Dr. T. eRIN COX
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Erin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UNO. She received her Masters from California State University, Fullerton and a PhD from the Department of Botany and Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Program at the University of Hawaii. Erin did her post-doctoral study at the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, France where she was an integral part of an international project called eFOCE: European Free Ocean Carbon Dioxide Enrichment. She also did a post-doctoral study at Dauphin Island Sea Lab (Alabama). Her past studies and interests are varied and include examinations of kelp forest herbivory, ecology on rocky shores, production on artificial reefs, and ocean acidification on seagrass beds in Mediterranean Sea, Baltic Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
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EMILY LEONARD
Emily is a MS student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the UNO. She received her BS degree from Roger Williams University in 2023. She is an avid scuba diver and has been a research assistant on a variety of projects, such as examining effects of global ocean change on multi-generations of coral and surveying rocky intertidal zones in Bermuda. She also assisted in studying lobster movement in northeastern US. Her research at UNO will build on Anastasia Konefal's research findings and focus on assessing the role of seagrass genetic variation in conferring resilience to abiotic stressors. This study is part of a Florida, state wide initiative to increase seagrass production and is done in collaboration with FL DEP, UF, and Mote Marine Lab.
[email protected]
BLAINE SAVOIE
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Blaine is a MS student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the UNO, where he also received his BS degree. He gained experience with husbandry and a love for animals while working with birds and tortoises, and other wildlife, at Audubon Zoo. His research focuses on trace elements in fish tissues and the microchemistry of otoliths (ear stones). The goal of his study is to understand the incorporation of heavy metal pollutants by fishes found at shallow-water artificial reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico. This is a collaborative project where he is working closely with Drs. Cox, Boyle, and Zito at UNO. [email protected]
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AMANDA KIRKLAND
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Amanda is currently a Ph.D. student in the Integrative Biology Program at UNO. She received a B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison in conservation biology as well as a minor in environmental studies in spring of 2016. Since graduating, she has mainly been studying the effects of ocean acidification on coral persistence. She is pursuing research on artificial reefs off the coast of Alabama. Currently, she is a Knauss fellow (first selected from UNO) placed with NOAA Marine Sanctuary Program in Washington, DC.
Contact Info: [email protected] Website: https://iartreefs.wixsite.com/home |
collaborators
Dr. ESRA ozturk-YIGIT
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Esra from Ege University (Turkey) spent a year in the Coastal Benthic Ecology Lab where she studied gene and protein expression in seagrasses.
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GRADUATES
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Anastasia Konefal graduated with her Ph.D. in the Integrative Biology Program at UNO in fall 2024. She is currently a National Academy of Sciences's Gulf Research Policy Fellow placed with the NOAA RESTORE Science Program.
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Katie Wyssmann graduated with her MS degree in 2023. She studied epiphyte diversity in the northern Gulf of Mexico using a DNA metabarcoding approach. She currently works as an educator at Jean Lafitte National Park.
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