I am proud to present our featured scientist, Julia Sosin! Julia and I worked together in the summer of 2015, mostly doing Phragmites control. We kept each other sane while lost in the forests of reeds, dressed to the nines, packs full of chemicals on our backs. One of my favorite work days (and I’m sure one of hers too), we got done early on a Firday, so we went to the pet adoption event at the Detroit Zoo. She ended up getting a dog, and Kayla and I got Samara that weekend. Julia has since gone back to Wayne State (where she got her B.S. in Environmental Science) for a M.S. in Biological Sciences, so I’ll let her tell you all about that. (Comments from me in blue).
What first sparked your interest in science? I enjoyed science classes and nature as a kid, but my interest really sparked the summer between ninth and tenth grades, when my biology teacher encouraged me to take a two-week field course. Our small, rag-tag class drove around in a mini-van, sweeping prairies for insects to pin back at school and hiking forests rich in mosquitoes and deer flies. A high- school Environmental Science class encouraged me to pursue the topic further in college, where I struggled with organic chemistry, but fell in love with ecology while working in a Terrestrial Ecology lab (which is where I became acquainted with jack pine). After graduation, I worked on small stewardship crews (like with me!) and at nature centers for a couple years. I returned to school to learn more about research and forest ecology.
Describe your research in laymen’s terms: I am studying how a jack pine (Pinus banksiana) dominated landscape has changed nearly forty years after a stand-replacing wildfire. My study site is the footprint of the infamous 1980 Mack Lake Burn, in the Huron National Forest of northern Lower Michigan. Jack pines are neat because 1) they are well-suited to grow in this sandy, cold, nutrient-poor landscape, where few other trees can, and 2) they rely on fire to regenerate! Many jack pine cones are serotinous – they will not open and release seed unless exposed to high heat. Fire also aids jack pine by preparing a mineral seed bed, reducing shade from parent trees, and wiping out some
competitors.
Jack pine that grow in this “Highplains” area of Michigan are extra special in that, when they are 10-20 years old and growing in dense stands near open areas, they are favored breeding habitat for the rare, endangered Kirtland’s warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii). The Mack Lake Burn was a prescribed fire planned for the purposes of creating more habitat for the Kirtland’s Warbler, but is known for burning out of control. Much of its footprint regenerated to jack pine, providing abundant breeding habitat for Kirtland Warbler by the 1990s. Flash forward to 2017, these jack pine trees are too old and the canopy too closed for the Kirtland Warbler to use, but the forests support a unique blend of boreal and temperate vegetation, and some pretty sweet fauna and fungi.
Last summer, my research assistant Bana and I visited forty permanent 200m^2 forest plots. At each one, we counted and identified the overstory, understory and groundcover vegetation, as well as fuels like twigs and decaying logs. Now I am in the data analysis stage, comparing my 2017 data to records from 1986 and 1996, in order to characterize how sites have changed over time and across different landscape features (Keep and eye out for my future post about research over time). My lab is also interested in how these changes will affect the forest’s fuel stock and susceptibility to wildfire. This information will inform management practices for wildlife habitat, ecosystem integrity and forest products.
What are your hopes/plans for your scientific future? I would like to continue teaching science (currently I teach an intro bio lab at Wayne State), and also to apply my research skills to informed management of natural, restored, and urbanized ecosystems. I would love to work for a land conservancy, an ecological consulting firm, a watershed advocacy group, the Forest Service, the National Park Service, or a school. I know I love forests, research and people, but am keeping an open mind on how to incorporate all three into my career. (For those going into or considering the environmental field, keeping an open mind about where your career may lead is very important, because the job market can be very competitive.)
What do you think is the most important thing for the general public to know about science? I think the general public should consider how the natural world is very complex, operating at scales larger than us, so that every action we do may have unanticipated consequences further on. The scientific method is built on constant improvement – the more we understand about these complex interactions, the better choices we can make as citizens, organizations and governments to protect our planet Earth.
What non-scientific interests do you have? I love music, gardening, hiking, reading novels, writing letters, dancing, bicycling, volunteering in my community, visiting with my friends and family, and meeting new people.
References for scientific publications:
A somewhat related paper I co-authored as an undergrad:
Kashian, D. M., Sosin, J. R., Huber, P. W., Tucker, M. M., & Dombrowski, J. (2017). A neutral
modeling approach for designing spatially heterogeneous jack pine plantations in northern
Lower Michigan, USA. Landscape Ecology, 32(6), 1117-1131.
More on my study site:
Walker, W. S., Barnes, B. V., & Kashian, D. M. (2003). Landscape ecosystems of the Mack Lake burn, northern Lower Michigan, and the occurrence of the Kirtland’s warbler. Forest Science, 49(1), 119-139.
Zou, X., Theiss, C., & Barnes, B. V. (1992). Pattern of Kirtland’s warbler occurrence in relation to the landscape structure of its summer habitat in northern Lower Michigan. Landscape Ecology, 6(4), 221-231.
Feature Image: Julia and her dog Herbie canoeing. Photo Credit: Ben Christensen