On a summer morning in the mountains of East Tennessee, a group of UTC students and researchers waded through the waters of Bumbee Creek.
The group filled bottles with stream water and documented conditions at each site. Back on campus, those samples would help researchers identify pollutants that could be affecting the laurel dace, one of North America’s most endangered fish.
The project includes faculty and students from UTC’s Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science, along with researchers from the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI).
“We’re not trying to analyze what’s in the fish,” said Dr. Keenan Dungey, professor and head of UTC’s Department of Chemistry. “We’re trying to analyze what’s in their environment and the potential negative impacts on the laurel dace.”
While chemistry faculty and students are often associated with laboratory work instead of collecting samples in mountain streams, Dungey said studying water quality requires both.
“I was an indoor chemist,” he said with a laugh. “Normally, what you think of as a chemist is someone who’s got a white lab coat at a bench mixing chemicals. I got dragged outside and found this whole other way of doing chemistry.”
Dungey has researched environmental water quality since 2006, but this is his first collaboration with TNACI, the research arm of the Tennessee Aquarium. While aquarium researchers monitor fish populations and health, UTC’s chemistry team studies the water.
The team is studying several factors that could be contributing to the laurel dace’s decline, including warming water temperatures, sediment from agricultural runoff, and pollutants such as excess nutrients and pesticides.
“You could have pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and chemicals sprayed on the crops,” Dungey explained. “The excess being washed out by rain into the water, fish being exposed to these toxins and then the fish need to eat the little zooplankton or algae—those get killed by pesticides.”
Anna Craddock, Dungey’s undergraduate research student, said the project is unlike anything she expected when applying for summer research.
She first met Dungey because she was interested in his previous work with E. coli. During their conversation, he mentioned the laurel dace project with TNACI.
“I was drawn to it,” Craddock said. “I was like, ‘That’s the one I want to do.’”
A rising senior from Nashville, Craddock came to UTC as a biology major before switching to biochemistry after discovering a passion for chemistry. The laurel dace project allowed her to reconnect with the ecological side of science she thought she had left behind.
“This opportunity has been a great combination of both for me,” she said.
Craddock has helped launch the project from the ground up, attending planning meetings, collecting water samples in the fieldand analyzing them back on campus using ion chromatography.
“I know Dr. Dungey has told me that it is rare that an undergraduate research student gets to start a project from the very beginning,” she said. “I’ve really been involved with every single part of this project.”
Working closely with a fish like the laurel dace gave her a new perspective on conservation.
“Being out in the field and getting to see the fish actually pulled from the stream in the healthy population is amazing,” Craddock said. “It’s very humbling to know that human impact is causing this issue. It makes you really question some of the things you do every day.”
The project brought together students and researchers from across disciplines.
Graduate environmental science student Rio Palmeira, a Tennessee Aquarium fellow and watershed conservation assistant, helpswith biodiversity and species surveys while UTC researchers analyze the chemistry of the streams.
Graduate student Anna Sherrill contributes sampling and sediment analysis through a collaboration involving her advisor, Dr. Azad Hossain.
Associate Lecturer, Dr. Elise Chapman, provides expertise in river ecology, while environmental science major Jasmine Castellano and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School student Ajla Rizvic, participating through UTC’s American Chemical Society Project SEED program, also contribute to the research.
Palmeira said that collaboration is one of the project’s biggest strengths.
“I have learned the importance of collaboration to support a common conservation goal,” Palmeira said. “Using people’s varying expertise to investigate different aspects of a problem provides us with more information and allows for the best management decisions in the future.”
Her work with TNACI also includes educating landowners and community members about conservation.
“The public being informed about what a special place we live in, and them caring enough to want to save these spectacular little creatures, makes me hopeful for the future,” Palmeira said.
Sherrill said working alongside researchers from different backgrounds has proven the value of interdisciplinary science.
“Collaboration is the key to making a difference,” she said. “Being able to collaborate with other students, researchers and organizations truly changes the processes and outcomes of such research.”
She also appreciates the opportunity to learn from everyone involved.
“I really love learning about all the different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences of all those involved,” Sherrill said. “It feels special to be a part of such a diverse and committed collaboration.”