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FIU-UMEB STUDENTS SECOND GENERATION:
2001-2004
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Ana
Maria Castellanos Research: Brugmansia
suaveolens has been an important plant
in various cultures around the world, particularly to indigenous people in
South America and Central America. Shamans use beverage or unguents to
have visions, to heal the sick people in their village, for divination
purposes, to communicate with his ancestors, to produce the
feeling of levitation, etc. Each of the Indigenous groups studied
prepare the beverage or unguent of Brugmansia suaveolens in a
different way, some drink it with alcohol and others drink it in an infusion,
they also use different parts of the plants, such as the bark, leaves, roots
and seeds. My research is about the
tropane alkaloids extractions such as scopolamine, and atropine, which are
believed to have the properties to create this state in people. Brugmansia
suaveolens is found in Florida as an exotic species. The samples are
being picked up from different house back yards in Miami. The
extractions are being done using HPLC and the results will show how are the
tropane alkaloids distributed in the plant, what parts of the plant have a
stronger concentration of the tropane alkaloids, how are they distributed to
their different life stages. Young people in our community
are using it for entertainment purposes. In South American
countries is being used for criminal purposes. It is important to understand
the properties of the alkaloids in this plant and the consequences in humans
(behavior, intoxication, etc) since now our community is seeing this plant in
a different perspective than indigenous people. |
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Fabian
Collins Research: The research I am doing relates to a species of plant
known as Senna mexicana variety chapmanii. What we hope to
determine is whether this plant actually increases extrafloral nectary
secretion in response to herbivory. This will be tested using
artificial methods to represent herbivore activity and a retractor to measure
to amount of sugars produced. We are also quite interested in doing a
chromatogram of the nectary secretions to determine the exact nutritional
value of what is being secreted. This can give us a unique insight as
how this plant reacts to its environment and possible support the theory of
induced recruitment. |
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Andrew
Davis Research: Andrew Davis is currently working at the Fairchild Botanical Garden molecular laboratory performing philogenetic analysis of two populations of the palm Coccothrinax argentata. Different populations of this palm in Northern and Southern Florida were observed to differ significantly in height. Individuals from each population were grown in a common garden experiment to determine if the structural differences observed in the field are due to genetic or environmental differences. Andrew works under the mentorship of Dr Javier Francisco-Ortega and under the supervision of Dr Carl Lewis. He is conducting DNA extractions and experimenting with different PCR techniques in search for the best method to conduct a philogenetic analysis of the two populations. Results from this work are expected to corroborate findings in the common garden experiment. Andrew is also assisting with research on the endangered species Coccothrinax crinita, endemic to Cuba. |
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Elaine
Fontes Research: Rainforests- the
ultimate refuge for a great diversity of species are very sensitive tropical
ecosystems. They are the habitat for several endemic and endangered species,
which suffer considerably from the damage inflicted on their environment. The
survival of this fragile ecosystem is however not appreciated worldwide,
notwithstanding animals and plants are constantly threatened by anthropogenic
activities. Fossil fuels, deforestation and greenhouse gases are among the
major events that lead to global climate change, which is a primary
environmental concern as a major factor affecting tropical plants physiology.
It seems that temperature changes will play a major role in tropical flora
growth. It is the goal of this research to predict what will happen to
tropical trees under steadily increasing global temperature rates by
monitoring photosynthesis, respiration, fluorescence and carbon exchanges in
different plant species. |
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Alex
Padron |
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Maria
Camila Pinzon Research: The purpose of this research was to determine how plant growth
responds to hydrologic periods and how climate has changed in Southern Florida
during the last 60 years. The Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum,
in Everglades National Park was the species selected for study because of the
presence of annual rings (allowing for dating). By measuring carbon
isotopes from Cypress tree-ring cellulose, the investigation reached the
purposes indicated previously. |
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Angelikie
Zafiris Research interests: The
coastal wetland communities of South Florida have been cut off from
freshwater sheet flow for decades and are contracting and migrating landward
due to salt-water encroachment.
I conducted a paleoecological study to determine the effect of
salt-water encroachment on the location of boundaries between fresh- and
salt-water ecotones in the southeastern saline Everglades. Wetland soils were cored to bedrock
at 8 locations in two transects perpendicular to the coast. Transitions from basal marl soils to
peat were evident throughout the transect, with a deepening of the peat layer
toward the coast indicating increased production and interior extent of the
fringing mangrove forest. Mollusks were abundant throughout the cores and 21
of the most abundant taxa served as useful paleoecological indicators. Modern distributions among 86 sites
in the same wetland were used to determine local habitat affinities, which
were then applied to infer past settings from the sequence of sedimented
mollusks. Sites located between
the drainage canal and the coast showed significant upcore increases in the
ratio of marine to freshwater taxa, while sites to the interior of the canal
show the opposite trend.
Terrestrial taxa have also increased in the interior sites, indicating
a transition from shallow gramminoid marsh to the current shrub/forest
community. Together with
historic accounts and aerial photograph archives, the paleoecological data
are showing an interior migration of the fringing mangrove ecotone within the
past 60 years, replacement of a mixed gramminoid-mangrove zone by a dense
monoculture of dwarf mangroves, and a confinement of the freshwater
gramminoid marsh to landward areas between urban developments and drainage
canals. |
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Jonathan
Arciniegas Research interests The wetlands have always been a fascinating
ecosystem that has always caught my attention. It is the bridge point
between the aquatics and terrestrial ecosystems. For this reason, I am
very proud to be working with Dan Childers in the South Florida
Everglades. My work will mostly revolve around what will happen to a
ridge and slough habitat when you increase the water flow. We will attempt to
quantify how an increase current will influence the flocculent material
(floc) that floats at the surface of the soil line. The main interest
here is to see the amount transported with the increased flow, and the amount
that would collect if no increase current was present. After
collected, I run some test on CN (carbon and nitrogen) and TP (total
phosphorus), for example. The reason that we want to know more about floc is
because the Everglades Restoration Act wants to increase the current in the
everglades which is why our curiosity leads us to see how this suspended
sediment will react. |
FIU-UMEB STUDENTS FIRST GENERATION:
2000-2003
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Karina
Becerra |
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Alison
Brovold |
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Barbie
Freeman |
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Paige
Griffis |
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Stephen
Hodges |
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Susan
Schultz |
