NEWS UPDATES:
July2023: PRISM researcher Abigail Sommer ('25) and I had a productive summer making fish glow!  More info to come...
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June 2023: Check out our dataset on Lake Trophic Status across the conterminous United States based on remote sensing data. So excited to be part of this fabulous group of scientists led by Dr. Michael Meyer, USGS. 

Lake Trophic Status Dataset
April 2023: We had so much fun hosting Ware Academy at the Baliles Center this week... our first field trip since the COVID pandemic.  Students learned about the importance of wetlands from scientists with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), LLC, oysters from volunteers with the Tidewater Oyster Growers Association (TOGA), and water quality with Drs. Dina Leech and Ben Campbell. Can't wait to have you back next year! 
April 2023: So proud of Danielle Clarke-Bradley ('24) and Grace Smith ('25) on their poster presentation at Longwood's Research and Inquiry Day.  We are looking forward to sharing our work on environmental sensors and 'dead zone' monitoring at the Chesapeake Studies Conference in September 2023.
August 2022: Dina received Longwood's Provost Scholarship Award at this year's Convocation, which recognizes excellence in scholarship. So honored and excited!
May 2022: Dina presented our work on DOM flocculation and its potential to contribute to estuarine 'dead zone' formation at last week's Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. So great to see friends and colleagues and catch up on some great aquatic science!
May 2022: Congratulations Kelsey on your graduation and being named this year's Outstanding Senior in Integrated Environmental Sciences.  We are going to miss you, but can't wait to see you captain your own vessel!
January 2022: Thank you, Whitney Pipkin,  and The Bay Journal for highlighting our new Baliles Center for Environmental Education and the work we do with our students.

The Bay Journal: Taking the long view on land, education
  • December 2021: Check out Dina's virtual presentation for the Science Museum of Virginia on the changing color of lakes, rivers, and estuaries and why we should care...

           LINK: Inland and Coastal Waters are changing color... so what?
  • August 2021: Dina was recently selected as a 2021-2022 Fellow of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute.  Their mission is 'To develop leaders in the Commonwealth who can help groups involved in contentious natural resources issues move beyond conflict toward consensus building and collaborative problem solving'.
  • August 2021: Kirsten recently started a postbac program at the Duke Marine Lab. In addition to her coursework in marine sciences, she is conducting independent research examining population dynamics and habitat usage of coastal sharks via drone surveillance. Cool stuff, Kirsten!
  • July 2021: Our new research lab at Hull Springs is almost done (white building in the distance)! I am so excited!!! Can't wait to come back from sampling on the water and head straight into the lab... instead of driving 3 hours back to main campus in Farmville.
  • June 2021: Feels sooooo good to be back in the field again.  Hull Springs, we missed you!  Looking pretty brown after 6" of rain the day before sampling...
  • May 2021: Congratulations to our recent lab graduate Kirsten Bauer!!! We can't wait to see how you change the world for the better.  
  • December 2020: Excited to announce that our paper 'Indirect versus Direct Effects of Browning on Larval Fish Foraging' has been accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Can't wait to see it in print in this great journal!!!

​https://cdnsciencepub.com/eprint/IVIQAQ2RFIRQ52FH6AUX/full
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  • September 2020: Science inspiring art... Check out former lab member Troy Clift's new tattoo! I wonder what Angelo Secchi would think? And can you now use Troy's leg in lieu of the disk???
  • Fall 2020: Dina is excited to be on sabbatical this semester... for many reasons!!!  While field work and collaborations with colleagues at other institutions have been thwarted by COVID, there is still much data and writing to catch up on.

SABBATICAL!!!
  • August 2020: It's a sad day at Hull Springs for our great 450+ year old oak. We will miss your shady branches in front of the Big House...     : (
      
April 2020: Out of COVID craziness, a new research project is born!  With the move to online learning, Kirsten Bauer ('21), Davice Jones ('23), and Dr. Leech have shifted their research efforts to analysis of large datasets. Check out their new project assessing the effects of water quality on largemouth bass populations in Briery Creek and Sandy River Reservoirs, Farmville, VA.  The project collaborates with scientists at the Virginia Departments of Wildlife Resources and Environmental Quality and is supported by Longwood's PRISM program.​
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  • Click here to listen to Kirsten and Davice introduce our project at Longwood's Undergraduate Research Symposium

      
  • February 2020: Welcome Hunter Gillespie to the Leech Lab!  Hunter will be assisting with the Appomattox River Watershed monitoring.  In addition, he is conducting an independent study examining how changes in total suspended solids (TSS) after precipitation events affects coliform concentrations.

      
  • November 2019: Dina was honored to be among the 2019 ASLO Fellows.  The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography has played a continual role in Dina's professional development since graduate school.  Such a great organization!

           2019 ASLO Fellows Announcement
  • October 2019: My Freshwater Ecology class has been busy working with local homeowners to provide them an environmental assessment of their family-owned lake. So far, things are looking pretty green. Nutrient bioassay suggests P-limitation and light-dark bottle experiments suggest the lake is surprisingly not net autotrophic, but in equilibrium with atmosphere. On to counting bacterial abundance... total coliform counts are through the roof!
  • July 2019: Excited to hear my interview with Sarah McConnell on With Good Reason.  ​Check it out here:

                      Lakes in Blue and Brown
  • April 2019: So proud of my students Troy Clift and Kirsten Bauer who were voted Outstanding Senior and Junior in Integrated Environmental Sciences at Longwood!!! We are going to miss you, Troy!
  • December 2018:  National Lakes Assessment recently highlighted in the Environmental Monitor.  Such a great publication that keeps us aquatic scientists up-to-date on monitoring efforts. 

  • Environmental Monitor- NLA
  • November 2018:  Kirsten and Troy were busy this past weekend sampling the tributaries around Hull Springs Farm.  All this rainfall has resulted in lower salinities and increased DOM concentrations.  However, dissolved oxygen levels have improved with the cooler temps. Let's hope the YSI behaves and collects data ALL MONTH until our next visit in December...
  • November 2018:  Aryana has been busy sampling coliforms in the Appomattox River.  Increased rainfall has kept E. coli counts higher than normal for this time of year.
  • October 2018: Check out Dina's recent article in the L&O Bulletin on the giant ice rings of Siberian Lakes.  This publication is associated with her participation in the 'Journalist for a Day' program during the 2018 ASLO Summer Meeting.   

          ​https://doi.org/10.1002/lob.10278
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  • September 2018: Dina and Dr. Mark Fink attended the Organization of Biological Field Stations annual meeting at the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park, Maine. Such an awesome venue for the meeting, and we learned so much about running a field station.  We can't wait to put our ideas into action at Longwood's Hull Springs Farm.
  • August 2018: Our recent publication in Limnology & Oceanography on the decline of blue lakes and increase in murky lakes across the U.S. is getting some attention in the general press.  Exciting!​
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