Established in 2006 by numerous donors, the Friends of Orton Hall fund supports undergraduate and graduate students doing research. In calendar year 2023, donors gave over $37,000 to support the Friends of Orton Hall fund! Because of you, 39 awards were made to assist students with their research projects. Here’s a thank you from one such student, PhD candidate Oliver McLellan: 

Thanks to an award from the Friends of Orton Hall Fund, I traveled to the 2023 American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco in December to present preliminary data from my thesis work. My research focuses on reconstructing the history of nutrient levels in inland lakes using sediment records. Inland lakes throughout the world are impacted by nutrient inputs from agricultural runoff. Knowledge of nutrient concentrations in lakes prior to the advent of large-scale agriculture can provide a baseline for reconstructing a timeline of nutrient impact, setting restoration goals, and assessing the efficacy of remediation practices. Diatoms— a type of photosynthetic microalgae— are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, including changes in nutrient concentrations; thus, fossil and subfossil diatom assemblages from lake sediment cores can be used to reconstruct lakes’ nutrient concentrations prior to the widespread use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture. To do so, we must first develop a modern analogue or “training set,” by modeling the ways in which current nutrient concentrations can be predicted by modern diatom assemblage data. The regional training set I'm currently developing will be used to reconstruct historical nutrient conditions recorded in lake sediment cores from Ohio. We hope to use these records to determine when and to what extent nutrient levels have changed in some of Ohio’s oldest reservoirs, such as Buckeye Lake. Additionally, the model will be made available to other researchers and environmental agencies that wish to reconstruct the nutrient histories of other Ohio lakes. This research will allow for a better understanding of the extent of nutrient enrichment in lakes throughout the state, and will inform future lake remediation efforts. 

Caption: Oliver McLellan sampling 11.6-million-year-old ash at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park for diatoms. This trip was part of the Ecology and Systematics of Diatoms course at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, which Oliver was able to attend using FOH funding in 2022.

A Tax-Saving Way to Make a Difference 

Did you know you can apply your required minimum distribution (RMD) to the School of Earth Sciences? You can see your generosity in action when you make a gift from your IRA to support the School of Earth Sciences. The IRA charitable rollover allows you to transfer funds directly from your IRA to The Ohio State University Foundation without paying taxes on the amount you transfer. Learn more! 

Questions? Please contact: 
Samara Preisler, Senior Director of Development 
Preisler.7@osu.edu 
614.247.1658