Environmental and ecological research is academic work that leads to dirty hands. By nature, researchers have to spend time on the ground, in the weeds and sometimes in the mud.
To address environmental challenges in Alabama, the people working with the land need scientific knowledge tailored to the state’s unique geology and ecosystems. Solutions from prairie land may not help an Alabama community trying to keep a lake clean for swimming or struggling with wastewater disposal.
With a campus culture that fosters interdisciplinary research and partnerships with local businesses and communities, The University of Alabama is putting research to work for the benefit of Alabama’s people and the land itself.
Restoring a Natural Protector of Water and Wildlife
Community Oriented Nature-based Science for Ecosystem Restoration and Versatile Engineering at The University of Alabama is a locally focused research group focused on scaling and sharing solutions. Michael Fedoroff, executive director of CONSERVE, said he thinks of the group as glue that links together all of the conservation, ecosystem restoration and ecology work on campus.
“CONSERVE is a long acronym,” Fedoroff said, “But the most important word to remember is C for community.”
The working group evolved out of several faculty members looking for a way to apply their environmental research in Alabama communities. In CONSERVE, biologists, engineers, sociologists and anthropologists are talking to each other and finding the ways their work can serve Alabamians.
Recently, CONSERVE completed the largest native rivercane restoration project in the nation. In Alabama, rivercane grows in enormous swaths called cane brakes. Rivercane shelters wildlife, provides erosion control and filters pollutants. In fact, its hollow structure sips up water to create a cooler microclimate with enough cooling power to allow native black bears to hibernate among its stalks.
The rivercane project was accomplished in partnership with the local timber company Westervelt and has been so successful, the Fish and Wildlife Service has expressed interest in replicating CONSERVE’s approach. Because rivercane is so effective at trapping pollutants and sediment, it can be a valuable tool for sustainable forestry.
“This was a great example of applied research,” Federoff said. “Conservation and restoration coming together with science to drive the train.”
Solving a Rural Wastewater Problem
The Black Belt, Alabama red clay—Alabama soils are more famous than the average dirt. The University of Alabama partnered with two other state universities to solve a problem connected to a specific soil type in many parts of the state.
Towns like Newbern sit on soil that swells when it gets wet, turning the ground into an impermeable mass. Rural septic systems rely on dispersing liquid waste underground, and when that waste can’t go down and out, it either rises up to sit on the surface or backs up into the house.
“Everyone wants to flush and forget,” said Dr. Mark Elliott, a professor in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering and CONSERVE affiliate. “But for a lot of the people in this setting, when they flush into a septic system, it’s going to come back.”
Elliott is the UA lead in a statewide consortium pushing for community-based solutions to the wastewater problem in Alabama’s rural black belt. In 2024, the consortium unveiled a hybrid system called a decentralized clustered system that is an ideal solution for many Alabama communities.
In some ways, Elliott said, bringing together the diverse set of stakeholders needed to make the project a reality has been the biggest win. Black Belt residents who will finally have an effective solution for a smelly problem may disagree.
Understanding Alabama’s Ecology for Cleaner Water
About a half hour’s drive from The University of Alabama campus, Tanglewood Biological Station is an outdoor forest laboratory for UA faculty and students.
Dr. Nate Jones, an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, is one of the UA CONSERVE members who use the property as a living laboratory. West Alabama has a few unique features when it comes to rainwater runoff, he said. Chief among those is the way water runs off the clay-rich soils. In most forests, soils act like a sponge and absorb rainwater and slowly release it to streams. However, at Tanglewood, clay-rich soils act more like city streets and deliver rainwater directly to streams, much like runoff in an urban environment.
Understanding Alabama’s unique features can have tangible benefits for private landowners and companies managing the state’s large swaths of forest. Weyerhaeuser, another giant of the American forest industry, has worked closely with Jones’ group.
“Most research on wetland restoration has been done in agricultural landscapes,” Jones said. At Tanglewood, his lab studies nutrient cycling in riparian wetlands, particularly streamside management zones in forested areas. “As we are starting to manage our landscape in a more holistic way, understanding the role of these wetlands is important.”
In forests managed for sustainable timber production over time, maintaining water quality and ecosystems is an integral part of strategic planning. Jones’ work at Tanglewood helps inform the people at companies like Weyerhaeuser making large-scale decisions that affect streams, rivers and lakes across the state.
The Alabama Impact
The University of Alabama is driving growth, boosting innovation and supporting communities throughout the state of Alabama.