A closely related project funded by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is being carried out by Tom, John Gross, and Dave Theobald. They are developing general procedures focusing widely available geographic data to support planning to protect elk habitat in the Rocky Mountain region. They will provide the interface and the analysis routines to allow other to build systems like SCoP in other areas of the West.

Tom also supervises a Ph.D. student (Jim Miller, Biology Department, CSU) in collaboration with John Wiens (Biology Department, CSU). Jim's work focuses on the influence of landscape context on the structure and function of bird communities in riparian zones along the Front Range. In particular, Jim is working on effects of changing density of the human population on the composition of bird communities along stream corridors. Fine scale features (vegetative structure and biomass) of Jim's study plots tends to be similar among all plots, but the coarse scale context in which they are embedded varies enormously. Some of his plots are bordered by an apartment complex, others are found in open space. Results of two years of study show marked shifts in community structure along this gradient of urbanization.

In the past, most of Tom's work involved native ungulates and their role in grasslands and shrub-steppe. He continues to be active in this area. He recently published an invited synthesis paper in the Journal of Wildlife Management reviewing the ways that ungulates modify ecosystems. He will be a plenary speaker at the International Ruminant Nutrition Conference in 1999. Jill Baron has invited him to give the keynote address at the Rocky Mountain National Park All Scientists Meeting next summer, and Tom will participate in a Wildlife Society Symposium on "Ecology and Management of Ungulates in National Parks of Western North America" organized by Mike Coughenour and Frank Singer.

Tom lives happily with his wife of 20 years, Debbie, and their two children, Sarah (age 13) and Nick (age 7). When he is not doing science, chances are he is coaching youth soccer. During 1996, he was chosen as the Fort Collins Soccer Club Coach of the Year. His under-8 boys team is called the Sparcs; the only team in Colorado named after--you guessed it.

Announcements

The NREL recently established several categories of giving which include the NREL Graduate Student Fund, the NREL Scientific Equipment Fund, Financial Support for NREL Scientists and Visiting Scientists, the Van Dyne Distinguished Ecosystem Scientist Award, and the NREL General Fund. We would like to thank the following people for their generous gifts, which were received as of January 31, 1997:

Ms. Christie Barton

Ms. Karen Bradley

Dr. Ingrid Burke

Ms. Elizabeth W. Cline

Dr. Vern Cole

Dr. David Coleman

Dr. Diana W. Freckman

Dr. David Kicklighter

Dr. Orie L. Loucks

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy

Dr. William H. Patrick, Jr.

 

The annual NREL Christmas Awards Party was hosted by NADP and held at their offices on Canyon. This year's award recipients were: Linda Bandhauer, NREL Support Staff Award; Mike Coughenour, Most Proposals Submitted; Diana Freckman, Travel Award; and Bill Parton, Most Publications.

The UVB web site received an "Editor's Choice" award from LookSmart, Inc., a Readers Digest affiliate.

Kathy Galvin gave a presentation titled "Wildlife Conservation Biology and People: Issues of Compatability in East Africa," on Dec. 6 at the Sigma Xi Fall Speaker Series held in the Lory Student Center.

Tom Kirchner, who was a member of NREL for 24 years, accepted a position as Manager of Data Base Systems at the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. Tom began his new job on December 1, 1996. The Center was set up to provide independent monitoring of DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site. The WIPP site will be receiving radioactive waste from DOE's facilities. The waste contains low to moderate levels of radioactivity, and will be primarily plutonium contaminated clothing, soil, etc. As part of the monitoring program, atmospheric water, soil and biotic environmental samples will be collected. One of Tom's tasks is to put together a system for synthesizing the collected data and seeing that it is properly archived. He also is in charge of developing a system for tracking the inventory of hazardous materials to remain within EPA guidelines. Another part of the Center's mission is to implement a research program. We wish Tom much success in his new career.

 

Meetings

COLORADO

Jill Baron and Tom Stohlgren participated in a meeting called by Rocky Mountain National Park managers and National Park Service Air Quality managers to discuss the state of knowledge about air quality and air quality related threats. Both Baron and Stohlgren gave presentations on nitrogen deposition effects at the Nov. 14 meeting.

Bob Niles discussed his research on alfalfa stem nematodes at the Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Valley Research Center Advisory Council, Rocky Ford, CO on Dec. 10.

Tim Kittel participated in a workshop sponsored by EPRI on "Interfacing Mesoscale Climate Models with Impacts Assessment" in boulder, CO, on Dec. 5-6. The Workshop was organized by the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

NATIONAL

Gary Lear, Molly Welker, Susan Smith, Bob Gilpin, and Linda Bandhauer attended the 1996 NADP Technical Committee Meeting in Williamsburg, VA, Oct. 21-24. Molly presented a poster titled "NADP/MDN QA/AC Protocols."

Tim Kittel, Dennis Ojima, Bill Parton, and Dave Schimel participated in the VEMAP Phase II Planning Workhsop, Dec. 12-13 in Charlottesville, VA.

Tim Kittel attended the Fall 1995 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Dec. 15-19 in San Francisco, CA. Tim and Roger Pielke co-authored a paper presented by Jeff Copeland titled "Climatic Impacts of Landscape Change in the Central United States."

Bill Parton attended an NCEAS-GCTE Workshop titled "Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Synthesis," on Nov. 12-15 in Santa Barbara, CA.

Bill Parton traveled to Washington, DC, on Dec. 9-10 to attend the meeting of the Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data, National Academy of Science.

Bill Parton chaired the IGBP-DIS GPPDI Workshop on Dec. 13-14 in Cincinnati, OH.

Diana Freckman attended the ASA, CSSA, SSSA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN, on Nov. 3-8. She gave an invited symposium entitled "Invertebrate Diversity in Soils" on Nov. 4.

Diana Freckman attended the NRC Board on Environment, Studies, and Toxicology (NRC BEST) meeting in Washington, DC, Nov. 6-7.

The Association of Ecosystem Research Centers (AERC) Symposium titled "Ecosystem Science for the 21st Century" was held Nov. 8-9 in Santa Barbara, CA, and was attended by Diana Freckman.

Diana Freckman, Tom Stohlgren, Alan Covich, and Amy Treonis attended the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Invited Symposium, "Synthesis in Ecology: Applications, Opportunities, and Challenges," in Santa Barbara, CA, Nov. 17-20.

INTERNATIONAL

Ted Elliott attended a meeting of the Interamerican Institute for Global Change held in Recife, Brazil, on Nov. 11-16. Discussion at the meeting focused on future collaboration among the countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela. Issues of global change were discussed, including land-use and management changes and their interaction with changes in climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Dennis Ojima attended IGBP/BAHC-LUCC meetings, Nov. 4-10 in Kyoto, Japan. He spent Nov. 11-14 in Seoul, Korea, attending a meeting of the 6th START Regional Committee for Temperate East Asia (TEACOM).

Bill Parton traveled to Paris, France, Nov. 4-10, to participate in a SCOPE Tree-Grass Meeting.

Vern Cole has completed work as a lead author on an IPCC publication after meetings in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland. The IPCC has published a Technical Paper in response to a request from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The material presented has undergone expert and government review. Chapter 6 of the Technical Paper discusses the Agricultural Sector. Specific topics are Technologies for Reducing GHG Emissions in the Agriculture Sector, Mitigation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Mitigation of Methane Emissions, Mitigation of Nitrous Oxide Emissions and Measures for Reducing GHG Emissions in the Agriculture Sector.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

June 1997

Beth Holland and Dave Schimel are serving on the Organizing Committee of the NATO Advanced Study Institute. Beth is serving as the Director and Dave as a member of the committee. The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Soil and Global Change: Carbon Cycle, Trace Gas Exchange, and Hydrology" will be held June 16-27, 1997 at the Chateau de Bonas in Toulouse, France. Approximately 60-80 students will be invited to participate.

 

Visitors

Patrick Bohlen, Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, visited at NREL and presented a seminar sponsored by NREL and GDPE as part of the New Ecologists Seminar Series on November 22. During his visit, he also taught a session of Diana Freckman's EY592 class.

Dr. Ts. Adyasuren, Minister for Nature and Environment of Mongolia, visited NREL and worked with Dr. Chuluun Togtohyn, January 4-28.

Tom Meixner, University of Arizona, visited NREL Oct. 28-30. Tom worked with Jill Baron and gathered information to simulate Loch Vale hydrochemistry using the Alpine Hydrochemical Model (AHM). A portion of his visit was to learn how to use CENTURY so that he can incorporate Century C and N dynamics into AHM.

Carol Kendall, an isotope geochemist with the USGS in Menlo Park, visited NREL the first week in Nov. She and Jill Baron are planning the next phase of a dual isotope NO3 study for an NSF project addressing N flowpaths in alpine watershed.

J.T. Ritchie, U. Schultress, and B. Baer, Michigan State University, visited NREL Jan. 28-31, and were sponsored by Keith Paustian. They attended a User Advisory Committee (UAC) meeting to assist in the development of the SALUS model, designed for simulating production, soil dynamics and economic output for complex (i.e., multi-species rotations; non-conventional tillage) cropping by stems.

NREL Seminars

November 1: Sara Hotchkiss, Department of Ecology, Ecolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. "North Pacific Climate History from Hawaiian Pollen Records."

November 8: Frank Singer, NREL, "Elk Vegetation Interactions in Yellowstone National Park -- Implications of Climate Change and Ecological Processes."

November 15: Dr. E. Raymond Hunt, Jr., Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, "Comparison of the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) with Other Techniques for Rangeland Assessment by Remote Sensing."

November 22: Patrick Bohlen, Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, "Exotic Earthworms Alter Fundamental Controls of Forest Floor Nutrient Cycling Processes in Forests of Northeastern U.S."

December 6: Dr. E. Sharma, G.B. Plant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, "Influences of Himalayan alder on Biogeochemistry of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycling."

January 24: Geneva Chong, NREL, "Biological Conservation in Central and South America: Honduran Butterflies and Peru's Urubamba Basin."

Graduate Student News

Ana Child gave a talk entitled "Abiotic and Biotic Factors Affecting the Distribution and Survivability of an Entomopathogenic Nematodes" on Oct. 26 at the 5th Annual Bodega Field Conference in Bodega Bay, CA.

Amy Treonis, Tom Stohlgren and Diana Freckman attended the symposium "Synthesis in Ecology: Applications, Opportunities, and Challenges", Nov. 18-20 in Santa Barbara, CA. The symposium was sponsored by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

New Employees

Roberta Brouwer was hired as an Administrative Assistant for NADP and began her new job on Dec. 2. Welcome to NREL, Roberta!

Grants Funded

USAID/SR CRSP

A proposal titled "An Integrated Management and Policy System for Conserving Biodiversity in Spatially Extensive Pastoral Ecosystems of East Africa" by Mike Grants Funded

 

USAID/SR CRSP

A proposal titled "An Integrated Management and Policy System for Conserving Biodiversity in Spatially Extensive Pastoral Ecosystems of East Africa" by Mike Coughenour and Kathy Galvin was awarded $111,303 by USAID for one year. An international team will be formed to develop a system to assess biodiversity in spatially extensive pastoral ecosystems in East Africa. The assessment system will ultimately integrate computer modeling, geographic information systems, remote sensing data, and rapid biodiversity appraisal methodologies.

 

DOE/USGS/EDC

A proposal titled "Century Erosion Study" by Dennis Ojima and Bill Parton was awarded $15,000 by DOI/USGS/EDC. The proposed project will study the movement of soil particles with runoff as a major factor in the redistribution of soil C in many ecosystems, including croplands and rangelands. This project impacts the public good and is of special interest because most conventional agricultural systems lack vegetation cover during much of the year and experience regular soil disturbance, and as a consequence erosion rates from agricultural lands can be very large. However, with various management practices including reduced or no tillage, residue management, use of winter cover crops, and crop rotation, erosion rates can be greatly reduced.

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

A proposal titled "A Regional Assessment of Land Use Effects on Ecosystem Structure and Function in the Central Grassland of the U.S." by Bill Parton was awarded $300,156 by EPA for three years. The proposed project will study the effects of land use on numerous aspects of ecosystem structure and functions across the Central Grassland of the U.S. Current land use management patterns and aboveground net primary productivity will be remotely sensed and simulation models will be used to assess regional total ecosystem productivity (net carbon storage), vegetation structure, trace gas flux (nitrous oxide, NO and methane), and regional climate (water and earth balance) using a mesoscale modeling approach. The research group has developed all of the tools and will apply them to a regional database.

 

Proposals Submitted

Gary Peterson, Tom Holtzer, Ted Elliott, Boris Kondratieff and Dwayne Westfall submitted a proposal titled "Introduction of Earthworms to Improve Water Conservation in No-till Dryland Agroecosystems" to the Agricultural Experiment Station.

Ted Elliott and Keith Paustian submitted a proposal to EPA/Ecosystem Indicators Program titled "Development, Monitoring and Assessment of Indicators of Ecosystem Health and Sustainability."

A proposal titled "Impact of Doubling CO2 Concentration on CO2 and N2O Exchange in the Colorado Shortgrass Steppe" was submitted to NIGEC/Southcentral Regional Center by Bill Parton and Arvin Mosier.

Dennis Ojima submitted a proposal titled "Integrated Nitrogen Cycle Analysis of Land Use Practices in the U.S. and China" to UCAR/NASA.

Diana Freckman submitted a proposal to NSF titled "Collaborative Research: Identifying Ecosystem Controls on Soil Biodiversity: A US-UK Project."

A proposal titled "CAAW: Development of Landscape Analysis and GIS Expertise to Predict Vegetation Dynamics at Ecotones" was submitted to NSF/CAAW (Career Advancement Awards for Women) by Debra Coffin. Mike Coughenour submitted a proposal to NSF/U. of Arizona titled "Modeling Arizona Oak Savanna Responses to Climate, Grazing, Fire and Exotic Grasses."

David Swift submitted a proposal titled "Mercury Deposition Network 1997: A subnetwork of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program" to multiple non-profit agencies.

David Schimel and Dennis Ojima submitted a proposal titled "Decade of CENTURY" to NSF/Environmental Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry Program.

Dan Milchunas, Diana Freckman and Bob Niles submitted a proposal to NSF/Environmental Geochemistry & Biogeochemistry Program titled "Biotic Controls on Soil C Dynamics and N Cycling Under Elevated CO2.

Jill Baron and Bill Parton submitted a proposal titled "Sources and Chemistry of Dissolved Organic Matter to Aquatic Ecosystems" to NSF/Environmental Geochemistry & Biogeochemistry Program.

 

Manuscripts Published

 

Burke, I.C., W.K. Lauenroth, and D.G. Milchunas. 1997. Biogeochemistry of Managed Grasslands in Central North America. In: E.A. Paul, E.T. Elliott, K. Paustian and C.V. Cole (eds.) Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-Term Experiments in North America. CRC Press, New York, pp. 85-102.

Coffin, D.P. and W.K. Lauenroth. 1996. Transient responses of North American grasslands to changes in climate. Climatic Change 34:269-278.

Freckman, D.W. 1996. Soil and sediment biodiversity and ecosystem function. Biology International No. 33, pp. 35-36.

Huffman, S.A., C.V. Cole and N.A. Scott. 1996. Soil texture and residue addition effects on soil phosphorus transformations. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 60:1095-1101.

Kelly, R.H., I.C. Burke, and W.K. Lauenroth. 1996. Soil organic matter and nutrient availability responses to reduced plant inputs in shortgrass steppe. Ecology 77:2516-2527.

Kittel, T.G.F., N.A. Rosenbloom, T.H. Painter, D.S. Schimel and VEMAP Modelling Participants. 1995. The VEMAP integrated database for modelling United States ecosystem/vegetation sensitivity to climate change. J. Biogeogr. 22:857-862.

Kittel, T.G.F., N.A. Rosenbloom, T.H. Painter, D.S. Schimel, H.H. Fisher, A.W. Grimsdell, VEMAP participants, C. Daly, and E.R. Hunt, Jr. 1996. The VEMAP Phase 1 database: An integrated input dataset for ecosystem and vegetation modeling for the conterminous United States. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. CDROM.

Mosier, A.R., W.J. Parton, D.W. Valentine, D.S. Ojima, D.S. Schimel and J.A. Delgado. 1996. CH4 and N2O fluxes in the Colordo shortgrass steppe: 1. Impact of landscape and nitrogen addition. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10(3):387-399.

Ojima, D.S. and T.G.F. Kittel. 1996. Change in NPP of natural grasslands. Pages 406-407 in N.E. West (ed.), Rangelands in a Sustainable Biosphere. Proceedings 5th International Rangeland Congress, Salt Lake City, UT, July 23-28, 1995.

Ojima, D.S., W.J. Parton, M.B. Coughenour, J.M.O. Scurlock, T.B. Kirchner, T.G.F. Kittel, D.O. Hall, D.S. Schimel, E. Garcia Moya, T.G. Gilmanov, T.R. Seastedt, A. Kamnalrut, J.I. Kinyamario, S.P. Long, J-C. Menaut, O.E. Sala, R.J. Scholes, and J.A. van Veen. 1996. Impact of climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide changes on grasslands of the world. In: A.I. Breymeyer, D.O. Hall, J.M. Melillo and G.I. Agren (eds.) Global Change: Effects on Coniferous Forests and Grasslands. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 271-311.

Parton, W.J., A.R. Mosier, D.S. Ojima, D.W. Valentine, D.S. Schimel, K. Weier, and A.E. Kulmala. 1996. Generalized model for N2 and N2O production from nitrification and denitrification. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10(3):401-412.

Parton, W.J., M.B. Coughenour, J.M.O. Scurlock, D.S. Ojima. T.G. Gilmanov, R.J. Scholes, D.S. Schimel, T.B. Kirchner, J.-C. Menaut, T.R. Seastedt, E. Garcia Moya, A. Kamnalrut, J.I. Kinyamario and D.O. Hall. 1996. Global grassland ecosystem modelling: Development and test of ecosystem models for grassland systems. In: A.I. Breymeyer, D.O. Hall, J.M. Melillo and G.I. Agren (eds.) Global Change: Effects on Coniferous Forests and Grasslands. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 229-266.

Paustian, K., G.I. Agren and E. Bosatta. 1997. Modelling litter quality effects on decomposition and soil organic matter dynamics. In: G. Cadisch and K.E. Giller (eds.) Driven by Nature: Pant Litter Quality and Decomposition. CAB International, pp. 313-335.

Paustian, K., H.P. Collins, and E.A. Paul. 1997. Management controls on soil carbon. In: E.A. Paul, E.T. Elliott, K. Paustian, and C.V. Cole (eds.) Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-Term Experiments in North America. CRC Press, New York, pp. 15-49.

Rosenbloom, N., and T.G.F. Kittel. 1996. A User's I Database. NCAR Technical Note NCAR/TN-431+IA, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. 53 pp.

Schimel, D.S., B.H. Braswell and R. McKeown. 1996. Climate and nitrogen controls on the geography and timescales of terrestrial biogeochemical cycling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10(4):677-692.

Scott, N.A., C.V. Cole, E.T. Elliott, and S.A. Huffman. 1996. Soil textural control on decomposition and soil organic matter dynamics. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 60:1102-1109.

Strong, D.R., H.K. Kaya, A.V. Whipple, A.L. Child, S. Draig, M. Bondonno, K. Dyer and J.L. Maron. 1996. Entomopathogenic nematodes: Natural enemies of root-feeding caterpillars on bush lupine. Oecologia 108:167-173.

Swift, D.M., M.B. Coughenour, and M. Atsedu. 1996. Arid and semiarid ecosystems. In: T.R. McClanhan and T.P. Young (eds.), East African Ecosystems and Their Conservation. Oxford University Press, New York.

Vallis, I., W.J. Parton, B.A. Keating and A.W. Wood. 1996. Simulation of the effects of trash and N fertilizer management on soil organic matter levels and yields of sugarcane. Soil & Tillage Res. 38:115-132.

Xiao, X., D. Chen, Y. Peng, X. Cui and D.S. Ojima. 1996. Observation and modeling of plant biomass of meadow steppe in Tumugi, Xingan League, Inner Mongolia, China. Vegetatio 127:191-201

Outreach

Andy Parsons gave a presentation on his trip to Antarctica to the K-6 children at Oakwood School on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1997.

David Theobald participated in the College of Natural Resources Career Forum.

Lisa Schell is a volunteer scientist for the Science-by-Mail program and has contacted six groups of 7th-9th graders concerning their first project, which is to build simple machines. These children are from various places in Colorado and some from San Antonio, TX.

Serita Frey participated in Environmental Day on the Big Thompson River. This is an annual field trip for 6th grade students at Loveland's Conrad Ball Middle School. She discussed soil ecology with several groups of students and showed them how to collect soil samples and determine soil texture in the field.

Jill Baron attended the organization meeting of a grass roots group that will be called the Big Thompson River Alliance on Dec. 11. This group, made up of Big Thompson water managers and users, is responding to the need to provide better communication among these groups and development of educational programs for users of Big Thompson water (including residents of Fort Collins, through Colorado/Big Thompson Project that suppplies 50% of our drinking water).

Personals

NREL was one of 34 Colorado State University departments to participate in the fall semester "Staying Alive Program." This program encouraged people to do at least 20 minutes of exercise, three days per week, for ten weeks. Thirty seven people from NREL signed up to participate. At the end of the program, prizes were awarded to the departments with the most number of participants, the highest average time, as well as the highest individual times for females and males. Our fellow scientist, Melannie Hartman, won the women's highest overall individual time. For this effort, she was awarded a three-month membership to the Women's Fitness Connection. Congratulations, Melannie!!!

 

NREL News Notes will be published every two months. Please submit your news items to Kay McElwain (Editor) by the last Monday of each month.