Work presented at Maine Sustainability and Water Conference
Five College of the Atlantic students present posters featuring work from their independent studies in earth sciene at the Maine Sustainability and Water Conference.
Hallie Arno ’22, Ben Capuano ’23, Adam Feher ’23, Ludwin Moran ’24, and Lenka Slamova ’24 presented posters featuring their independent study research at the Maine Sustainability and Water Conference. Isaac Dionne ’22 also attended the conference to learn about PFAS in Maine in preparation for his senior project work at MDI Biolab.
Capuano, Feher, Moran, and Slamova all presented on subprojects of the All About Arsenic program (hosted at MDI Biological Laboratory and funded by an National Institutes of Health SEPA supplement award). Feher and Slamova developed their projects during summer 2021 as interns at MDIBL. Capuano and Moran had the opportunity to refine their analyses this past term in the Topics in Research: Geoscience and Geochemistry course, taught by professors Sarah Hall and Reuben Hudson.
Capuano focused on the temporal changes in local well water quality, specifically after storm events (funded in part by Maine Space Grant and SEPA supplement). Feher was interested in assessing arsenic uptake by plants groundwater or soil. Moran looked at how different well water system filters influence drinking water chemistry. Arno has worked closely with her senior project advisor, professor Ken Cline, to develop her project on the social aspects of dam removal in Camden, ME (funded by Maine Space Grant).
Slamova studied soil chemistry in apple orchards of Mount Desert Island and Trenton to look for evidence of arsenical pesticide use. She won an Honorable Mention award, with a cash prize, for Best Undergraduate Poster!