Todd M. Hurd

Associate Professor, Biology

sampling with students

Shippensburg University
Department of Biology
(717) 477-1751
tmhurd@ship.edu
240 Franklin Science Center
Shippensburg, PA 17257

Courses Taught (see course catalogs for descriptions)


Ecology	Plant Ecology	Wetland Ecology	Ecosystems Ecology	Problems of the Environment	Principles of Biology I

Research Interests

Sources and ecological effects of nutrient additions to wetlands and spring creeks
Hydrology, biogeochemistry, and general ecology of wetlands and spring creeks
Rates, limits, and ecological effects of biological nitrogen fixation
Effects of elemental and acidic deposition to forest ecosystems

Undergraduates: Please contact me if you would like to have research experience in these or related areas. The Ecology & Environmental Biology Concentration requires 3 credits of experiential elective that may be filled with independent research. Many students also participate in an independent research experience regardless of concentration requirement. There are also opportunities to write your own grants at Shippensburg to obtain supplies and travel funds, and to at times be paid as an undergrad. research assistant.

Shippensburg University M.S. program in Biology
Grads: Please consider these or related areas for thesis work with me at Shippensburg:

Tracing sources of organic inputs into streams and spring-creek food webs with stable isotopes (see Ecological Society of America Mid-Atlantic Poster 2007 with SU undergraduates and N. American Benthological Society Abstract 2008 with graduate student Jennifer Lentek-Klemunes)
Determining source areas of water and sources of nutrients to spring creeks with fluorescent tracers and background tracing
Biological assessment of spring creeks and riparian areas.
Assessment of nutrient cycling in terrestrial, aquatic, and wetland ecosystems

There are also funds available for graduate research at Shippensburg through the Institute for Public Service

Some Project Photos:

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Adirondack shrub wetland Black Locust grown Young-of-year brook trout Shippensburg Student sampling in
dominated by alders hydroponically without nitrogen Big Spring Creek (2002) Big Spring Creek

Publications

· Hurd, T.M., Jesic, S., Jerin, J.L., Fuller, N.W., and D. Miller Jr. 2008. Stable isotope tracing of trout hatchery carbon to sediments and foodwebs of limestone spring creeks. Science of the Total Environment. Doi:10.1016/j/scitotenv.2008.06.036 (with Shippensburg Undergraduates).

· Hurd, T.M., Gökkaya, K., Kiernan, B.D. and Raynal, D.J. 2005. Nitrogen sources in Adirondack wetlands dominated by N-fixing shrubs. Wetlands 25:192-199

· Gökkaya, K., Hurd, T.M., and Raynal, D.J. 2005. Symbiont nitrogenase, alder growth, and soil nitrate response to phosphorus addition in alder (Alnus incana ssp. rugusa) wetlands of the Adirondack Mountains, New York State, U.S.A. Environmental and Experimental Botany 55/1-2 pp 97-109

· Hurd, T.M. and Raynal D.J. 2004. Comparison of nitrogen solute concentrations within alder (Alnus incana ssp. rugosa) and non-alder dominated wetlands. Hydrological Processes 18: 2681-2697

· Kiernan, B.D., Hurd, T.M., and Raynal, D.J. 2003. Abundance of Alnus incana ssp. rugosa in Adirondack Mountain shrub wetlands and its influence on inorganic nitrogen. Environmental Pollution 123:347-354

· Hurd, T.M., Raynal, D.J., and Schwintzer, C.R. 2001. Symbiotic N₂-fixation of Alnus incana ssp. rugosa in shrub wetlands of the Adirondack Mountains, New York, U.S.A. Oecologia 126:94-103.

· Bischoff, J.M., Bukaveckas, P., Mitchell, M.J. and Hurd, T.M. (2001). Nitrogen storage and cycling in a forested wetland: implications for watershed nitrogen processing. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution. 128 (1/2):97-114.

· Hurd, T.M., Brach, A.R., and Raynal, D.J. 1998. Response of understory vegetation of Adirondack forests to nitrogen additions. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 28:799-807.

· Richey, D.G., McDonnell, J.J., Erbe, M.W., and Hurd, T.M. 1998. Hydrograph separations based on chemical and isotopic concentrations: a critical appraisal of published studies from New Zealand, North America, and Europe. Journal of Hydrology (New Zealand) 37:95-111.

· Hurd, T.M. and Schwintzer, C.R. 1997. Cluster root formation and mycorrhizal status of Comptonia peregrina and Myrica pensylvanica in Maine, USA. Physiologia Plantarum 99:680-689.

· Hurd, T.M. and Schwintzer, C.R. 1996. Cluster roots of Alnus incana ssp. rugosa in the field and of four Alnus species in water culture with phosphorus and iron deficiency. Canadian Journal of Botany 74:1684-1686.

Education

Ph.D. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY.

M.S. University of Maine, Orono ME.

B.S. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse NY.
Cranberry Lake Biological Station of SUNY-CESF.
SUNY College of Arts and Sciences, Geneseo NY

Some Ecology and Environmental Biology Related Links

Jobs and Internships in Ecology and Environmental Biology
Ecology and Environmental Biology Concentration, Shippensburg University
The U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research Network
The Adirondack Ecological Center
Threatened and Endangered Species of PA
Ecological Society of America
PA-Dept. Environmental Protection
Society of Wetland Scientists
PA Natural Heritage Program
Pennsylvania Biological Survey
Big Spring Watershed Association
PA Bureau of Forestry