Congratulations to Mariam Adegoke, Taku ‘25, on presenting her student research at the Colby College Liberal Arts Symposium (CLAS)! CLAS is a full-day celebration of student scholarship where selected students are invited to share independent, class, and summer projects including posters, presentations, and digital media.
The research Mariam presented arose from the fieldwork she conducted during the Taku program in the summer of 2025. Hear from Mariam about the research she shared at the symposium:
“The project I presented focused on ecological succession along glacial moraines. Conducting research in the territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Taku, British Columbia, I worked with members of the Round River ’25 Taku team to study the recessional moraines surrounding Llewellyn Glacier and its proglacial lake. Ruby Borden contributed to the analysis and co-authored the resulting paper.
Llewellyn Glacier, the second largest glacier in the Juneau Icefield, is rapidly receding, which could significantly impact surrounding ecosystems by altering habitat quality and displacing wildlife within the region. As part of this preliminary study, we revisited four vegetation survey sites originally established in 2023 at increasing distances from the glacier. Using transects, we recorded vegetation, exposed till, and rock cover at each site to examine how ecological succession changes across the deglaciated landscape. Distance from the glacier served as a proxy for time since deglaciation, allowing us to compare different stages of succession.
While we expected to observe decreasing flora coverage and increasing till coverage closer to the glacier, our results did not show a clear pattern. As the project continues through future programs, we hope to identify long-term trends in vegetation establishment, soil development, species richness, and habitat formation within Llewellyn’s glacial forelands.”
