Susquehanna University officially opened its Freshwater Research Laboratory at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

Susquehanna received a $2.25 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation last spring to support the Freshwater Research Initiative. Most of the funding supported the creation of Susquehanna’s Freshwater Research Laboratory, a centralized location for research into the health of the river, its wildlife and surrounding tributaries.

“We can’t separate Susquehanna University from the river that shares our name,” said University President L. Jay Lemons. “We are committed to ensuring the good health of the river through the Freshwater Research Initiative, its growing partnerships and this lab, which will serve as a resource for the university and its collaborators.”

Speakers at the event included:

-- L. Jay Lemons, President, Susquehanna University

-- Valerie Martin, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Susquehanna University

-- Jonathan Niles, Director, Freshwater Research Initiative, Susquehanna University

-- Skip Weider, Chairman, Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies

-- Marcus Kohl, Northcentral Regional Director, Department of Environmental Protection

-- John Arway, Executive Director, Fish and Boat Commission

The laboratory, located in a renovated dairy barn just beyond Susquehanna’s athletic fields on Sassafras Street, Selinsgrove, will serve as a home base for the research initiative.

“The opening of this facility is a critical catalyst for the Freshwater Research Initiative,” said Jonathan Niles, director of Susquehanna’s Freshwater Research Initiative. “This unique water research facility and its equipment will allow faculty, students and our collaborators to conduct meaningful, data-driven, peer-reviewed and publicly disseminated aquatic research that will seek to answer the ecological problems that face the Susquehanna River.”

The grant has funded new state-of-the-art equipment, including:

-- An electrofishing boat, which delivers electric currents into the water to stun fish, making them easier to catch for sampling;

-- Two electrofishing backpack units, which operate the same way and will be used in waters too shallow for the boat; and

-- Two water-testing machines that will remain housed within the center several handheld water-testing units to be used in the field.

Susquehanna faculty are leading this project to ensure broad and compelling long-term impacts while working collaboratively with a network of nonprofit groups, government agencies and other academic institutions within the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds

In April, Susquehanna announced $70,000 in awards to five different organizations to support collaborative freshwater research. The funds were made possible through the Mellon grant.

Susquehanna’s current research focuses on the health and life cycle of smallmouth bass and initial findings are that many of the fish are not reaching adulthood. The question is, why?

“Aquatic species are kind of the canary in the mine that tell us when there is some kind of stressor within the ecosystem,” Niles said. “Could it be temperature increases, increases in sedimentation, a virus, a parasite? We don’t know yet.”

Niles and faculty members in the biology, chemistry and earth and environmental sciences departments at Susquehanna—Jack Holt, Carlos Iudica, Ahmed Lachhab and Lou Ann Tom—are also working with stakeholder groups and colleagues from partnering institutions in the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies.

The SRHCES is composed of Susquehanna, Bucknell, Bloomsburg and Lock Haven universities, and King’s and Lycoming colleges. Their work includes a variety of research projects focused on water quality and aquatic life, which ultimately affect the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Since 2010, Niles and a team of his students have worked with various government agencies and private landowners to survey more than 500 of the 4,000 stream segments assessed under the state’s Unassessed Waters Initiative.

Niles’ team’s goal is to find wild brook trout in the streams and help the Fish and Boat Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection determine usage and protections for the waterways.

More than half of 2014’s 172 surveyed streams had wild trout, which can only live in pristine, cool water free of excess sedimentation and sunlight. The presence of wild trout in these previously unassessed streams means their protection becomes a priority, which helps influence overall water and land usage in the area surrounding the stream.

University faculty and students also are engaged in a project with the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds and the Loyalsock Creek Watershed Association to research the long-term impacts of severe flooding in 2011 on organisms within the waterways and examining the effects of fracking-related landscape change on wild trout streams.

Other projects currently underway by Susquehanna faculty and students include:

-- Susquehanna River: Investigation of rusty crayfish density and diet; long-term data collection of algae and other aquatic life; detailed studies of the red-backed salamander; investigation of riparian ground spider communities as a potential source for mercury mobilization between food-chains

-- Loyalsock Creek, Lycoming County: Long-term data collection of trout populations, other aquatic life and water quality

-- Faylor Lake, Snyder County: Use of ground-penetrating radar to assess sediment load.

NewsClip: Susquehanna U. Opens Freshwater Research Facility

Related Links:

Susquehanna Awarded Mellon Grant For $2.25 Million To Study River

R.K. Mellon Freshwater Research Initiative

6/8/2015