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Graduate Student Seminar Competition |
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Susanne Hoeppner and Jennifer Spicer are the winners of
SC&E’s first graduate student seminar competition,
held on April 22 in the Energy, Coast & Environment
Building Rotunda Auditorium. Judges chose their presentations
as the best from a field of 14 given by graduate students
from SC&E’s Department of Oceanography & Coastal
Sciences (DOCS) and Department of Environmental Sciences
(ENVS). Both Hoeppner and Spicer won $1,000 toward travel
to present a talk at a scientific meeting of their choice.
“I think everyone who participated in the symposium
thought it was a great success,” said SC&E Dean
Ed Laws. “Especially considering that this was the
first time many of the students had been confronted with
the task of giving a coherent ten-minute talk, the quality
of the presentations was excellent. This is something we
will definitely plan on making an annual event.”
Hoeppner’s talk was titled “Of Droughts and
Hurricanes—a Five–Year Study of the Degraded
Cypress–Tupelo Swamps in the Lake Maurepas Wetlands,
Louisiana.” Spicer presented “Location, Locations,
Location: Ecogeomorphology of a Modified Tidal Marsh System.”
Abstracts of both talks are presented below. The other graduate
student seminar competitors were:
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Melissa M. Baustian, DOCS—“Prey Availability for
Demersal Predators in a Seasonally Hypoxic Area in the Northern
Gulf of Mexico.”
Hongsheng Bi, DOCS—“Estimating Secondary Production
of the Calanoid Copepod Clausocalanus furcatus in the Northern
Gulf of Mexico.”
Mikeal Blackford, ENVS—“Perceptions and Problems
in Malthusian Literature.”
Christopher G. Brantley, DOCS—“Integration of
National Carbon and Wetland Policies.”
Kate Carpenter, DOCS—“Effects of Adding Sediment
to a Freshwater Thin-mat Floating Marsh.”
Harold Daigle, ENVS—“Increased Mutation Frequencies
Caused by Ethylene Dichloride.”
Shadia Duery, ENVS—“Forest Products Certification
as a Market Advantage.”
S. Camille Manning, ENVS—“Risk Perceptions of
a Coastal Community in South Louisiana.”
Zahid Muhammad, DOCS—“Sediment Flux to the Gulf
of Papua Continental Shelf and Slope, Northeastern Australia,
Using 210PB and 230TH Radiochemistry” (co-author Associate
Professor Samuel J. Bentley).
S. K. Neylon, DOCS—“Laboratory Microcosm Measurements
of Sediment Bioturbation by Ophiuroids via Time-Series Digital
X-Radiography” (co-author Associate Professor Samuel
J. Bentley).
Stephanie Pedro, ENVS—“A Statistical Analysis
of Flood Depth to Socioeconomic Indicators for Vulnerable
Populations in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.”
M. Tan, ENVS—“Mercury Levels in Fish in Lake Pontchartrain”
(coauthors A. Hou and R. DeLaune of ENVS and M. O’Connell
of the University of New Orleans).
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Judges for the event included DOCS faculty John White and
Nan Walker, ENVS faculty Stephanie Moret and Michael Wascom,
and DOCS senior Ph.D. student Cheryl Murphy. DOCS assistant
professor Jaye Cable and MER student seminar representative
Kristina Rotondo organized the event. SC&E funded the
travel awards.
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"The
Shell Coastal Environmental Modeling Laboratory represents
the type of partnership. . . necessary to truly realize ecosystem
restoration goals."
Robert
Twilley, Director
Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute |
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