Washington DC Arthropod Biodiversity Project ......

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Title: Information Sheet, Intern Christianne R. Bird

Georgetown University and National Park Service Intern

Final Report

Christianne R. Bird
August 2004

I am a senior biology major and English minor at Georgetown University. My interests include biology in general, conservation, literature, medicine, lacrosse, and golf. I’m the woman who is holding a pen in the above photograph.

In 2003, I worked on a comprehensive survey of the insects of the greater Washington, D.C., Area (defined as Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Pennsylvania; Maryland; New Jersey; Virginia; and West Virginia in my project). This diverse geographical area includes part of the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, Ridge-and-Valley Province, Allegheny Plateau, and Central Uplands. There are many national forests and national parks within this area. My intern experience included entering data from books, Internet sites, and scientific papers into Arthropods of the Washington, D.C., Area: A Searchable Online Database (AWDCAD).

The three other interns and I met local scientists who work on arthropods at the annual banquet of the Entomological Society of Washington and during interviews of these scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the interviews, I learned about their great enthusiasm for the work. Further, I learned about their areas of research and experiences in many parts of the world. My experiences with this internship and interactions with these experts led me to continue research in the Georgetown Laboratory of Entomology and Biodiversity for my hands-on senior thesis. The GU Department of Biology awarded a Zukowski Summer Fellowship to me to work on ichneumon wasps in 2004.

As part of our learning about local arthropods, Dr. Barrows took us on a nature walk in the national park Rock Creek Park. This was a great opportunity for us to see some of the species that we interns entered into AWDCAD. Mr. Dan Kjar produced an easy-to-use interface with AWDCAD for data entry. The main arthropod groups that I entered into AWDCAD are Lepidoptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera. I was also a co-author on a poster presented at the National Park Service Conference Spotlight on Natural Resources, University of District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus, March 2004.

I thank Georgetown University and the National Park Service for my intern experience.

References

Barrows, E. M., D. S. Kjar, C. R. Bird, B. Q. Chung, T. Q. Chung, and M. R. Minor. 2004. Arthropods of the Washington, D.C., Area: A Searchable Online Database (AWDCAD). Website. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/barrowse/nps/ (10 August 2004)

Barrows, E. M., D. S. Kjar, C. R. Bird, B. Q. Chung, T. Q. Chung, and M. R. Minor. 2004. Arthropods of the Washington, D. C., Area, Emphasizing Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve and Rock Creek Park. Laboratory of Entomology and Biodiversity (LEB). Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. National Park Service Conference, Spotlight on Natural Resources, 24 March 2004, University of District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus.

To see reports of the other interns, please go to the homepage of this Website, enter “intern2004" into the box, and click.