Hope Klug takes students from across her courses to the Tennessee Aquarium. In addition to her research on the Tangerine Darter, Klug and her students have studied lemur behavior. Photo by Angela Foster.
Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga extends from campus laboratories into the Chattanooga community.
For Dr. Hope Klug, UC Foundation and Guerry Professor in the UTC Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, her research has cultivated a 14-year relationship with the Tennessee Aquarium. The partnership not only advances her research and provides the aquarium with knowledge but also serves as a teaching tool for her students.
Recently, Klug and 11 of her graduate students published a research article titled “Fish Space Use and Behavior in an Aquarium: The Use of Microhabitats as Enrichment” in Zoo Biology—a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
“The idea behind this is that if you enrich the environment, they’ll behave more naturally and have better welfare,” Klug said. “As you would imagine, some animals receive a lot more attention in terms of enrichment. The very charismatic large mammals tend to get a lot of enrichment activities, and there’s been a lot of research on effective enrichment on those animals, particularly mammals, but some with birds.
“With fish, there’s a lack of research on enrichment practices. All of our zoos and aquariums—and especially the Tennessee Aquarium, which is a really excellent aquarium—implement enrichment practices for all of their animals, including the fish.”
Klug and her students studied the behavior of the tangerine darter, a native fish of the Tennessee River, after introducing a plunge pool, riffle and run microhabitats. She explained that with the introduction of the run and riffle, the fish exhibited more natural behaviors.
“We saw darters just kind of hang behind rocks and then dart from rock to rock,” she said. “We saw a lot of that and also didn’t see any aggression or potentially maladaptive behaviors, which is really great in a human setting.”
Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School Ethan Carver praised the longstanding partnership between UTC and the aquarium.
“The aquarium’s been such an educational base for K-12, but we take students over there,” Carver said. “There are classes that are taught where students go to the aquarium and do assignments. They’re not only integrated, but they’re also actually imperative in our mission.”
Since its opening in 1992, the Tennessee Aquarium has been an important research partner for UTC.
He added that community partners like the Tennessee Aquarium show students that what they are learning “is not just a book.” Research projects like the one Klug and her students participated in show viable career paths and can deepen their interest in the subject.
Klug highlighted the convenience of having the aquarium so close to campus, making it easier to conduct research by using the prebuilt habitats.
“It’s been super fun for me because it’s allowed me to take my research in this slightly different direction and has a more applied aspect, which has been great,” she said. “Involving students in that research, a lot of our students grew up going to the aquarium or have at least been to the aquarium.
“Being able to involve them in research that involves this facility that they’re familiar with and allows them to address these questions that are related to important animal welfare has also been really nice.”
Carver said involving students in research is a priority at UTC, and it often begins at the undergraduate level. He called undergraduate research the “foundation,” allowing students to hit the ground running in their postgraduate studies.
“Here you can do research with a professor as an undergrad,” Carver said. “I’ve taken students who were freshmen, sophomores, and worked with them for two to three years through their undergrad. They’re now dentists, PAs and Ph.D.s. Having that solid focus on research allows us to take a student and give them an experience that they don’t get at a lot of big R1 universities.”
Klug has conducted research with undergraduate and graduate students. The research for the Zoo Biology article included students from the master’s program in environmental science and the graduate certificate in environmental science.
With the master’s program being a more comprehensive option, Klug said the certificate program offers opportunities for collaboration with other disciplines across campus.
She explained that publication experience can significantly strengthen students’ resumes and graduate school applications.
“For those students, if they want to go on to get jobs immediately, having that actual publication that’s out and published will be great and help them get jobs,” Klug said. “For our master’s students who want to go on to get their Ph.D., it’s almost an expectation that you’re going to have at least one publication.
“This can also give them a foot in the door with Ph.D. programs. It’s a big deal and exciting.”
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