Chair and Professor of Biology Dr. Darlene Panvini and six senior biology majors are conducting research at the Belle Forest Cave Property in Bellevue this summer. Recently purchased by TennGreen, this four-acre wooded site contains a limestone cave, head water spring and several streams. TennGreen is a nonprofit committed to protecting Tennessee’s natural treasures by creating a network of parks, greenways and wildlife areas across Tennessee.
Student research projects include cataloging macroinvertebrate diversity in the stream, determining relationships between occurrence of earthworms, soil fauna and exotic plants and assessing decomposition rates of native and exotic leaves in the stream and terrestrial plots dominated by exotic and native plants.
