debor042

This post was written by Nick Schulte, a Master's student in Evelyn Gaiser's lab at Florida International University.  So where would you go to study how Everglades algae respond to increased nutrients from sea level rise? The Florida Everglades, right? That’s what I thought. But I went to Iowa. Iowa Lakeside Laboratory , more specifically, on the shores of Lake Oko boji (yes, I still confuse it with that big lake in the northern ‘Glades). A bit clearer but still unhelpful? This summer I attended two courses at Lakeside: Ecology and Systematics of Diatoms and Ecology and Systematics of Freshwater Algae. In that order – specific to general, that’s how it’s normally done, right? Start looking at the fineries of a specific group of algae (“the algae that live in glass houses”, or diatoms) and then see how they fit into the bigger picture of general phycology (“phykos” for “seaweed”). It actually makes a lot sense, especially when my research pays particular attention to the cha...

Flying over the Colombian Andes from Medellin to Nuqui in a small, 20 passenger propeller plane, five scientists peer out the window to look at the  bosque  (Spanish word for forest) covering the mountains below for as far as they could see. I was one of those scientists. Dotted throughout the forest, I can see indigenous communities thriving in small clearings with smoke billowing from small fire pits. Then, out of nowhere, the mountains drop off, the Pacific Ocean appears, and the plane banks hard to starboard. Finally! My first glimpse and the reason why I was making a trip out to Pacific coast of Colombia: mangroves. My first trip to Colombia and I get to see some of the most pristine mangroves in the world. Why am I so excited about mangroves? There is something about the smell of the swamp, the harsh conditions, the incredible resilience of the trees, and the complex hydrology that draws me in. Mangrove is the general term used for a group of salt-tolerant tropical hardw...

This post was written by first-time blogger, grad student Edward Linden, of Dr. Rene Price's of hydrology at FIU ( http://www2.fiu.edu/~pricer/ ). ____________________________________________________________________________           Less than a year ago, all that I knew about Everglades was its general location in Florida and the presence of alligators. Through numerous scientific talks given at FIU, my classes, and my research, I have gained a great deal of knowledge about the history of the Everglades as it relates to my field of study. The Saturday that I spent in Gainesville at UF opened my eyes to an entirely new aspect of the Everglades that I had not previously considered; the political side.           I was well aware of the detrimental anthropogenic influences that the region has experienced, so I knew that humans were intimately involved with the changes that have occurred over the pas...

This blog has been brought to you by Ian Jones, FIU grad student in the Koptur lab ( http://www2.fiu.edu/~kopturs/ ). __________________________________________________________________________ Toni the bee….. with a crippling pollen dependency       In the summer of 2013 I took over as the head TA for the QBIC program at FIU. The program runs alongside the general Biology program but maintains small class sizes, and delivers an integrated curriculum which encourages student to think critically about biological concepts. On the first day of our summer semester I surveyed the new freshman cohort to find out where their scientific interest lay. Unsurprisingly, nearly 100% of the students planned to pursue a medical career, and many already had specializations in mind. It’s very easy to question this level of career certainty in people so young, but it’s also impossible not to be impressed by their drive and ambition. I’m not one to bemoan the dominance of the med...

The following link is to an article written by Jessica Lee, FIU graduate student in Dr. Jennifer Rehage's aquatic biology lab ( http://www2.fiu.edu/~rehagej/index.html ). __________________________________________________________________________      In February I had an opportunity to fish with my favorite group of anglers from the Keys. For the past 30 years this group of fishermen has faithfully made it every month to the backcountry to fish. They were the inspiration for the Coastal Angler Science Team (CAST), the “original-members” before CAST officially came to be.  For the past two years they have been regularly scanning their catches for “recaptures” (previous fish we tagged with internal microchips, “PIT-tags”).  This group alone has caught over 30 recaptures, about half of the current CAST totals. To read more, please go to http://cast.fiu.edu/index.php/my-recapture-story-for-the-everglades/ .