By Ellen Chadwick, Freshwater Collaborative summer research student
This summer, 35 undergraduate students from across the country conducted research with Freshwater@UW, the University of Wisconsin’s cross-site, cross-discipline research opportunities program. Freshwater@UW is supported by the Freshwater Collaborative, Wisconsin Sea Grant, Water@UW–Madison, the Water Resources Institute and the University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School. In the final weeks of the program, students reflected on what they learned. We’ll share several of their stories over the coming months. Here’s Ellen Chadwick, an undergraduate sophomore in biology and environmental studies from Kenyon College, Ohio, who worked with Michael Holly at UW–Green Bay.
Ellen Chadwick. Submitted photo.
My love and appreciation for wetlands has grown over the past few years, deepening significantly this summer. After learning about their amazing powers of capturing carbon, filtering nutrients and toxins out of water and buffering coastlines from storms, I learned to appreciate an ecosystem that I had never given much thought to before. Not to mention, they are teeming with life and provide habitat for many incredible animals.
Because of all of this, I was eager to participate in my current research project about phosphorus removal in constructed wetlands. The overall project was highly applied and interdisciplinary, with chemists, biologists and engineers working together in a vibrant lab. And that’s only a small part of it. In the field, we worked with government researchers. Beyond that, this project involved farmers, city planners and really anyone with an interest in clean water. I studied five native wetland plants, testing if any are especially good at removing phosphorus and could be used in constructed wetlands.
As much as I enjoyed the research aspect of this summer, my favorite part was that this project is so applied. I always looked forward to days where I visited places with restored wetlands, whether that be the constructed wetland at our field site, a stormwater retention pond or a full restoration project site. I was always surprised by the richness of biodiversity in these “artificial” wetlands and how easily life will return to an area once the habitat is there.
The first time I visited a field site, I was shocked by the abundance of tiny tadpoles darting through the water. I was also unaware of the bustling community of macroinvertebrates living in the water, invisible to my own eyes but fascinating to watch under a microscope. All of these creatures represented a thriving aquatic community that played a crucial role in nutrient cycling and ecosystem balance.
A spring peeper sits on Chadwick’s finger. Submitted photo.
Visiting the Oneida Nation prairie restoration site was definitely the highlight of my summer and affirmed my interest in environmental conservation and restoration. The land was just breathtaking, filled with incredible biodiversity. There were leopard frogs hopping around, toads waddling clumsily, and even baby spring peepers that would sit right on my finger! Dragonflies and damselflies darted around elegantly, catching glints of sunlight on their iridescent wings.
As we walked, the project manager, Tony Kuchma, told us about the immense effort to restore 3,000 acres of prairie from farmland, working tirelessly with native seed mixes and prescribed burns. Joe Torres, an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation, added how Indigenous values, such as reciprocity and responsibility, informed the restoration project alongside science.
This summer experience has deepened my passion for environmental conservation and sustainability. It reaffirmed my belief in the power of scientific research to inform and guide sustainable practices, as well as the importance of considering many viewpoints when addressing sustainability. I have developed a greater appreciation for fieldwork and the resilience of natural systems and, of course, a deeper fondness for wetlands.