October 2006

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINARS

Boudanath Maharajh (Major Advisor: Suzanne Koptur) will defend his thesis entitled “Foraging movement and caste distribution of the drywood termite, Incisitermes snyderi (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae)” on 25 October 2006 at 12:00 pm in WC 130.

Michael Cheek (Major Advisor: Tom Philippi) will defend his thesis entitled “Wading bird foraging ecology in a disturbed mangrove estuary in northwest Ecuador: Natural mangrove mudflats vs. commercial shrimp ponds” on 27 October 2006 at 10:00 am in WC 130.

GRANTS & AWARDS

Marbelys Rodriguez (Major Advisor: Leung Kim) was awarded an MBRS RISE fellowship beginning January 2007. Congratulations Marbelys!

Samantha Whitcraft (Major Advisor: Chris Brown) was awarded a $3000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service Education Council to support a public outreach initiative entitled “Love your Reefs? -- Know your Mangroves!” Congratulations Sam!

Melissa Doud (Major Advisor: Kalai Mathee) received an award for the Best Graduate Student Presentation during the MBRS RISE mini-symposium. Congratulations Melissa!

PRESENTATIONS AT SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

Robin Currey (Major Advisor: David Lee) was invited and sponsored by Mercy Corps Kyrgyzstan to present at Mercy Corps International's Forth Credit Implementers Workshop, September 25-29, in Issyk-kul, Kyrgyzstan. Robin gave a talk entitled “The Apple Project” which is a community development and technical assistance project that has been based on Robin's research findings concerning the ecological consequences of fruit tree management practices in the Kyrgyz Republic.

• Several of our students presented papers during the FIU MBRS RISE Mini-Symposium held on the FIU campus on 4 October 2006 as follows:

Lydia Aybar (Major Advisor: Sylvia Smith) presented a paper entitled “Cloning, sequence analysis, hydrophobicity profile, and tissue expression of the gene encoding shark putative C8 alpha chain.”

Anna Goldina (Major Advisor: Philip Stoddard) presented a paper entitled “Signal plasticity is not a ubiquitous trait of bymnotiform electric fish.”

Matt Graham (Major Advisor: Sylvia Smith) presented a paper “Analysis of a C5-like cDNA sequence from the Nurse Shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum.”

Melissa Doud (Major Advisor: Kalai Mathee) presented a paper entitled “Molecular-based diagnostic of cystic fibrosis lung infection using amplicon length heterogeneity-polymerase chain reaction (ALH-PCR).”

Janna Rose (Major Advisor: Brad Bennett) presented a paper entitled “Methods for finding an herbal anti-diarrheal treatment.”

James Valdes (Major Advisor: Ophelia Weeks) presented a paper entitled “Lithium may alter mRNA expression of NMDA receptor subunit NR1 in estrogen-treated brain cell cultures - preliminary results.”

Several of our students gave presentations during the 2006 CETroB (Coalition of Excellence in Tropical Biology Meeting) held on the FIU campus on 28 October 2006:

• Alessandro Catenazzi (Major Advisor: Maureen Donnelly) presented a paper entitled “A pinniped-supported food web in a coastal desert.”

• Paulo Olivas (Major Advisor: Steve Oberbauer) presented a paper entitled “Effects of environmental and neighborhood factor on tree fern distributions in a tropical rain forest.”

• Chad Husby (Major Advisor: Steve Oberbauer) presented a paper entitled “Salinity tolerance ecophysiology of the Giant Horsetail, Equisestum giganteum in the Atacama Desert, Chile.”

• Rudolf von May (Major Advisor: Maureen Donnelly) presented a paper entitled “Habitat use and reproduction of a Ranitomeya poison frog in Peru.”

• Daniel Gomez (Major Advisor: Steve Oberbauer) presented a poster entitled “Structure and function in tree islands of the Everglades.”

Paulo Olivas was a co-author on a paper presented by Steve Oberbauer entitled “Photosynthetic capacity of plant functional groups across the canopy gradient in old-growth wet forest in Costa Rica.”

Steven Whitfield was a co-author on a paper presented by Maureen Donnelly entitled “Faunal declines across 35 years at La Selva, Costa Rica: More trouble in paradise?”

CLUB ACTIVITIES

The Comparative Immunology Club held a meeting on 3 October 2006. The members discussed toll-like receptors and their role in immune response.

The MCB Club hosted Dr. Kathryn Tosney’s seminar on 4 October 2006. Dr. Tosney is the chair of Biology at the University of Miami. In addition to the seminar, club members hosted a post-seminar reception.

The Comparative Immunology Club met on 12 October 2006. The club hosted our seminar speaker Mya Breitbart who talked about the interactions between corals and bacteria.

The Comparative Immunology Club met on 17 October 2006. Club members held a discussion on a review of General Immunology led by Nichole Hinds and Liza Merly.

The Comparative Immunology Club met on 24 October 2006. Club members continued their discussion of a General Immunology review that was led by Nichole Hinds and Liza Merly.

The Comparative Immunology Club hosted a Halloween Gradskellar on 25 October 2006.

The MCB Club and the LTER students hosted a Halloween movie night and pumpkin-carving party on 27 October 2006 in the Ecotank.

PUBLICATIONS

Alessandro Catenazzi (Major Advisor: Maureen Donnelly) recently had one of his dissertations chapters published online in Oikos: Catenazzi, A. and M.A. Donnelly. 2006. The Ulva connection: marine algae subsidize terrestrial predators in coastal Peru. Congratulations Ale!

FORMER STUDENTS

Shawn Liston (Major Advisor: Joel Trexler) is currently a Senior Biologist with Audubon of Florida (Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary). Shawn is the project Coordinator for a joint CERP-MAP/USGS-PES project focusing on fishes in forested wetlands. I am leading the portion of the project in cypress forests of Big Cypress National Preserve (determining appropriate sampling methods and collecting baseline (pre-CERP) fish and macroinvertebrate data).

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