Students
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Research Thesis Students
Kayleigh Kearnan
Large dams often employ fish elevators instead of ladders to try and induce migratory fish to pass them. For her Master’s thesis Kayleigh Kearnan took a close look at how often fish elevators were not functional during the migratory season and, the many reasons for why they weren’t working.
Nickolas Dubin
Nicholas Dubin is currently working on a study of the present-day distribution and status of a small northeastern minnow, the bridle shiner. The bridle shiner is listed as imperiled (S2) or possibly extinct (SH) in 6 of the 15 states that comprise its historic range. For this assessment he will be employing both eDNA sampling and standard fisheries techniques.
George Jackman
George completed his Ph.D. on the stock structure of winter flounder, using the elemental composition of otoliths. His sites include New York Harbor, Long Island Sound, and Georges Bank. Otolith expert Karin Limburg of SUNY-ESF is served as a co-advisor. Although George is a former New York City police detective, the 'hot' gun was found by accident in 2012 during an eel survey on the bottom of the Bronx River. George is currently Habitat Restoration Director for Hudson Riverkeeper.
Ivana Roman
Ivana was an undergraduate student from Serbia who accompanied me to Mongolia in 2011. In the photo she is seining for loach and other small fishes to analyze in her study of the recolonization of giant but depauperate Lake Hovsgol following deglaciation. By comparing DNA (using coalescent analysis) from specimens from the lake and from the Pleistocene refugium of its outflowing Uur River, we estimated a range of times and evidence of a second refugium.
Katie Sheridan
Katie researched a Masters degree from afar, in New Zealand working on the critically endangered teal-duck species called Pateke. Her research emphasized microgeographic distributions and habitat use within the Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary.
Jonelle Orridge
In puddles on the dirt roads of the Hackensack Meadowlands and elsewhere in the northeast lives a truly odd invertebrate, the clam shrimp. Jonelle Orridge contributed to our scant understanding of this crustacean with her 2011 Ph.D. dissertation titled Genetic, Morphological and Ecological Relationships Among Populations of the Clam Shrimp, Caenestheriella gynecia.
Tiffany Medley
With all the interest in restoration of oysters in New York Harbor using cultured stock, little attention has been paid to its wild population. Tiffany completed her Ph.D. in 2010, titled Wild Oysters Crassostrea virginica, in the Hudson River Estuary: Growth, Health, and Population Structure. Tiffany currently holds a position as a lecturer at Monmouth State College in New Jersey.
Susan Stanley
Vernal pools--only seasonally inhabitable by aquatic creatures--have unique ecologies. Susan Stanley studied a set of vernal pools in New York City and reference pools in non-urban areas for a Masters thesis completed in 2012, titled Vernal Pools in an Urban Landscape in New York City. Susan works for the Natural Resources Group of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Michael Bednarksi
The phenomenon of striped bass wintering in non-natal estuaries has been little studied. Mike examined the movements of stripers during the cold months in the Thames River in Connecticut, a well-known and heavily fished seasonal aggregation with his 2007 Masters thesis,Overwintering Biology of Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) in the Thames River Estuary, Connecticut. Mike subsequently completed a Ph.D. on sturgeon at the University of Georgia and now works as Virginia Chief of Fisheries.
