Research Takes Students, Faculty to Iceland
What began as a travel course to Iceland has transformed into a research opportunity for two Castleton University science professors.
Geology Professor Helen Mango has been leading a course to Iceland every two years for the past decade. When her longtime travel mate Sandy Duling retired, Assistant Professor Christine Palmer stepped in to add a biology focus to the course. While on the spring 2018 trip, the group met with Icelandic Forest Service Director Adalsteinn Sigurgeisson and had the opportunity to help with reforestation efforts in a volcanic ash field using vegetative propagations – meaning the plant is a stick with no roots – and transplanting young trees. Iceland has pledged to become carbon neutral, and afforestation is just one of the ways to do that.
This planted a seed, so to speak, for the two professors.
Palmer said she expected the trees would not do very well where they were planted, which “looks like a barren wasteland,” and worried that they would be missing essential nutrients for survival. However, after checking in with Sigureisson, the pair discovered that the trees weren’t only surviving – but thriving.
The two professors are now conducting research to discover how the plants take nutrients from the environment. They have also enlisted the help of Ecological Studies major Devin Perry and Honors Geology major Gus Semanchik.
Over April break, Mango, Palmer, Perry, and Semanchik traveled to Iceland. While there, they took samples of the rock and ash to bring back to Castleton for analysis. Thanks to Student-Faculty Research Grants and the Advanced Study Grant, the group was able to return to Iceland in October to check on the growth progress and collect additional samples.
“This is a life-changing, world-altering experience for students,” Mango said, adding that research of this nature – with professors and students from different science backgrounds – is uncommon at other institutions, but possible at Castleton because of the collaboration among the Natural Sciences Department.
“We’re creating interdisciplinary scientists that can speak different languages,” Palmer said.
Semanchik, a senior from Great Meadows, New Jersey, understands how valuable research at the undergraduate level is.
“You talk about it in class, ‘this guy and this research.’ It’s only so informative,” he said. “But once you get to go out and do it, you understand how real-world processes work and that’s invaluable.”
For Perry, a senior from Honeoye Falls, New York, the opportunity to conduct research at the undergraduate level opened up other opportunities.
“The biggest is going back to Iceland twice to collect samples and communicate in person with those involved in the reforestation efforts in Iceland. Also, I have been able to implement the knowledge and skills I have learned in several courses such as mineralogy and even non-geology courses. I used them in the field in Iceland and back here at Castleton to conduct the lab research,” he said.
Mango and Palmer will be returning to Iceland in May with 16 students for the travel course, and students will get to help with more planting then.
