The following proposals have been selected for funding:

• Almog, Roy [Major: Exercise and Sports Science – Pre-Med Option, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Urszula Iwaniec, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences): “Role of Marrow Adipocytes in Bone Loss during Simulated Spaceflight”
• Colesar, Michael [Major: Biological Engineering, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Liney Arnadottir, School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering): “The Effect of Temperature, Salt, and Poly(ethylene oxide)-Poly(butadiene)-Poly(ethylene oxide) Concentration on PEO Grafting Density on Silica”
• Dominguez, Maximilian [Major: Biochemistry and Biophysics, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Ryan Mehl, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Science): “Development of a pH-Regulated Carbonic Anhydrase Protein-Polymer Hybrid”
• French, Kellie [Major: Biology, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Andrew Blaustein, Department of Zoology, College of Science): “The Ecology of Disease and Anthropogenic Stressors in Amphibians”
• Hartman, Steven [Major: Biochemistry and Biophysics] (Faculty Project Advisor: Andy Karplus, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Science): “Testing the Flood Gate Hypothesis in Zebrafish”
• Hinkle, Nathan [Major: Chemical Engineering, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Skip Rochefort, School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering): “Understanding Public Perceptions of Energy and Climate Change for the Development of Educational Materials”
• Lee, Jamy [Major: Chemistry, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Vincent Remcho, Department of Chemistry, College of Science): “Anti-Malarial Testing using Paper Microfluidics”
• Methven, Andrea [Major: Animal Sciences, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Debbie Mustacich, Linus Pauling Institute): “Vitamin E, PAH Exposure and Prostate Cancer Susceptibility”
• Nguyen, Mai Anh [Major: Public Health, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Siew Sun Wong, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences): “Better Eating Starts Today (B.E.S.T.)”
• Ostertag-Hill, Claire [Major: Biology and Psychology, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Ling Jin, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine): “Characterizing the Genetic Difference between Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 Variants and Vaccine Strains”
• Park, Bo R. [Major: Microbiology, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Aleksandra Sikora, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy): “On the Path to Uncover the Function of Novel Secreted Protease of Vibrio cholerae”
• Solisti, Stephanie [Major: Biochemistry and Biophysics, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Michael Freitag, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Science): “Expression of an Unusual Novel Histone Gene in Neurospora”
• Tepper, Jacob [Major: Biology with Marine Option, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Rebecca Vega Thurber, Department of Microbiology, College of Science): “The Effects of Encroaching Macroalgae on Coral Bacteria”
• West, Nick [Major: Bioresource Research, University Honors College] (Faculty Project Advisor: Joseph Beckman, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Science): “Metal Affinity of Metalothionein by Protein Expression Examination”
• Wong, Peter [Major: Microbiology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Jerri Bartholomew, Department of Microbiology, College of Science): “Infection Dynamics of Salmon with a Common Salmon Parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta”

But there’s a cost to doing research on campus. That cost includes everything from the equipment used in experiments to the maintenance on the buildings which house the labs, to the administrative costs of keeping the researchers and their teams up and running.

No one knows the cost of research better than Karen Steele and Charlotte Rooks in the Oregon State Business Affairs office. Steele, who has just retired, and Rooks have been working for two years with Aaron Howell, director of Business Affairs, to identify and document every cost associated with research. The four-inch high stack of documents that resulted from the work was used to negotiate the university’s facilities and administration (F&A) rate with the federal government for the next four years.

The federal government establishes the rate at which universities can charge facilities and administrative costs, that is, overhead or costs incurred on research projects that are indirectly related to the project. Direct costs include faculty salaries, benefits, travel and supplies. Those costs are included in grant funding requests by researchers. Universities must provide extensive records of the amount of indirect costs associated with research, including facilities maintenance, utilities, and administrative costs, before negotiating the F&A rate with the government.

The costs can go up and down, depending on a variety of factors, including new buildings, deferred maintenance, and the amount of research taking place at the university. This is why each time Oregon State renegotiates its rate, an extensive amount of work is required.

“There are no made up costs,” Steele said. “We have to absolutely reconcile these numbers to the financial statements put out by the Oregon University System.”

The rate approved by the federal government for on-campus research for the next four years is 45 percent of the modified direct cost of research for 2010-2011. The rate will go up to 46 percent the following fiscal year after the completion of the Linus Pauling Science Center.  That rate is applicable to all research grants except those with a legal limitation on overhead rates, which includes some private foundations and some government agencies. The Office of Sponsored Programs maintains specific information on applying F&A rates on its website.

The money received from facilities and administration rates is distributed between the college of origin, the university and the Oregon University System, in order to pay for the costs associated with the projects.

According to Steele, Oregon State is in the ‘middle-of-the-pack’ of land grant universities with its current facilities and administration rates. Oregon State’s rate is remaining steady, in part because of new buildings such as the Energy Center and the upcoming Linus Pauling Center, and valuable information about real costs of research, which include a recently completed library study, and thorough space audit by faculty and staff identifying which rooms and buildings are being used for research, and an accurate equipment inventory on campus.

Steele said those accurate space assessments and precise equipment inventories couldn’t be done without the help of personnel on campus.

“We are so totally thankful for their efforts,” she said. “We are dependent on people from the colleges to do the reporting and analysis of research facilities and equipment.”

Steele said Oregon State’s recovery of the F&A costs associated with research is important to maintaining the vitality of the university and its Carnegie Foundation’s top designation, awarded to institutions with “very high research activity.” Currently Oregon State is the only university in Oregon to have this designation.

Steele has retired after 25 years with the university, and leaves knowing that the last two years of work has resulted in more than just a pile of documents. The recently negotiated F&A rates will support the continuing growth of research at OSU.

The following proposals have been selected for funding:

· Banton, Garrett [Major: Nuclear Engineering] (Faculty Project Advisor: Oksana Ostroverkhova, Dept. of Physics): “Preliminary Study of Charge Transfer in Organic Semiconductor Materials”

· Gifford, Jessica [Major: Physics] (Faculty Project Advisor: David McIntyre, Dept. Physics): “Optical Trapping and Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Nanoparticle Sensors in Microfluidic Devices”

· Johnston, Meghan Hemphill [Major: Bioengineering] (Faculty Project Advisor: Milo Koretsky, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering): “Growth of Carbon Nanotubes via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition”

· Jorgensen, Stephanie [Major: Business Administration - Marketing] (Faculty Project Advisor: Hal Koenig, College of Business – Marketing): “Brand Community Initiative (BCI)”

· Koo, Sue-Jie [Major: Microbiology, Biology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Jerri Bartholomew, Dept. of Microbiology): “Distribution and Infection Prevalence of the Polychaete Host of the Salmonid Parasite Ceratomyxz shasta in the Klamath River”

· Mankaney, Aakash [Major: Biology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Lynda Ciuffetti, Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology): “The Role of ROS and the Phenylpropanoid Pathway in the Mode-of-Action of the Host-Selective Toxins Ptr ToxA and Ptr ToxB”

· Nasholm, Nicole [Major: Biology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Nancy Kerkvliet, Dept. of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology): “Assessing the Induction of IDO via Alternative AhR Ligands”

· Squire, Mattie [Major: Biology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Robert T. Mason, Dept. of Zoology): “Time-Budgeting in Male Red-Sided Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)”

· Vigeland, Anna [Major: Biochemistry and Biophysics] (Faculty Project Advisor: Robert T. Mason, Dept. of Zoology): “Environmental Temperature Effects on Pheromone Production in Garter Snakes”

· Wineinger, Kristin [Major: Biology – Biotechnology Option] (Faculty Project Advisor: Jadwiga Giebultowicz, Dept. of Zoology): “The Role of the Circadian Clock in Oxidative Stress Response”

Oregon Sea Grant Communications received an Apex “award of excellence” for – Hold that Thought: Questioning Five Common Assumptions about Communicating with the Public – , written by Joe Cone, edited by Rick Cooper, and designed by Patricia Andersson. The Apex Awards, now in their 21st year, recognize “excellence in publications work by professional communicators.” Apex Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. ‘Hold that Thought’ is available online for free download at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs.html#socialsci

Undergraduate research funded by research office

Jon Cassady, Vice President for Research, is pleased to announce the awards for the Undergraduate Research, Innovation, Scholarship and Creativity (URISC) 2009-10 Fall solicitation.
There were a total of 13 submissions, with requests for funding from the Research Office in the amount of $20,888.
Based on the recommendation of the URISC Advisory Panel, the Vice President for Research awarded 8 submissions for funding totaling $12,188.
The following proposals have been selected for funding:
·Christensen, Celene [Major: Geology and Environmental Science] (Faculty Project Advisor: Roy Haggerty, Dept. of Geosciences): “Development of a “Smart” Tracer: Microbial Respiration in Stream Sediment and the Resazurin-Resorufin System”
·Golden, Daniel [Major: Chemical Engineering] (Faculty Project Advisor: Ganti Murthy, Dept. Biological and Ecological Engineering): “Modeling Development of Controlled Algae Growth for the Use of Biofuel Extraction”
·Herdener, Nathan [Major: Psychology and Philosophy] (Faculty Project Advisor: Mei-Ching Lien, Dept. of Psychology): “Controlling the Focus of Visual Attention: Can Salient Stimuli Capture Attention Against Our Will?”
·Johnson, Maxwell [Major: Food Science and Technology] (Faculty Project Advisor: Juyun Lim, Dept. of Food Science and Technology): “The Effects of Taste and Retronasal Odor on Hedonic Perception”
·Lusk, Jason [Major: Chemistry] (Faculty Project Advisor: Rich Carter, Dept. of Chemistry): “Green Synthesis of the Natural Product Aconitine”
·Rering, Caitlin [Major: Environmental Chemistry] (Faculty Project Advisor: Jennifer Field, Dept. of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology): “Nicotine and its Urinary Metabolites in Wastewater: Validating Community Exposure to Legal and Illegal Drugs”
·Snow, Erika [Major: Bioresource Research] (Faculty Project Advisor: John Mata, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences): “M. Tuberculosis Selective Adenosine Kinase Nucleoside Polymers for Inhalation Therapy”
·Wilson, Jenna [Major: Bioengineering] (Faculty Project Advisor: Adam Higgins, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering): “Optimization of the Freeze-Drying Procedure for Cultured Neurons”
The next solicitation for the URISC program can be found on the Research Office web site: http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/urisc.htm

Student health lab given excellence award

The laboratory at OSU Student Health Services (SHS) is a recipient of the 2009 Laboratory Excellence Award. The award – presented by COLA, a national healthcare accreditation organization – signifies the SHS laboratory’s commitment to providing accurate and reliable test results to OSU students.
The award is achieved by those laboratories that are found to be compliant with all COLA essential and required criteria at the time of their on-site accreditation survey, which is performed every two years. Accreditation is given only to laboratories that apply rigid standards of quality in day-to-day operations, demonstrate continued accuracy, and pass a rigorous on-site laboratory survey.
In addition, award recipients must have demonstrated successful proficiency testing for the prior three testing events and have no valid complaints against the laboratory.
The SHS laboratory employs 3.5 full-time employees, and is equipped to provide most diagnostic procedures in-house. The five tests that the lab performs most frequently are liquid-based pap, direct strep, wet mount, chlamydia, and complete blood count (CBC). For more information about Student Health Services, call 541-737-WELL (9355) or visit http://studenthealth.oregonstate.edu.

Sea Grant pub given 2009 Eco Award

On the Lookout for Aquatic Invaders won an Award of Excellence (first prize in its category, “Environmental Design and Illustration-Special Publications”) in the 2009 ECO AWARDS(r), “a competition recognizing and honoring excellence in the environmental communications field” sponsored by Global Environmental Communications, LLC. This publication was developed by Scott Wiedemer and Sam Chan, edited by Rick Cooper, and designed by Stefania Padalino and Patricia Andersson

Twelve submissions, totaling $21,600, were funded.

Jing Chen, General Science: “Establishing Mechanisms of Vitamin D Signaling Pathways in Cells”
Jonathan Halama, Microbiology and Botany: “Modified TYMV Capsids Designed for Nanoparticle Technology”
Jeffery Holmes, Computational Physics: “Radio Astronomy Digital Signal Processing”
Kyle Ireton, Biochemistry and Biophysics: “Nongenomic Actions of Estrogen in the Ovine Endometrium”
Peter Kirby, Biochemistry and Biophysics: “Influenza A Virus H5N1 Vaccine to Protect Poultry Populations from Widespread Infection”
Marsha Lampi, Chemical Engineering: “The Relationship between the Molecular Properties and Lubrication Capabilities of Equine Synovial Fluid”
Marisa McAllister, Biology: “Circadian Regulation of Oxidative Stress Response Genes, CncC and Keap1, in Drosophila melanogaster”
Jordan Peterschmidt, General Science (pre-dental): “Allelic Variation at Suiperoxide Dismutase in Biomphalaria glabrata”
Brian Phan, Biology: “Interaction between Dynein Intermediate Chain and Dynactin”
Kevin Price, Accounting and Business Administration with MIS option: “Visualizing XBRL Accounting Flows”
Erin Riscoe, Microbiology: “Searching for New Cyanophages: A Study of the Bacteriophages of Oregon’s Microcystis aeruginosa”
Andrew Lee Willeford, Chemistry, Forensics option: “Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Ovalifoliolatin B”

Wave energy is one area where OSU will benefit from the Ombnibus bill passed last week. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Included in the bill were a number of earmarked projects that will have a direct impact on Oregon State University.

Kate Cusack, director of Federal Relations for OSU, was thrilled to report the results of the 2009 Omnibus.

“Despite the financial difficulties the nation is facing, OSU has done extremely well in securing funding,” Cusack said.

The passage of the Omnibus bill means that Cusack can now focus on OSU’s place in future budgets.

“We will now turn our attention to the President’s FY10 budget, details of which are schedule to be released in mid-April,” she said.

The following OSU research projects are included in the Omnibus Bill.
Research which is shared among several institutions is indicated parenthetically on the list:

• Wave Energy – $2,331,175
• Klamath River Salmon Research – $640,000
• Grass Seed Cropping – $313,000 (shared)
• Meadowfoam – $180,000
• Mulluscan Shellfish – $253,000
• Multi-Commodity Research – $244,000
• Barley Genome Mapping – $471,000 (shared)
• Small Fruit Research - $307,000 (shared)
• Organic Cropping Research – 140,000
• STEEP – $444,000 (shared)
• Wood Utilization – $4,545,000 (shared)
• Potato Research – $1,037,000 (shared)
• Endophyte Toxicosis – $994,000 (shared)
• Bioremediation – $111,000 (shared)

The total amount OSU is receiving is $12,010,175, of which $8,222,000 is shared with other institutions.

~ Theresa Hogue

Set against a dramatic Antarctic background, the Russian vessel M/V Lyubov Orlova waits as passengers set out in Zodiaks to explore the area. Among the passengers were OSU professor Michael Harte and 15 students who were studying climate change in the region.

Forget Cancun or Miami. Last winter break, a group of Oregon State University students didn’t seek out the sun and sand. Instead, they enthusiastically set off for the coldest place on earth.
Professor Michael Harte, director of the OSU Marine Resource Management Program, led a group of 15 students, 10 of them from OSU, on an exploratory trip to Antarctica in December to examine how human actions around the world can alter the fragile ecosystems in the frigid south.
Harte and his students viewed the trip as an opportunity to turn a vacation into a learning lab, as they reflected on their own carbon footprint while at the same time witnessing the dramatic effects of climate change on the landscape and the flora and fauna of the Antarctic.
“What we do here in Oregon does make a difference (in other parts of the world,)” Harte said.
Students who enrolled for the trip first took an intensive on-line series of lectures to prepare themselves for the journey. Then, in mid December, the group flew to Argentina, where Ushuaia, at the tip of South America, became their home base.
The town serves as a launching point for countless ships taking passengers to Antarctica. Among those ships was a Russian vessel, the M/V Lyubov Orlova, whose passengers included Harte’s class as well as a variety of tourists.
The ship took passengers across Drake Passage, a two day trip that was remarkably calm, despite the waters being known for their turbulence. Sea sickness wasn’t a problem for Harte’s students, he said, but the medication they were taking to stave off sickness did alter some students for the worse, making clear thinking sometimes a little difficult.

Michael Harte often encountered friendly penguins.

For Harte, providing a balance between learning and having fun proved the biggest challenge. Although he’s traveled with graduate students before, he’s never led a study abroad group, so the social dynamics provided the biggest learning opportunity for him as professor.
“It was like ‘Animal Planet’ meets ‘Big Brother,’” he said. “The unique wildlife experience and the dynamics of other young people made it a lot of fun.”
While there was plenty of opportunity to observe the wildlife and scenery aboard ship, the most rewarding explorations came during trips ashore in Zodiaks, small boats that transported passengers to remote locations along the way.
There, the students and Harte were able to interact with Antarctica’s wildlife in a profound way. Although humans are told not to approach the animals, no such restrictions were placed on the animals themselves. That means bold penguins felt free to march right up to their visitors.
“I had a chummy penguin step up and sit on my stomach,” Harte said.
Students were able to witness thriving Gentoo penguin groups who had started taking over territory of Adelie penguins who were being driven further south by warming temperatures and melting ice. They also witnessed the influence of invasive species, and were aware that even though they were careful to clean off their boots, there was a chance that they were contributing to the spread of new and potentially unwelcome species.
“One of the scariest things to me about the human impacts to Antarctica, and really worldwide, is how many vectors there are for invasive species,” wrote Brandon Trelstad, a graduate student and OSU’s Sustainability Coordinator, in a piece he composed after returning from the trip.
One of the things students were asked to consider is whether or not what they learned outweighs the damage they did to the environment simply by visiting, including the carbon emissions by the planes and ships that transported them.
“Does it change people’s world view? Yes, but there is a cost,” Harte said.
Harte is planning another trip for the coming winter break. He needs students to enroll early in order to book passage aboard ship.
More information is available at: http://oregonstate.edu/international/ by typing “Antarctica” in the search engine. Or call Kristy Spikes at 541-737-3006.
~ Theresa Hogue

This image of Deanna Kingston's maternal grandfather appeared on the cover of Terra magazine.

The next month, we went to Fairbanks to attend the Alaska Anthropology Association annual meeting.  There, we met with other King Island Inupiat Eskimo elders and showed them the photograph. They confirmed that it was indeed her father, taken 16 years before my mother was born.  By pure chance, the editors of Terra magazine decided to use a photograph of someone who was my relative!

This was not the first time I have seen a photograph of my grandfather in print.  In 1992, when I was an intern at the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian Institution, I went to the Natural History Museum’s gift shop.  I browsed through the books in the Arctic section and saw one on kayaks and canoes.  I pulled it off the shelf and read the back cover.  “Cool,” I thought, “there’s an article on King Island kayaks.”  So, I opened it to a random page and saw a photograph on the left-hand side.  There, an elderly Eskimo man was holding up a paddle.  I read the caption, “Stanislaus Muktoyuk demonstrates the finishing position for rolling.”  It was my grandfather.

A year later, I came back to the Arctic Studies Center and the Human Studies Film Archives at the Smithsonian to do research on the Bernard Hubbard, S.J., film.  Father Hubbard, the “Glacier Priest”, spent a year on King Island from 1937-38, and shot about 20 hours of film there in addition to taking between 2,000 and 4,000 photographs.  My Uncle Alex came out for a week to view the film.  I was thrilled to hear him say things like, “Oh, there’s my mom, Agiavinaq.  There’s my father.  There’s my older brother, Edward.  There’s your namesake, Paniataaq”, etc.  Then, my advisor, Stephen Loring, took us to museum storage to look at items from King Island.  As Stephen opened one drawer, my uncle pointed to a cribbage board made of walrus ivory and asked, “Is that from King Island?”  Stephen pulled the tag out from under the cribbage board and said, “Yes, it is.  How did you know?”  Uncle Alex said, “Well, I recognized the way the carver drew the seal on the ice floe.  As far as I know, my dad was the only person to make them that way!”

These have not been isolated incidents.  There’s the time my friend Karen told me about a King Island story she found in Knud Rasmussen’s report of the Fifth Thule Expedition.  The story was about the King Island Messenger Feast/Wolf Dance, which became the subject of my dissertation.  Rasmussen recorded the story from “Arnasungak from King Island.”  Today, we spell this name “Agnazungaq” and after consulting with elders, we decided that the story was told to Rasmussen by my great-grandfather, my mother’s mother’s father.  I subsequently heard the story from Lucy Koyuk, my mother’s first cousin, who was also grand-daughter to Agnazungaq.

I feel very fortunate – I have always enjoyed learning about other people and cultures, but it seems that sometimes, my research falls literally right into my lap.  I’ve seen King Island masks at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and at the Field Museum in Chicago.  There’s a King Island kayak at the National Museum of the American Indian.  I know the sisters of Charles Kukuluk, whose ivory carving of an owl or some other bird is on display at the British Museum in London.  Rie Munoz, the famous Alaskan painter and artist, was a school teacher on King Island from 1951-52.  Her ex-husband, Juan, wrote an article in National Geographic that featured King Island (“The Cliff Dwellers of Bering Strait”) in January 1954.  My mom and uncles Gabriel and Alex were in the photographs of that article.  I’ve met Phil and Ellen Viereck, other schoolteachers on King Island from 1949-51, who wrote and illustrated a children’s book entitled “Eskimo Island”.  Ellen once gave me and my uncle original drawings from the school children there.  Of the set of about 100 drawings and stories, there were 13 created by my mom.  How many people literally find documents and images created by their family members as they conduct research?

This is why I love my job.  I get paid for stuff like this!

David Woodruff, USDA Forest Service researcher, climbs tall Douglas-fir trees to determine what controls their maximum height.

The Douglas-fir, state tree of Oregon, towering king of old-growth forests and one of the tallest tree species on Earth, finally stops growing taller because it just can’t pull water any higher, a new study concludes.

This limit on height is somewhere above 350 feet, or taller than a 35-story building, and is a physiological tradeoff between two factors in the tree’s wood – a balance between efficiency and safety in transporting water to the uppermost leaves.

The findings are being published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by a team of scientists from Oregon State University and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service. The research was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service.

“People have always been fascinated by how some trees, such as Douglas-fir or redwoods, can grow so tall,” said Barb Lachenbruch, a professor of wood science at Oregon State University. “This is not an easy thing to do. Think about trying to drink water through a narrow, 350-foot-long straw. It takes a lot of suction.”

Douglas-fir wood consists mostly of dead cells called “tracheids” that function in water transport and physical support, the researchers said. These tracheids have pits on their sides that function as valves, allowing water to go from one tracheid to the next, and the pits have a membrane with an impermeable middle. Normally, water flows through the porous edges of the membrane, but if there’s an air bubble in one tracheid, the membrane moves to the side and blocks off the pit so air bubbles can’t spread.

Although it’s important to allow water to pass efficiently from one wood cell to the next, air bubbles would block water movement altogether. Because water is pulled through a tree by the forces of evaporation from the leaf surfaces, the water is in “tension,” like a pulled rubber band. If an air bubble gets in, it’s like the rubber band breaking and water can no longer be transported. With a 350-foot-long water column, there’s a lot of tension on the water in the cells at the top of the tree, and a lot of force trying to get errant air bubbles to enter.

“Higher and higher in the tree, the valves change so they are able to withstand more pulling force from the long, heavy column of water before air bubbles can be sucked through,” Lachenbruch said. “But the problem is that the valves become less efficient at letting water pass. The height at which no water would pass at all, according to our models, coincides with the tallest records for Douglas-fir, about 350 to 400 feet.”

Trees of that height were discovered in Washington and British Columbia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The tallest Douglas-fir today is a 326-foot-tall tree in Oregon’s Coos County.

“As you go higher and higher in a Douglas-fir tree, it’s almost like experiencing a drought,” said Rick Meinzer, a Forest Service scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station. “And that’s what we see at the tops of very tall trees. The foliage is struggling to get enough water and seems to be under drought stress. It’s not unusual to see periodic die-back at the tops of very tall Douglas-fir trees that are near their height limits.”

At a specific height determined by the physical structure of these pits and their membranes, the scientists discovered, the fierce resistance put up by the Douglas-fir to prevent any spread of air bubbles also prevents water from being pulled any higher. That is where it finally stops growing in height, no matter how favorable any other conditions might be, such as climate, soil or water availability.

The studies, Meinzer said, may improve our understanding of how trees grow in height and may be able to adapt to different environments, including their ability to deal with droughts or climate change.

Although height can be important in a competition for sunlight and photosynthesis, natural selection has not favored a wood structure in Douglas-fir that facilitates water transport at even greater tensions and allows for greater height, the scientists noted in their study.

Apparently 350 feet is tall enough.

OSU Professor Emeritus Michael Burgett answers the public's questions about bees.

Oregon State University hopes to hire two research and Extension faculty members by September to examine the health of the state’s honeybees and find out if any hives have been wiped out by a mysterious phenomenon that has caused losses in colonies throughout the country.

Honeybees are crucial pollinators for many of Oregon’s crops, including blueberries, pears, cherries, apples and vegetable seeds.

The positions will be funded through a $215,000 emergency package approved last week by the Joint Legislative Emergency Board, which oversees budget requests when the state legislature is out of session. The money will also be used to increase the diagnostic capability at OSU’s Insect ID Clinic and buy lab supplies for honeybee research. The funding is for 10 months, but the university hopes the legislature will renew funding in the 2009-11 budget for the Oregon University System.

OSU will conduct a nationwide search to fill the two new openings, said Stella Coakley, an associate dean at OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. One position is for a lead scientist who will identify and work to resolve problems facing honeybees in Oregon. Ideally, the candidate would be an entomologist with expertise in apiculture and experience with honeybee health issues, Coakley said.

The other position is a research and Extension assistant who would aid the lead scientist and OSU insect clinic entomologist, Jim Young. Young presently is funded to devote four hours a week to honeybee health issues, but with the new funding, he will spend 10 hours a week on this. He also plans to analyze random samples of honeybees from across the state to form a general assessment of the health of hives.

Oregon does not have a full-time expert who specializes in diagnosing problems facing honeybees. The Oregon Department of Agriculture used to employ a honeybee expert but eliminated that position in the 1990s amid budget cuts.

Young is the only OSU employee paid to handle issues involving the health of honeybees. On his own time, Professor Emeritus Michael Burgett answers the public’s questions about bees but isn’t paid to do so.

Burgett and agricultural economists from Montana State University and North Carolina State University received a grant this year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to calculate how many honeybee colonies have died in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho in 2007-08 and to assess the economic impact of these deaths on agriculture. Burgett said he expects the findings to be published in December or January.

Young oversees OSU Extension’s Honey Bee Diagnostic Services (http://www.bcc.orst.edu/bpp/insect_clinic/bees.htm), which was created this year in response to concern from farmers, apiculturists and the general public. The lab diagnoses non-viral diseases and pests, including American and European foulbrood, chalkbrood, stonebrood and tracheal mites.

In April, Young mailed a survey, which is voluntary and anonymous, to 120 beekeepers in Oregon to find out what diseases and pests were affecting their honeybees. About 30 have been returned, he said.

“The replies are so scattered that there does not appear to be any pattern,” Young said.

He said that some reported cases of American and European foulbrood, varroa mites, and nosema. Three or four beekeepers thought their hives suffered from colony collapse disorder, but that doesn’t mean they actually had the condition, Young said.

Colony collapse disorder occurs when adult honeybees disappear from a hive, either entirely or in large numbers. The phenomenon came to light in late 2006, when beekeepers on the East Coast began to see their honeybee colonies dwindle. A cause has not been determined, but one possible suspect is a virus. The disorder has since spread to other states and may now be present in the Pacific Northwest, including Oregon.

"I am so proud to be developing a partnership with OSU for important research to conserve whales," Terri Irwin said at the signing on June 25.

Terri Irwin, whose efforts with Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin and daughter Bindi to protect wildlife have made her an international figure in conservation advocacy, today signed an agreement with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University to fund two humpback whale research projects.

The agreement furthers Terri Irwin and Australia Zoo’s commitment to conservation and helps support the work of the OSU institute to gather critical data on endangered and threatened marine mammal species.

Terri Irwin and Bruce Mate, director of the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, announced that the agreement that will send Mate-led research teams to American Samoa and Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for intensive studies of humpback whale breeding, foraging, migration and stock identification.

“Thanks to Terri’s generosity and enthusiastic interest in protecting threatened wildlife around the world, we’ll be able to significantly expand the research capacities of the OSU Marine Mammal Institute,” said Mate. “We hope to show that it’s quite possible to gather the rich breadth of critical information we need to help protect whales without killing or injuring them.”

Terri Irwin has been a vocal opponent of harvesting whales for scientific purposes. The non-lethal methods used by OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute to study humpback and other whale species, she says, can provide much of the same information. The funds for this research, donated through Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Warriors USA, will create the Steve Irwin Whale Research fund.

“I am so proud to be developing a partnership with the OSU for important research to conserve whales. Steve was very passionate about whales. They are extraordinary creatures, and it is so important that we do everything we can to save them,” she said. “Learning about whales is part of a bigger picture. Our oceans are in jeopardy and the more research we gather about whales, the more knowledge we have to help us save, protect and preserve our delicate oceans.

“The Steve Irwin Whale Research Fund is a legacy of Steve’s love of whales – and stands as a reminder that one man CAN make a difference. I want it to be known all over the world that these projects prove that it is possible to gather biological research about whales, without harming them. It is unacceptable that whale research is still an excuse used to cull whales.”

Mutual interests in conservation resulted in Terri Irwin inviting Mate and his wife to the Australia Zoo, which she owns, to discuss research collaborations.

“Television viewers may not be aware that Terri’s involvement in conservation efforts goes far beyond Australia, literally spanning the world,” said Mate. “She’s helping with conservation projects spanning from saving elephants in Southeast Asia and humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean to Koalas and Tasmanian Devils throughout Australia.

“Australia Zoo also is fairly unique in that there are animal keepers at each exhibit to tell you about the conservation issues of the animals on display, their habitat problems and how we can help,” Mate added.

The agreement will fund two projects on humpback whales and both parties say more research collaboration is possible in the future. The OSU Foundation will receive the funds from Australia Zoo and Wildlife Warriors to support this research.

Humpback whales are on the Endangered Species List in the United States and are listed as “vulnerable” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Redbook.

In September, the OSU research team and Australia Zoo will collaborate on a project to tag up to 25 humpback whales near Unimak Pass at the eastern end of the Aleutian Island chain. During that time, huge concentrations of krill develop in the region, drawing millions of seabirds and hundreds of whales of many species, including the threatened humpback. Scientists believe that the humpbacks that gather in a mixed feeding aggregation in the Bering Sea will depart in the fall to separate breeding grounds off Hawaii and Central America.

The goal of the project is to tag the humpbacks and determine how much they intermingle in the feeding area, and track the timing, route and rate of speed for their migrations back to their respective breeding areas.

“This area is much more accessible than Antarctica, where we believe the same circumstances of intermingling stocks on the feeding grounds likely occurs,” Mate said. “We’ll use this project to develop sound methodology and statistical data that will help guide future studies in the Antarctic.”

In October, the OSU and Australia Zoo team will also travel to the tropical South Pacific where the scientists will tag humpback whales at American Samoa (northeast of Tonga) near the end of their reproductive season and use satellites to track their spring migration to Antarctic feeding grounds.

The research will shed light on the whales’ movements, possibly around the other islands of Oceania and where they go specifically in Antarctica to feed, Mate said.

“This is a little-studied population of humpback whales,” Mate pointed out. “Some of the groups of whales in this region are small and not recovering as well as populations in other areas, so it is important to better understand their movements. Harvesting humpbacks in the ‘wrong’ feeding areas of Antarctica could impede their recovery.”

This study is the first of several planned tagging projects to link the reproductive areas of humpbacks to their feeding areas.

The Marine Mammal Institute is raising new resources for its programs as part of The Campaign for OSU, the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign. Guided by OSU’s strategic plan, the campaign seeks $625 million to provide opportunities for students, strengthen the Oregon economy and conduct research that changes the world. Approximately $425 million has been committed to date.