FIU awards $60,000 for student research in the Everglades


Eight FIU graduate students were awarded the 2011-12 Cristina Menendez Fellowship by the Southeast Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians to support their ongoing research in the Everglades.

Mehroonsh Mahmoudi is one of eight FIU students to receive a Cristina Menendez Fellowship this year.

The grants, worth $7,500 each, were given to students in the Biological SciencesEarth and Environment and Chemistry and Biochemistry departments in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“The fellowship is a great resource for students because it provides funds for field research activities and equipment they otherwise might not have access to,” said Joseph N. Boyer, director of SERC.

An evaluation committee made up of four faculty members from different academic departments judged the proposed topics submitted by applicants. The projects were selected based on scientific interest and value to furthering the understanding of the Everglades ecosystem.

“Environmental research itself is interdisciplinary, so we wanted the evaluation committee and the awarded students to reflect this diversity too,” Boyer said.

This year’s Cristina Menendez Fellowship awardees and their research projects are:

  • Ross Boucek — Integration of mesoconsumers into estuarine movement and trophic dynamics
  • Mike Bush — Fish responses to flow and canal modification in the DECOMP physical model
  • David Gandy — Using StationaryReceivers as a Long Term Approach to Monitor Fish Movements across Canals Bordering Everglades National Park
  • Ding He — Application of Compound Specific D/H Isotope Analysis in the Assessment of Paleo-hydrology of the Everglades Ecosystem
  • Mehroonsh Mahmoudi — Numerical modeling of the effects of hydrologic conditions and sediment transport on geomorphic patterns in wetlands
  • Phil Matich — Intraspecific variability in the roles of juvenile bull sharks in a subtropical estuary
  • Emily Nodine — Diatoms of Charlotte Harbor, Florida, USA: Preliminary Findings from Analysis of a Sediment Core Spanning 8,000 Years
  • Chao Ya — Sources, Fate and Transformation of Dissolved Organic Matter in Florida Bay

“Typically, we’ve given the grant to one or two students per academic year and there have been some years where we have taken a hiatus from awarding those endowments,” Boyer said. “However, this year we were able to come up with the funds to award eight students. This time around, the research proposals were stronger and merited the fellowship.”

The fellowship was created as a collaboration between SERC and the Miccosukee Tribe to foster ecological research after Cristina Menendez, FIU biological sciences alumna and field technician, died from heat exhaustion while collecting water samples in the Everglades in 1998.

The recipients will present a seminar to the SERC Student Group and submit a research report by the end of the semester. SERC is made up of multi-disciplinary faculty, students, research associates and technicians who work collaboratively on environmental research for at-risk environments in South Florida. It has developed programs in Biscayne National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Bay and the Florida Keys.

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