Event name: SERC Excursion
Event time and place: September 23, 2023 at Edgewater, MD
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a research center that is located in Edgewater MD. It is a research center that is located next to an undeveloped forest and is near the Chesapeake Bay. This forest is a patch of land in which very little human intervention has taken place. This makes for both a wonderful hiking space and research spot at the same time. Since the forest has been left alone from deforestation it proves to be a great area to conduct research and see what a forest would have looked like had we not cut down the trees in the land.
The Chesapeake Bay is special in that its water is brackish water. This means that the water has a mix of both freshwater and saltwater. This makes for an interesting research spot for SERC as they are able to observe and study how certain animals behave in this kind of unique water. The most prominent animal that only survives in brackish water is the diamondback terrapin (our lovely college mascot) and are beloved by many. Unfortunately because of human intervention in the area, the diamondback turtle is considered a vulnerable species and is at risk of becoming an endangered species. This holds true for many other turtle species as well. Not just turtles but many other animals out there in the world are also at risk of becoming endangered or are endangered. That is why SERC has a mission to try and preserve the brackish water in the area and make sure that the diamondback turtles, as well as any other animals that live around the area, all have a safe and suitable home for them to live and reside in.
One field of research that SERC is currently undergoing is research into the prevention of the spread of invasive species. As I have stated, the undeveloped forest lay relatively undisturbed by people for a good amount of time. But that doesn’t stop other things from invading the area. As people have developed the area around the forest, they brought along plants and animals from other areas of the world. These plants and animals that are brought into this area will have no natural predators or deterrent and, as a result, they end up spreading all over the place and growing uncontrollably. This can prove troublesome for the local plants and animals as they are not adapted to these plants and animals that have been suddenly introduced to the area. SERC is undergoing research to try and find a way to prevent the invasive plant life from spreading all over the undeveloped forest area. If they are successful in doing so then it may be the start of being able to rid areas of invasive species and potentially save certain areas of the world that have started to fail due to invasive species being introduced.
SERC also has a research group called the Global Change Research Wetlands (GCREW) that studies an area of wetlands in the area as well as running a controlled experiment on a part of the wetlands as well. The wetlands are also subjected to invasive species as well and GCREW is hard at work trying to rid the invasive species that have infiltrated the wetlands. Unfortunately, it is fairly difficult to completely get rid of such deep rooted invasiveness but they can definitely do their best to minimize how much they spread. Their main purpose in the wetlands however is a long term research project that involves a controlled study on a part of the wetlands with elevated carbon dioxide levels. The purpose of this study was to try and determine the behavior of the marsh should we continue to emit the business as usual model in terms of carbon emissions. This will help us determine what would happen to things like plant life and their behavior in a world with elevated CO2 levels that were created from humans.
The best thing about SERC is the fact that you are able to go here and take a hike and nature walk whenever they are available and are open to everyone in the community. Due to the location of the facility however, they don't get many guests that come to visit. Nevertheless, they continue on with their mission in this area and they give a lot of educational information about the plants, animals, and habitats of the area around them. My hope is that SERC is able to gain more people to come and visit and in the process teach everyone to be more aware of what they are doing to the environment around them. The research that is happening at SERC is grand research and it may be the key to our not so distant future.