4 from region taking part in study


The students are studying the environmental impact of climate changes.

HIRAM — Four area students are among a group of 19 people from Hiram College about halfway through a 12-week intensive field trip that is literally taking them around the world.

They are spending their time studying the impact of climate change.

The journey is part of a Hiram class — “Biomes of the World” — an interdisciplinary program examining the impact of climate change on people and the environment by looking at selected terrestrial, freshwater, marine and human-dominated “biomes,” which are ecological units that correlate with regional climate types and life-form responses.

The 16 Hiram students and one alumnus are being led by two Hiram professors and will visit nine destinations — Alaska, Hawaii, Thailand, India, Maldives, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey and Germany.

The local students on the trip are Megan Taylor and Matthew J. Wilson of Cortland, Angela L. Booher of East Liverpool and Daniel Factor of Hiram.

Taylor, a senior biology major, is keeping a running log of their adventures, reporting her observations of the trip at aroundtheworldwithmegan.blogspot.com.

The trip began Jan. 20, and the students will be back in the United States March 29.

They are following in the footsteps of German naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt, who proposed that similar regional climates produce similar morphological responses. Students become modern-day “natural historians,” recording their observations while deciphering the impact of global warming on themselves, the biomes and the indigenous people. Students examine the science behind global warming and the ways in which various cultures respond to rapid climate change.

An entry in Taylor’s log during the group’s stay in Alaska alludes to how fragile the environment can be.

It reads, in part, “We visited the Mendelhall Glacier, right in Juneau and got to walk right up to it across a not-so-safe frozen lake. After returning from this trip Park Services informed us that at any moment a piece of the ice face of the glacier could cleave off and shatter the ice covering the lake, and we would have been floating … The glacier is currently melting as well as retreating a foot a day, so it won’t be there much longer.”

A later entry from her visit to Hawaii includes this entry:

“Apparently, those humpbacks we saw up in Alaska have also decided to make the journey to the warmer waters of Hawaii. The humpbacks head south in the winter to breed and birth their young, so we were in Hawaii during the whale season. There are about 10,000 humpbacks in the coastal waters of Hawaii where they are protected. As we were snorkeling one day at Black Rock Beach we saw 3-4 humbacks [sic] breach [jump out of the water]just about 200 yards off shore…”

Professors Denny Taylor and David Anderson are leading the expedition.

“The trip is going fabulously well, much better than I could have ever hoped for,” Taylor said in an e-mail sent back to Hiram. “These students are so fortunate. In each location we have seen things that I have never seen in 30-some years of being a biologist. It just gets better and better.”

Taylor is planning to submit a proposal to offer this trip again in the spring of 2010.

“Biomes of the World” is offered to Hiram students and alumni by the Hiram College Biodiversity Initiative and the Center for the Study of Nature and Society (CSNS). The CSNS was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

By using this site, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.

» Accept
» Learn More