By: Carlyn Scott, Science Communications Manager
The USF College of Marine Science (CMS) hosted its 41st annual Graduate Student Symposium (GSS) on Friday, January 31. GSS is an opportunity for CMS students to present their research to the community via oral or poster presentations.
Patrick Schwing, an alum of CMS and assistant professor of marine science at Eckerd College, started off the symposium with his research on the potential impact of deep-sea mineral mining and the need to determine baseline evaluations of minerals and the seafloor.
The student presentations covered the breadth of biological, geological, chemical, and physical oceanography research that takes place at CMS, including water quality responses to Hurricane Milton and ice retreat in the West Antarctic Peninsula.
“The research presented at the Graduate Student Symposium helps to answer critical questions and inform a better understanding of our ocean,” said Tom Frazer, professor and dean of CMS. “The caliber of these presentations is a testament to the talents of our students and the high level of research that we conduct at the College of Marine Science.”
Oral presentations
- Lydia Ruggles: “Identifying B-Vitamin Requirements and Phycosphere Interactions for the HAB Forming Dinoflagellate, Pyrodinium bahamense var. bahmense”
- Bella Iannotta: “Spatiotemporal Characterization of Sedimentary Phytopigments in the Southeastern Clarion Clipperton Zone: Establishing Baselines and Assessing Deep-Sea Mining Impacts”
- Orion Scharton: “Development of the East Florida Coastal Ocean Model (EFCOM)
- Bradley Nemeth: “Characterization of Trace Metals Via Optical Proxies”
- Luis Sorinas: “Heat Flux Exchange on the West Florida Continental Shelf on the Synoptic Time Scale. A Case Study from Tropical Cyclonic and Cold Front Events”
- Emma Graves: “Examining Phytoplankton Community Composition Through the Lens of Physical and Chemical Gradients in the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean”
- Haibo Xu: “Storm Surge and Coastal Inundation Nowcasts/Forecasts During the Hurricanes Helene and Milton”
- Felipie Stanchak: “Testing the Alkenone Unsaturation Index Proxy for Paleotemperature Reconstructions in the SW Atlantic”
- Beatriz Alejandra Aguilar: “The Root of the (Organic) Matter: Mangrove Formation of Belowground Biomass”
- Lyka Confesor: “Seasonal Trichodesmium Clade Patterns on the Oligotrophic West Florida Shelf”
- Madjid Hadjal: “Those Floating Materials in the Northern Adriatic Sea: Observations from Satellites”
- Keyu Mao: “Brine Shrimp Cysts in the West Aral Sea from Satellite Observations”
- Sebin John: “A Coupled Physical-Biological Model of Karenia brevis on the West Florida Shelf: An Application to the 2018 Bloom Event”
Poster Presentations
- Dylan Halbeisen: “Physical and Biogeochemical Controls on the Distribution of Dissolved Nickel and its Isotopes in the Denmark Strait (GEOTRACES GApr16)”
- Emily Kaiser: “Warm Ocean Temperatures along the West Antarctic Peninsula Drove Regional Ice Retreat During the Last Deglaciation”
- Christa Baranowski: “Using rDNA Sequencing to Identify Changes in Phytoplankton Community Composition and Diversity in Response to the Piney Point (Tampa Bay, Florida) Emergency Wastewater Discharge in 2021”
- Karsen Henwood: “Zooplankton in the Cariaco Basin”
- Bostony Braoudakis: “Oxygen Supply Capacities of Pacific Benthic Fish Species, Blackeye Gobies (Rhinogobiops nicholsii) and bluebanded gobies (Lythrypnus dallli), Increase at Higher Temperatures”
- Samantha D’Angelo: “Water Quality Response to Hurricane Debby as Measured by the Tampa Bay Observing Network (TBON)”
- Arianna (Nina) Rodriguez: “Evaluating Fish Egg Community Composition with Respect to Depth on the West Florida Shelf”
- Siria Munoz Navarro: “Coastal Water Level Variability along the Gulf of Mexico and the West Atlantic Coast”
- Kennedy Quillen: “Revealing Hidden Patterns: A Cross-Ecosystem Synthesis of Crypsis Ecology”
- Angelique Rosa Marin and Natalia Lopez-Figueroa: “Linking Cassiopea Blooms to Foraminiferal Assemblages: Identifying Effective Bioindicators for Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Puerto Rico”
- Madeline Lile-Delfino: “Let There Be Light: Using Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation Techniques to Produce Bioluminescence in Plants”