Megan Fork
Durham
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Articles by Megan Fork
Ecology & Society
Insight ABSTRACT Recognizing the continued human domination of landscapes across the globe, social-ecological systems (SES) research has proliferated, necessitating interdisciplinary collaborations. Although interdisciplinary research started gaining traction in academic settings close to 50 years ago, formal frameworks for SES research did not develop until the late 1990s.
Dosing the Coast: Leaking Sewage Infrastructure Delivers Large Annual Doses and Dynamic Mixtures of Pharmaceuticals to Urban Rivers
Pharmaceuticals are commonly detected at low concentrations in surface waters, where they disrupt biological and ecological processes. Despite their ubiquity, the annual mass of pharmaceuticals exported from watersheds is rarely quantified. We used liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy to screen for 92 pharmaceuticals in weekly samples from an urban stream network in Baltimore, MD, USA, that lacks wastewater treatment effluents.
Dissolved organic matter regulates nutrient limitation and growth of benthic algae in northern lakes through interacting effects on nutrient and light availability
Abstract Widespread increases in dissolved organic matter (DOM) concentration across northern lakes can alter rates of primary production by increasing nutrient availability and decreasing light availability. These dual effects of DOM generate a unimodal relationship in pelagic primary production and primary producer biomass among lakes over a gradient of DOM concentration.
Better living through multidisciplinarity: follow-up
Alternate title: “Fate, It Seems, Is Not Without Its Sense Of Irony” In my recent, giddily-excited post about multidisciplinarity, I listed several fields of study, and gave reasons that these many disciplines need to be at the table to solve environmental problems and answer questions about how the world works. Our disciplines do not exist in a vacuum… In my post, however, I didn’t list philosophers. This error was pointed out to me by a friend who happens to be a philosopher.
How a Master’s thesis becomes a peer-reviewed article: Episode 1 - Editing (and learning to live with what you’ve done)
When I began writing up my thesis, I had no idea how many times I would slowly pick through that document, changing and adding details as I read a new paper or learned a new statistical technique. Eventually, I’d have done enough work that I could send it to my advisor. I’d get it back a few days later, covering in red ink (actually, red pixels – it’s 2012!), and have a whole new set of edits to make and comments to address.
Sea creatures of whimsy!
Almost by definition, PhD students are huge nerds. It may not surprise you, then, that when we get together for a Thursday afternoon beer, we call it “Science Club” and talk about something nerdy.
A visual tour of my path to the Nicholas School
Greetings! In preparing my blog, looking forward toward my PhD here at Duke, I got to reminiscing about the fantastic experiences I’ve had in research up to this point. I want to begin my blog by taking you on a walk through some of projects on which I’ve been lucky enough to work, and the nearby beautiful places in which I’ve frolicked. As an undergraduate at UW-Madison, I worked as a technician for Erinn Powell, a graduate student in Prof. Ken Raffa’s lab.
Better living through multidisciplinarity
One of the coolest things, for me, about the Nicholas School is that it houses people with really diverse backgrounds and skill sets. This makes it easy to interact and work with people whose interests include not only ecology, but science of all stripes, including geology, toxicology, political science, public policy, and social sciences, just to name a few.
Camping trip for science nerdery: Fall break 2012
A couple weeks ago, we had the lovely four day weekend known as Fall Break. Although I used some of this time to catch up on school work, stupid TV, and house cleaning, I also took advantage of the break to go on a camping trip to Carolina Beach State Park, at the mouth of Cape Fear River. In addition to some lovely walks and board gaming in the park, and walks along the Atlantic coast in Kure Beach, we made a detour to the Green Swamp Preserve.
How a Master’s thesis becomes a peer-reviewed article: Episode 3 - Rejection
The most recent step on my manuscript’s journey hasn’t been its best, I’m afraid. I got word yesterday that it has been rejected. After a few beers and some time to reflect, though, I’m ready to start looking toward to the next step. Two anonymous reviewers have given constructive feedback that will help me to craft the story better, and make sure the paper delivers to the reader what it promises.
How a Master’s thesis becomes a peer-reviewed article: Episode 2 - Submission
Well, my little dear has stretched its wings, and is off into the harsh world of peer-review. My co-author and I gave it one last look, I wrote a cover letter, and I sent it off to the editor of Limnology and Oceanography. Now, all there is to do is wait. It feels pretty good to have it out of my hands, even though it’s a struggle to wait for news. Will it be accepted? How severe will the necessary revisions be?
Update: Manuscript rejection
A couple of weeks ago, I got word that the manuscript I’ve prepared about my Master’s project was rejected. I tried to look on the bright side, I was feeling a bit blue about the whole thing. A few days ago, though, my awesome lab and office mate, Anna, shared with me this news article from Nature. It describes a study that followed a huge number of manuscripts submitted to biological science journals.
Creativity and science
My story starts today with the dreaded personal statement. Writing this document is a bane to just about every applicant to a graduate program or fellowship. GRE? No problem. Writing a research proposal? Bring it on. But ask me to write an essay about why I deserve money or a coveted spot in your program (while sounding simultaneously interesting, humble, intelligent, capable and unique) and a bit of panic sets in.
Impostor Syndrome and Feeling Stupid
For me, one of the hardest things about making the transition into a research degree is coming to the realization that although the knowledge and skills I worked so hard to accumulate in high school and college are helpful, the set of skills I need in order to be successful in research have very little overlap with the ones I’d been developing up to that point. Of course, time management and self-discipline are helpful to have as a PhD student, but I’m talking more of the nitty-gritty academic.
Cicadas are coming!
As entomologist Craig Gibbs notes in a recent New York Times Op-Ed, the cicadas are coming. There’s been a lot of buzz (no pun intended, I swear!) about the emergence of the Brood II cicadas, predicted to occur some time this month, as soon as the soil is warm enough.
The government shutdown and graduate students
You’ve probably already seen lots of sad stories about how the government shutdown is affecting people around the country. This is not a story as heart-wrenching as those of displaced weddings and turned-away children with cancer, but the government shutdown is disrupting the lives and research of graduate students and young scientists here, around the country, and internationally.
Attending a workshop - learning new skills
I spent a few days last week attending a workshop in GIS for aquatic ecology and evolutionary biology at St. Louis University. It’s intense training – 8 hours a day thinking about how to import, manipulate, analyze, and represent spatial data. This workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and is a really great resource for me to think about new ways to visualize and analyze data (and to conceive of new questions!).
How a Master’s Thesis Becomes a Peer-reviewed Article: Episode 5 - Available online!
A few weeks ago, I received the type-set proofs of my paper from the editorial staff at Ecosystems. It was great to see my writing looking like a real journal article. A slightly closer look revealed a few issues: namely captions that didn’t match figures, as well as some overzealous abbreviation.
What’s that manuscript about, anyway?
I’ve written a lot about all the steps and hurdles I’ve gone through to get this paper published, but not a word about what the darn thing is actually about. It seems about time to dive in and tell the story of this paper. My research asked how different concentrations of dissolved organic carbon affects how rivers in northern Florida process nitrogen. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a large collection of different carbon-containing molecules that dissolve in water as vegetation decays.
Giving thanks in Durham, NC
I’m taking a departure from talking about science to post about one of my other passions: food. One of the best things about living in the South’s tastiest town is the wealth of delicious local food.
How a Master’s Thesis Becomes a Peer-reviewed Article: Episode 4 - Acceptance!
Readers, I have been negligent in my blogging this summer. The truth is that I’ve been struggling with a case of PhD angst and ennui. The long list of tasks I hoped to accomplish, papers I hoped to read, and ideas I hoped to generate far outstrips the list of these things I’ve actually achieved, and it’s left me feeling a little bit adrift. But more on this in a future post; today I’m here to report some good news! of my manuscript, that is.
The sameness of cities
Every city has a vibe that makes it unique in the world. Vibrant New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi. Hip Seattle, between the Cascades and the Pacific Ocean. Romantic Paris, straddling the Seine and nestled in the forests of Île-de-France. Each has its own distinctive culture and setting. But think about the kinds of animals you see in cities; for example, pigeons, raccoons, crows, and rats.
On what makes a good paper title: Signaling content and format up front
Every month, I get several “Table of Contents” emails in my inbox listing the titles of new articles in academic journals. I’d like to say I eagerly and excitedly open the emails and pour through the newly-published work of other scientists. What more often happens, however, is that these emails languish in my inbox for weeks, until I set aside an hour or two to scan all the titles at once, making quick decisions about which sound the most interesting to download and read.
Happy (belated) Open Access Week!
I will spare you my own description of what open access is, since a quick Google search will give you both definitions and opinions from publishers, universities, and advocates alike. One of the most charming (and simultaneously informative) descriptions of open access publishing is illustrated by Jorge Cham, creator of PhD Comics, and can be found HERE.
Conference recap, Part 2: Field trip!
Way back in April, when we registered for the SFS conference, I was surprised and excited to see my hometown of Mukwonago, WI listed among the field trips. Joanna and I signed up, and after a tiring but successful week of networking and learning about the work of other freshwater scientists, we were on a school bus headed to the Mukwonago River watershed. Our first stop was Lulu Lake, a preserve held by The Nature Conservancy as part of a network of protected land in the Mukwonago River Watershed.
Female, Feminist, Scientist, Sexist?
As a woman scientist, my career choice resists gender norms. Even in my relatively female-heavy field of ecology, women publish only about 23 percent of journal articles, so whatever publications I eventually, finally produce will constitute a tiny nudge toward gender equality. My interest in the under-representation of women in the sciences goes beyond my own career, however.
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