Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Annual Technical Progress Report of Ecological Research, June 30, 2001

The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) is a research unit of the University of Georgia (UGA) and has been conducting ecological research on the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for 50 years. The overall mission of the Laboratory is to acquire and communicate knowledge of ecological processes and principles. SREL conducts fundamental and applied ecological research, as well as education and outreach programs, under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SRS near Aiken, South Carolina. The Laboratory's research mission during the 2001 fiscal year was fulfilled with the publication of one book and 83 journal articles and book chapters by faculty, technical staff, students, and visiting scientists. An additional 77 journal articles have been submitted or are in press. Other noteworthy events took place as faculty members and graduate students received awards. These are described in the section Special Accomplishments of Faculty, Staff, Students, and Administration on page 54. Notable scientific accomplishments include work conducted on contaminant transport, global reptile decline, phytoremediation, and radioecology. Dr. Domy Adriano authored the second edition of his book ''Trace Elements in Terrestrial Environments: Biogeochemistry, Bioavailability, and Risks of Metals'', which was recently published by Springer-Verlag. The book provides a comprehensive treatment of many important aspects of trace elements in the environment. The first edition of the book, published in 1986, has become a widely acclaimed and cited reference. International attention was focused on the problem of reptile species decline with the publication of an article on this topic in the journal ''Bioscience'' in August, 2000. The article's authors included Dr. Whit Gibbons and a number of other SREL herpetologists who researched the growing worldwide problem of decline of reptile species. Factors related to these declines include habitat loss and degradation, introduction of invasive species, environmental pollution, disease, global climate change, and unsustainable commercial use. The conclusion reached by the article is that the disappearance of reptiles from the natural world is genuine and should be a matter of concern; current evidence suggests that these declines constitute a worldwide crisis. SREL's research in the area of phytoremediation was enhanced with the addition of Dr. Lee Newman as a faculty member in January 2001. Dr. Newman, an internationally recognized authority in the field, holds a joint appointment with the University of South Carolina and SREL. She is developing a collaborative program in phytoremediation on the SRS and offsite. Work is nearing completion on SREU s outdoor mesocosm irradiation facility, which is designed for studying the effects of low-level radiation doses on organisms. The 1-acre facility at Par Pond consists of 48 fiberglass tanks that can maintain small organisms such as fish and amphibians. Thirty of the tanks have sealed {sup 137}Cs sources suspended above them containing either 0.02,0.2, or 2.0 Ci. These sources can deliver average dose rates of 4, 40 and 400 mGy per day, respectively, to organisms under replicated conditions