Paul Smith’s College faculty, students featured for Walden Pond research

Research conducted by Paul Smith’s College faculty and students has earned a peer-reviewed article publication and mentions in media outlets including the The Boston Globe and The Guardian.

For Dr. Curt Stager, professor of natural sciences at the college, Walden Pond – a Massachusetts body of water made famous by Henry David Thoreau and his Walden: or Life in the Woods – has been a site of sediment core tests as part of an exploration into the lake’s ecological history and potential future.

He and others in the research team, which included Paul Smith’s College’s Dr. Brendan Wiltse and students Eric Yankowsky and David Nardelli, have found through sampling that Walden Pond may have a murkier future due to climate change and other human influences.

While attempts have been made to mitigate algae growth in Walden Pond, a pre-impact state has yet to be achieved.

“If we’re not careful, this beautiful, iconic lake … could easily become more like a murky, green stew of algae,”
-Dr. Curt Stager

Learn more:

Please stop peeing in Walden Pond, researchers beg (The Boston Globe)
Pee and pesticides: Thoreau’s Walden Pond in trouble, warn scientists (The Guardian)
Climate variability and cultural eutrophication at Walden Pond (Massachusetts, USA) during the last 1800 years (PLOS)