GCA Coastal Wetlands Scholarship Award Recipients
Award Recipients in 2024
Bethany Lee
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Florida
Study Title: Developing seed addition strategies to enhance resilience of a restored salt marsh
Study Summary: Coastal marsh restoration projects need to anticipate sea level rise and increased drought risk as a result of climate change. This restoration project has had no success of revegetation after restoring a sunken salt marsh platform high enough to anticipate sea level rise for 50 years. I am studying methods for making seed addition strategies a possibility for this high marsh in a drought-prone region that has had little-to-no success with revegetation for the past 5 years. (Project)
Karis Kang
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Rhode Island
Study Title: Local adaptation in a changing world: Characterizing ecotype among New England populations of saltmarsh grasses
Study Summary: New England saltmarshes are threatened by sea-level rise and human development. While a saltmarsh grass species may have a wide geographic range, previous research has indicated that they can form ecotypes, where a suite of local adaptations makes populations uniquely suited to the area they are found in. This study seeks to characterize saltmarsh ecotypes using genetic methods and garden studies in order to inform coastal management, habitat prioritization, and the study of native species. (Project)
Olivia Lemiuex
Master's Candidate, University of Connecticut
Study Title: Assessing the effects of altered salinity and inundation regimes on salt marsh organic matter stability - a litter quality and decomposition study
Study Summary: To determine potential effects of sea level rise (SLR)- associated salinity and tidal inundation period changes on salt marsh organic matter stabilization and associated elevational maintenance and carbon storage service provisioning, I will conduct growth chamber and field-based litter quality and decomposition studies in which salinity and tidal period are experimentally manipulated. Data will be analyzed using ANOVA methods to improve projections of marsh loss and carbon storage. (Project)
Lily Olmo
Master's Candidate, California Polytechnic State University of Humboldt
Study Title: Assessing fish community structure in artificial wetland ponds
Study Summary: Can artificial wetlands serve a role as habitat for native fish? This study will assess the health of fish communities in human-made wetland ponds connected to Humboldt Bay by collecting data on fish, artificial pond designs, and environmental conditions. (Project)
Lauren DeVito
Ph.D. Candidate, Florida International University
Study Title: Wetland peat collapse impacts carbon fluxes in Everglades National Park
Study Summary: Robust carbon stocks preserved in plants and soil are integral to maintaining the integrity, habitat, and climate mitigating functions of wetlands. Using a field-based approach, this project will investigate how the phenomenon of wetland peat collapse, stimulated by sea level rise, has impacted aquatic carbon losses in marsh ecosystems. Quantifying these losses is essential to understanding, managing, and restoring the balance of carbon in the Everglades marsh ecosystem. (Project)