A team of passionate student researchers is making waves in environmental science by digging deep into lake mud.
In a collaboration between Arizona State University, Purdue, and Rutgers, students and experts are studying how human activity and natural processes have reshaped one small lake and what it reveals about larger environmental shifts over time.
With guidance from a team of experts and fellow students, the group collected sediment cores in Lake Myosotis in the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in upstate New York. Sediment cores are long, layered tubes of mud that preserve seeds, insect fossils, and plant remains deposited over hundreds of years.
These cores form a rich ecological time capsule, capturing everything from early pondweed growth to the more recent arrival of grasses and shrubs. Insect fossils, such as water fleas and beetles, help researchers understand how lake conditions and nearby ecosystems changed over time, both due to natural evolution and human activity.
This research is especially important now, as scientists and land managers seek to better understand how local ecosystems respond to development, changing rainfall, and rising temperatures. By comparing sediment records with recent plant surveys, the team confirmed that even small changes, such as road construction or forest thinning, can significantly impact the land.
While this first phase focused on plants and insect remains, future stages will analyze other lake-dwelling organisms, such as non-biting midges, to provide a more detailed picture of environmental shifts.
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This research is not just academic. By understanding how landscapes have responded to past environmental changes, scientists can better predict and manage future challenges, from flooding to biodiversity loss. It also underscores the importance of local action, especially as more communities confront the lasting effects of pollution and development.
Other student-led cleanups and investigations, such as this Lake Michigan debris project, have revealed how close to home pollution is. Similar studies have uncovered troubling microplastic deposits in remote lakes and concerning pollution in the Great Lakes and Lake Tahoe. Protecting freshwater ecosystems is critical not only for wildlife but also for our own long-term health and safety.
For now, these students are transforming a quiet lake in New York into a living laboratory, providing a powerful reminder of how today's and yesterday's decisions ripple far into the future.
"Even when we preserve natural spaces, we're often still altering them in subtle ways," said Love Eriksson, Fulbright scholar and principal investigator on the project. "This project shows how damming a lake, building roads, or maintaining forests can have long-lasting effects on ecosystems."
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