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BC Program Gets Funding from Corps for River Research

By David Meyer

10/03/2012

(KAIR) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has funded a study for Benedictine College that will look at the effect on the landscape and habitats near the Missouri River.

The college has received $180,000 over the next three years to collect data on the river along the border of northeast Kansas.

Dr. Terry Malloy, chair of the Benedictine Biology Department says The goal of the current project is to assess the effects of the 2011 flood on cottonwood forests.

The work involves many scientists at several institutions, including Benedictine College, South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota. Malloy is overseeing the project on this segment of the river and retired Benedictine professor and former chair of the Biology Department, Dan Bowen, is serving as a consultant.

Former Biology Department instructor Jack Davis is also assisting with plant identification and the vouchering of specimens. Dr. Mark Dixon, from the University of South Dakota, is the lead investigator.

Benedictine College and other colleges involved in the current study are in a good position to assess the damage, since they spent several years collecting data along the Missouri River and establishing a habitat model.

Extensive data on plant populations, in particular cottonwood stands, was collected from 2007 to 2009.

In addition to assessing damage, the project is also mapping and characterizing new areas of cottonwood growth on sandbars and overbank flood deposits.

Benedictine biology students involved in the project are Derek Surdez, Patrick McGuire, Chris Ekiss and Mary Ellen Ostrowski.

According to Malloy, they spent this past summer collecting new data for the project and continue to work with analysis of that data and preparation of talks for upcoming meetings.

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