Education:

• BS, West Chester University
• MS, College of New Jersey
• PhD, Drexel University

Research Interests:

My research focuses on community ecology (New Jersey Pine Barrens), conservation biology, natural resource management, and restoration ecology.

Bio:

Walter F. Bien, PhD is research professor and Director of the Laboratory of Pinelands Research.  He is Principal Investigator at the Warren Grove Gunnery Range (WGR), Burlington County, New Jersey where his research focuses on the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the Pine Barrens ecosystem. Current research projects at WGR include rare plant community analysis, fire management assessment,  fire effects on disturbance-dependent species, spatial ecology of the northern pine snake, lepidoptera community analysis, seed banking and dispersal mechanisms in Rhynchospora knieskernii,  pollination ecology in Gentiana autumnalis.

Bien received the 2006 Environmental Excellence Award from the United States Air Force Air National Guard for research at Warren Grove Range. His research has been highlighted on New Jersey News Science Edition, New Jersey NPR: Sounds of Science, and in People of the Pines (2007) by Plexus Press. He has collaborated with researchers from Rutgers University, Columbia University, Montclair University, Ramapo College, William Patterson, USDA, New Jersey Pinelands Commission, and New Jersey DEP on Pinelands issues. Bien is a member of numerous professional organizations and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in marine field methods, tropical ecology, terrestrial ecology and field botany. Bien is a strong advocate for environmental conservation and has collaborated with other scientists, government agencies, and NGOs with research interests in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Before coming to Drexel University Bien was a public educator for 31 years. He has been involved with secondary education outreach since coming to Drexel and serves on several external education committees. Bien received the 2007 Outstanding Research and Education Award from the New Jersey Marine Education Association. He has been on the Board of Directors for the Natural Resources Education Foundation at the Lighthouse Center in Waretown, New Jersey since 2001.  Bien is Co-PI on the Earthwatch Diamond Back Terrapin Project at Barnegat Bay and has been Co-PI on the Leatherback Turtle Research Project in Playa Grande, Costa Rica.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Bien, W.F., Spotila, J.R., and T. Gordon 2009. Distribution trends of rare plants at the Warren Grove Gunnery Range. Bartonia 64:1-18.
• Smith, R.M., Bien, W.F., Spotila, J.R. and Avery, H.W. 2008. Coexistence of rattlesnakes and military operations: occurrence and spatial ecology of the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) on the Warren Grove Gunnery Range in the Pinelands of New Jersey. In: The Biology of the Rattlesnake. W. Hayes, K. Beaman, M. Caldwell and S. Bush (eds.), Loma Linda University Press, Loma Linda, CA pp. 606.
• Sheridan, C.M., J.R. Spotila, W. Roosenburg, W.F. Bien and H.W. Avery 2010. Inter-population variation of multiple paternity in the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin. Molecular Ecology. 19: 5497–5510.

Education:

• BS, Geology, Franklin and Marshall College, 1981
• MS, Paleontology, University of California at Berkeley, 1985
• PhD, Geology, University of Pennsylvania, 1998

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

My current research program in vertebrate paleontology focuses on the vertebrate fauna of the Late Devonian Period (385-363 million-years-ago) in eastern North America. The research involves active fossil collecting, systematic work focusing on freshwater vertebrates, and the nature of early non-marine ecosystems. Fieldwork is ongoing since 1993 in Pennsylvania and since 1999 on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Fossil discoveries from the incompletely-known Late Devonian interval help us to answer questions about the diversification of major groups of fishes, the origin of limbed vertebrates, and the invasion of land by plants and animals.

Bio:

Ted Daeschler has been at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia since 1987 where he is now Vice-President for Systematic Biology and the Library. Ted studied geology at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and received a Masters in paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. He was awarded his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. Ted’s responsibilities at the Academy of Natural Sciences focus on research, collections building, and on public programs within the museum. He served as a scientific advisor for the renovation of the Academy’s Dinosaur Hall, and a variety of other paleontological exhibits. Ted’s work is a reflection of the rich history of vertebrate paleontology at the Academy of Natural Sciences, both in research and in public education.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Daeschler, E. B., J. A. Clack, and N. H. Shubin. In press. Late Devonian tetrapod remains from Red Hill, Pennsylvania, USA: how much diversity? Acta Zooloica.
• Downs, J. P., E.B. Daeschler, F. A. Jenkins, Jr, and N. H. Shubin. 2008. The cranial endoskeleton of Tiktaalik roseae. Nature 445:925-929.
• Friedman, M. and E. B. Daeschler. 2006. Late Devonian (Famennian) lungfishes from the Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania, USA. Palaeontology 49(6):1-17.
• Shubin, N. H., E. B. Daeschler and F.A. Jenkins, Jr. 2006. The pectoral fin of Tiktaalik roseae and the origin of the tetrapod limb. Nature 440:764-771.
• Daeschler, E. B., N. H. Shubin and F. A. Jenkins, Jr. 2006. A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan. Nature 440:757-763.
• Wilson, H. M., E. B. Daeschler and S. Desbiens. 2005. New flat-backed archipolypodan millipedes from the Upper Devonian of North America. Journal of Paleontology 79(4):737-743.

Education:

• BS, Entomology, University of California at Davis, 1978
• MA, Entomology, University of Kansas, 1983
• PhD, Entomology, University of Kansas, 1989

Research Interests:

I am a systematist with research interests ranging from phylogenetic reconstruction, historical and ecological biogeography, biodiversity measures and evolution of morphological character systems. My systematic expertise is in insects, specifically crane flies (Tipuloidea), an insect group of nearly 16,000 described species worldwide found in a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

Current research projects include: macroinvertebrate ecology and river functioning at multiple scales in grassland ecosystems in Mongolia and United States (insects and flow, B. Erdene, Ph.D. student); inventory and endemism of aquatic insects in Mongolia; insect communities of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, focusing on the New Jersey Pine Barrens (role of fire and insects, S. Mason, Ph.D student); Revisionary systematics and development of identification keys for aquatic larval and adult crane flies in the New World (Nippotipula of North America, with V. Shirey, Drexel recent graduate); Inventory of Tipuloidea of a mid-elevation tropical forest site in Costa Rica (ZADBI Project); the evolution of crane flies in the deserts of western North America and its application to understanding the historical biogeography of these regions.

Current Funded Projects include:

• Strengthening our knowledge of Mongolia's aquatic insect fauna and its use in water quality monitoring and predicting impacts from climate change.  J. Gelhaus, PI.  $20,000.  Trust for Mutual Understanding, NY.  2017-2018.
• Digitization PEN: The addition of OrthopNet to SCAN.  J. Gelhaus, PI, $174,861.  NSF: DBI-Digitization Program. July 2016-June 2019.
• Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Lepidoptera of North America Network: Documenting Diversity in the Largest Clade of Herbivores.  SUBAWARD to ANSP, J. Gelhaus.  $104,669.  (N. Cobb, No. Arizona Univ., Lead PI, $3.2 million total award) 2016-2021.
• Collaborative Research: Hierarchical Functioning of River Macrosystems in Temperate Steppes: From Continental to Hydrogeomorphic Patch Scales.  Collaborative proposal from The Academy of Natural Sciences, J. Gelhaus, A. Maasri, P.I., $456,735.  NSF- Macrosystems Program.  (J, Thorp, Univ of Kansas Lead PI, $4.2 million total request).  2015-2020. 

Awards:

• Khubilai Khan gold medal, highest award from Mongolian Academy of Sciences, March 2013. http://www.ansp.org/about/press-room/releases/2013/mongolia-awards/
• Best Scientist in Nature and Environment, awarded 2011, from Ministry of Nature and Environment, Mongolia.

Courses Taught:

• ENVS 201 Practical Identification of Plants and Animals (Fall)
• ENVS 328/528  Conservation Biology (Winter)
• ENVS 335/535 Aquatic Insects and Water Quality (with Stefanie Kroll) (alternate years)

Drexel Ph.D Graduate Students:

• Mr. Robert Conrow (2017-Present)
• Ms. Bolortsetseg Erdenee (2014-Present)
• Mr. Stephen Mason Jr. (2014-Present)
• Mr. Joseph Sweeney (2018-Present)

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Podenas, S., J. K. Gelhaus, and V. Podeniene.  2013. An overview of the Tipulomorpha and Ptychopteromorpha crane flies (Diptera) of Mongolia.  Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 162: 111-123. (*)
• Podeniene, V. and J. K. Gelhaus.  2013.  Larva of Protanyderus stackelbergi Savchenko, 1971 (Diptera: Ptychopteromorpha, Tanyderidae) from Mongolia.  Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 162: 125-132. (*)
• Mederos-Lopez, J. and J. Gelhaus. 2014.  A new Neotropical species of Trentepohlia (Mongoma) (Diptera: Tipulidae) from Cuba.  Transactions of the American Entomological Society 140: 137-144.    http://taes.entomology-aes.org/pages/show/products-2    (*)
• Podenas, S., V. Podeniene and J. Gelhaus.  2014.  A new species of Heterangaeus Alexander, 1925 crane flies (Diptera: Pediciidae) from north-central Mongolia with first description of the larva for the genus.  Zootaxa 3814 (2): 259-274.  (*)
• Yadamsuren**, O., B. Hayford, J. Gelhaus, L. Ariuntsetseg, C. Goulden, S. Podenas and V. Podeniene.  2015. Declines in diversity of crane flies (Diptera: Tipuloidea) indicate impact from grazing by livestock in the Hövsgöl region of Mongolia. Journal of Insect Conservation 19(3): 465-477.  DOI 10.1007/s10841-015-9767-4  (*)
• Podeniene, V. and J. Gelhaus.  2015.  Review of the last instar larvae and pupae of Hexatoma (Eriocera) and Hexatoma (Hexatoma) (Diptera, Limoniidae, Limnophilinae).  Zootaxa. 4021 (1): 093–118   http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4021.1.4  (*)
• Rozkošný R, M. Hauser  and J. K. Gelhaus.  2016.  Caloparyphus palaearcticus sp. n. (Diptera, Stratiomyidae), the first record for the soldier fly genus in the Palaearctic. ZooKeys 594: 111-122. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.594.7750  (*)
• Gelhaus, J., & J. Weintraub  2016.  Frank D. Fee Collection to the Academy of
  Natural Sciences of Drexel University Philadelphia, PA, USA (ANSP).  Fly Times 56:3-4.  http://www.nadsdiptera.org/News/FlyTimes/issue56.pdf 
• Erdenee B.**, Maasri A., Gelhaus J. K., Bayartogtokh B. (2016) A contribution to mayfly studies  of Western Mongolia (Insecta, Ephemeroptera). ZooKeys 638: 105-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.638.10198 (*)
• Katja C. Seltmann, Neil S. Cobb, Lawrence F. Gall, Charles R. Bartlett, M. Anne Basham, Isabelle Betancourt, Christy Bills, Benjamin Brandt, Richard L. Brown, Charles Bundy, Michael S. Caterino, Caitlin Chapman, Anthony Cognato, Julia Colby, Stephen P. Cook, Kathryn M. Daly, Lee A. Dyer, Nico M. Franz, Jon K. Gelhaus, Christopher C. Grinter, Charles E. Harp, Rachel L. Hawkins, Steve L. Heydon, Geena M. Hill, Stacey Huber, Norman Johnson, Akito Y. Kawahara, Lynn S. Kimsey, Boris C. Kondratieff, Frank-Thorsten Krell, Luc Leblanc, Sangmi Lee, Christopher J. Marshall, Lindsie M. Mccabe, Joseph V. Mchugh, Katrina L. Menard, Paul A. Opler, Nicole Palffy-Muhoray, Nick Pardikes, Merrill A. Peterson, Naomi E. Pierce, Andre Poremski, Derek S. Sikes, Jason D. Weintraub, David Wikle, Jennifer M. Zaspel, Gregory Zolnerowich.  2017.  LepNet: The Lepidoptera of North America Network.  Zootaxa 4247 (1): 073-077. (*)
  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4247.1.10
• Podeniene, V. and J. K. Gelhaus. 2017.  The first description of the larva and pupa of crane fly genus Phyllolabis Osten Sacken, 1877 (Diptera, Limoniidae, Limnophilinae), with information for understanding the phylogenetic relationships and systematical position of the genus.  Zootaxa 4365 (5): 559–570. *  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4365.5.3
• Maasri, A., B. Hayford, B. Erdenee**, and J. Gelhaus. 2017. Macroscale drivers influencing the structural and functional organization of stream macroinvertebrate metacommunities: potential role of hydrological connectivity. Freshwater Science 37:159-168. *  http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/695945 
• Art Borkent, Brian V. Brown, Peter H. Adler, Dalton de Souza Amorim, Kevin Barber, Daniel Bickel, Stephanie Boucher, Scott E. Brooks, John Burger, Z.L. Burington, Renato S. Capellari, Daniel N.R. Costa, Jeffrey M. Cumming, Greg Curler, Carl W. Dick, J.H. Epler, Eric Fisher, Stephen D. Gaimari, Jon Gelhaus, David A. Grimaldi, John Hash, Martin Hauser, Heikki Hippa, Sergio Ibáñez-Bernal, Mathias Jaschhof, Elena P. Kameneva, Peter H. Kerr, Valery Korneyev, Cheslavo A. Korytkowski, Giar-Ann Kung, Gunnar Mikalsen Kvifte, Owen Lonsdale, Stephen A. Marshall, Wayne Mathis, Verner Michelsen, Stefan Naglis, Allen L. Norrbom, Steven Paiero, Thomas Pape, Alessandre Pereira-Colavite, Marc Pollet, Sabrina Rochefort, Alessandra Rung, Justin B. Runyon, Jade Savage, Vera C. Silva, Bradley J. Sinclair, Jeffrey H. Skevington, John O. Stireman III, John Swann, Pekka Vilkamaa, Terry Wheeler, Terry Whitworth, Maria Wong, D. Monty Wood, Norman Woodley, Tiffany Yau, Thomas J. Zavortink, Manuel A. Zumbado.  2018.  Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science.  Zootaxa 4402 (1): 053–090. *  https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4402.1.3
• Gelhaus, J., Brodo, F., Young, C., Frommer, S. & May, E. 2018. A tribute to George W. Byers 16 May 1923 to 1 January 2018.  Fly Times 60 (April 2018): 55-67.  http://www.nadsdiptera.org/News/FlyTimes/issue60.pdf 
• Kato, D. **, T. Tachi & J. Gelhaus.  2018.  Revision of the subgenus Dicranomyia (Erostrata) Savchenko, 1976 (Diptera, Limoniidae) of Japan.  Zootaxa 4441 (1) : 181-194.*  June 27 2018  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4441.1.11

* = peer reviewed

** = co-authored with student

Recent Presentations (2017-):

• Gelhaus, J., V. Shirey and Y. Li.  2016.  Tipula (Nippotipula) abdominalis  (Diptera: Tipulidae), a common eastern Nearctic shredder crane fly, is actually three species.  Society of Freshwater Science Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA.  May 24, 2016 and International Congress of Entomology, Orlando, FL.  September 30, 2016
• Gelhaus, J., V. Shirey and Y. Li.  2017.  The beautiful iconic aquatic crane fly Tipula abdominalis is actually three species: the intersection of taxonomy, aquatic ecology and citizen science.  North American Dipterists Society, Annual Meeting, Missoula MT.  June 27 2017.
• Gelhaus, J. and G. Cowper. 2018.  Grasshoppers, Covered Wagons & the Wild West: Connecting Historical Field Notes to Specimens in the Academy's Entomology Collection.  The American Entomological Society, Philadelphia, PA Feb. 28, 2018
• Gelhaus, J.  2018. Developing entomological science while chasing aquatic insects: over two decades of exploration in Mongolia.  Invited presentations at Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University (Fuzhou), Chinese Agricultural University (Beijing), and Shenyang Agricultural University (Shenyang), July 1-14, 2018.  Presented also on new initiatives in entomological collection digitization and on the Drexel BEES program.
  
   

Education:

• BS Earth Sciences, Penn State 1986
• MS Resource Geography, Oregon State 1990
• PhD Geography, University of Kansas 2000
• Post-doctoral:  US Geological Survey, Center for Earth Resources Observation Sciences

Curriculum Vitae:

Download [PDF]

Research Interests:

• Land Use and Land Cover Change
• Remote Sensing
• Landscape Ecology
• Physical Geography
• Community-based Watershed Associations and Citizen Science Monitoring

Bio:

Jerry Griffith, PhD, started at Drexel University in Fall 2018 after spending 10 years on the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi, and more recently with Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.  He is a broadly trained environmental geographer with specialties in landscape ecology, remote sensing, and land use and land cover change.

Besides academia, Jerry has also spent time in private industry and government resource agencies.  His early career experience included working for private environmental consulting firms performing tasks ranging from monitoring water quality downstream of Limerick Nuclear Power Plant to collecting groundwater samples at landfills, to performing wetland delineations in the Pacific Northwest.  Government facilities he has worked at include the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he worked on geographic information system (GIS) analyses for environmental impact statements and performing background research on the use of ecological indicators for regional- and national-level environmental assessments.  Following completion of his doctoral dissertation which related satellite-derived vegetation indices to Great Plains stream and river water quality and watershed condition, he served as a post-doctoral researcher with the USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation Science in Sioux Falls, SD and worked on projects documenting national trends in land cover change as derived from Landsat satellite imagery and analyzing landscape pattern over time in selected southeastern US ecoregions.

A native of Berks County, PA, he works with environmental non-profit agencies in that area, serving on advisory committees or training citizen scientists, such as for Berks Nature (Reading, PA) and the Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward Program.  Jerry also volunteers with and collaborates with scientists at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on the Berks/Schuylkill County border, working on conservation GIS projects that examine the relationships between land cover and ground-nesting raptors.

Selected Publications:

• Griffith, J., and Goodrich, L. 2017. Land cover and farmland raptor distribution in Pennsylvania. Middle States Geographer 50: 64-73.
• Carter G. A., K. Lucas, G. Blossom, C. Lassitter, D. Holiday, D. Mooneyhan, D. Fastring, T. Holcombe, and J. Griffith. 2009. Remote sensing and mapping of tamarisk along the Colorado River, USA: A comparative use of summer-acquired Hyperion, Thematic Mapper and QuickBird Data. Remote Sensing 1(3): 318-329.
• Fastring, D.R., and J. Griffith. 2009. Malaria incidence in Nairobi, Kenya and dekadal trends in NDVI and climatic variables. Geocarto International 24 (3): 207-221.
• Peneva, E., J. Griffith, and G. Carter. 2008. Seagrass mapping in the northern Gulf of Mexico using airborne hyperspectral imagery: A comparison of classification methods. Journal of Coastal Research 24(4): 850-856.
• Martinko, E., R. Hagen, and J. Griffith. 2006. Successional change in the insect community of a fragmented landscape. Landscape Ecology 21: 711-721.
• Griffith, J. 2004. The role of landscape pattern analysis in understanding concepts of land cover change. Journal of Geographical Sciences 14(1): 3-17.
• Griffith, J., S. Stehman, and T. Loveland. 2003. Landscape trends in mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S. ecoregions. Environmental Management 32(5):572-588.
• Griffith, J . 2003. Regions of high fish diversity for conservation concern within the U.S. Central Plains. Journal of Freshwater Ecology 18(3):451-457.
• Griffith, J. 2003. An assessment of species-watershed area relationships for fish in the Kansas River Basin, Nebraska-Kansas. Journal of Environmental Hydrology 11: paper 5 (online).
• Griffith, J., S. Stehman, T. Sohl, and T. Loveland. 2003. Detecting trends in landscape pattern metrics over a 20-year period using a sampling-based monitoring program. International Journal of Remote Sensing 24(1):175-181.
• Griffith, J., E. Martinko, J. Whistler, and K. Price. 2002. An analysis of interrelationships among landscapes, NDVI, and stream condition in the U.S. Central Plains. Ecological Applications 12(6):1702-1718.
• Griffith, J. 2002. Geographic techniques and recent applications of remote sensing to landscape-water quality studies. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 138(1-4):181-197.
• Griffith, J., C. Trettin and R. O’Neill. 2002. A landscape ecology approach to assessing development impacts on the tropics: A geothermal energy example in Hawaii. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 23(1):1-22.
• Griffith, J., E. Martinko, and K. Price. 2000. Landscape structure analysis of Kansas at three scales. Landscape and Urban Planning 52(1):45-61.
• Griffith, J. 1998. Connecting ecological indicators and ecological monitoring: A review of the literature. Journal of Environmental Systems 26(4):325-364.

Education:

• BS, Biology, Cornell University, 1971
• PhD, Evolutionary Biology, The University of Chicago, 1976

Research Interests:

My primary focus is the ecology of freshwater and estuarine fishes. I am interested in factors controlling the abundance and distribution of stream fishes. Such factors include historical and ecological effects, as well as recent human influences, such as changes in hydrology, connectivity, and watershed conditions. For example, I am currently using molecular genetics to assess regional and fine-scale population structure of a rare minnow. The genetic structure reflects long term effects of glaciation, drainage evolution and recolonization, as well as recent effects of population fragmentation due to habitat degradation. I have been part of project teams in a number of studies of the effects of riparian vegetation, dams and dam removals, watershed development, point and non-point source contamination and other factors on stream biota, chemistry, and geomorphology.

Bio:

Richard Horwitz, PhD is the Fisheries Section Leader in the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. He currently occupies the Ruth Patrick Chair in Environmental Research. He has also been the leader of the Biometry Section within the Patrick Center. He has extensive experience studying freshwater and estuarine fishes in the Eastern United States, and has also conducted fish surveys in Peru and Nepal. In addition to projects mentioned under research focus, he has studied the effects of B.t.i., a biological control for black flies, on fishes, participated in watershed management planning in New York, and led the preparation of a master plan for ecological restoration of Fairmount Park.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Horwitz, R.J. T.E. Johnson, P.F. Overbeck, T. Kevin O’Donnell, W. C. Hession and B.W. Sweeney. 2008. Effects of riparian vegetation and land use on fishes in mid-Atlantic streams. J. American Water Resources Assoc.44:724-741.
• Flinders, C.A., R.J. Horwitz, and T. Belton. 2008. Relationship of fish and macroinvertebrate communities in the mid-Atlantic uplands: implications for integrated assessments. Ecological Indicators. 8:588-598.
• Hession, C.W., J. Pizzuto, T. Johnson, R. Horwitz and B. Sweeney. 2003. Influence of bank vegetation on channel morphology in rural and urban watersheds. Geology 31(1):147-150.
• Jackson, J.J. and R.J. Horwitz. 2002. Effects of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis in black flies and nontarget macroinvertebrates and fish in a large river. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 131: 910-930.
• Horwitz, R.J. , B.W. Thompson, C. Cianfrani, N.C. Coulter, W.C. Hession, J.E. Pizzuto, A. Rhoads, and A.E. Schuyler. 1999-2001 Master Plan for Natural Lands Restoration in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Three Volumes.
• Fairchild, G.M., R.J. Horwitz, D.A. Nieman, M.R. Boyer and D.F. Knorr. 1998 Effects of habitat quality, and historical change, on fish communities of the Schuylkill River drainage, southeast Pennsylvania. American Midland Naturalist 139:282-295.

Education:

• BS, Biology, Eckerd College (former Florida Presbyterian College)
• PhD, Zoology & Oceanography, Duke University
• Post-Doctoral: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA

Research Interests:

Aquatic ecology, Physiological ecology of phytoplankton, Consumer/algal interactions, Food quality, Stable isotopes and ecological stoichiometry in food webs, Tropical lakes and streams, Yellowstone Ecosystem, Climate change.

Bio:

Following her postdoctoral studies, Susan Kilham, PhD was on the faculty at the University of Michigan 1972-1990. She came to Drexel University in January, 1991. Kilham does research and teaching in many areas of ecology and the environment. She has extensive international experience in aquatic ecosystems and is the author of over 75 scientific publications. In the past decade, she has researched areas related to the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, including studies on diatom species in the large lakes of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the ecosystem consequences of the extinction of frogs in Panama. She has trained 17 PhD students, 14 MS students and has had over 50 undergraduates work in her laboratory. She has been active in service to her professional organizations and in community outreach throughout her career.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Verburg, P., S.S. Kilham, C.M. Pringle, K.R. Lips and D.L. Drake. 2007. A stable isotope study of a neotropical stream food web prior to the extirpation of its large amphibian community. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23:643-651.
• Kilham, S.S., M. Hunte-Brown, P. Verburg, C.M. Pringle, M.R. Whiles, K.R. Lips and E. Zandona. 2009. Challenges for interpreting stable isotope fractionation of carbon and nitrogen in tropical aquatic ecosystems. Verhandlungen Internationale Vereinugung für Limnologie 30:749-753.
• Connelly, S., C.M. Pringle, R.J. Bixby, R. Brenes, M.R. Whiles, K.R. Lips, S. Kilham and A.D. Huryn. 2009. Changes in stream primary producer communities resulting from large-scale catastrophic amphibian declines: Can small-scale experiments predict effects of tadpole loss? Ecosystems: 11: 1262-1276
• Colon-Gaud, C., M.R. Whiles, S.S. Kilham, K.R. Lips, C.M. Pringle, S.Connelly, and S.D. Peterson. 2009. Macroinvertebrate production and food web structure in upland Panamanian streams: assessing responses to catastrophic amphibian declines. Limnology and Oceanography. 54:331-343.
• Colón-Gaud, C., M. R. Whiles, K. R. Lips, C. M. Pringle, S. S. Kilham, S. Connelly, R. Brenes and S. D. Peterson. 2010. Stream invertebrate responses to a catastrophic decline in consumer diversity. Journal of North American Benthological Society 29: 1185-1198.
• Colón-Gaud, C., M. R. Whiles, R. Brenes, S. S. Kilham, K. R. Lips, C. M. Pringle, S. Connelly, and S. D. Peterson. 2010. Potential functional redundancy and resource facilitation between tadpoles and insect grazers in tropical headwater streams. Freshwater Biology 55:2077-2088.

Education:

• PhD, Fisheries Science, Oregon State University, 1992
• MS, Marine Biology/Biochemistry, University of Delaware, 1986
• BS, Marine Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 1984

Bio:

Trained as a shellfish ecologist and wetland ecologist, most of Danielle’s research studies have focused on the physiological ecology of filter-feeding animals and their trophic interactions in aquatic ecosystems.  Suspension-feeding animals such as bivalves (oysters, mussels, clams) and zooplankton (cladocerans, copepods) are of widespread interest for many reasons. In most aquatic systems, suspension-feeders are functional dominant consumers that feed at the base of the food chain and are crucial for supporting production by secondary consumers (e.g., fish), maintaining high water quality, and some are commercially important (oysters, clams). They also represent some of the world’s leading bioindicators for environmental assessment (e.g. Mussel Watch) and toxicity testing (e.g., bioassays). One active area of research is shellfish restoration, especially freshwater mussels which are the nation’s most imperiled animals.  Danielle currently serves as science director for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE), and National Estuary program.  In that role, Danielle is also engaged in research on climate change, wetland monitoring and assessment, living shorelines, oyster restoration, and assessing the many ecosystem services furnished by wetland and shellfish communities. Kreeger has been on the Drexel faculty since 1994.  She had previously worked as a scientist for the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom (1992-1994), and was associate curator for the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia (1994-2004).

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

PEER-REVIEWED Publications

• 2009. Heidi H., A. R. Boettner, G.I. RamC3rez-Toro, H. Minnigh, J. Spotila and D. Kreeger. Spatial variability associated with shifting land use: Water quality and sediment metals in La Parguera, Southwest Puerto Rico. Marine Pollution Bulletin 58: 672–678.
• 2008. Bushaw-Newton, K. L., S. Doaty, D. A. Kreeger and D. J. Velinsky. Utilization of Spartina- and Phragmites-derived dissolved organic matter by bacteria and ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa) from Delaware Bay salt marshes. Estuaries and Coasts 31:694–703.
• 2007. D. Kreeger and C. Harris. Terrestrial and aquatic biomonitors: 25 year study of radionuclide detection. Health Physics Journal 92(1): 1-9.
• 2007 Patrick, R., J. M Palms, D. Kreeger and C. Harris. 25 Year study of radionuclides in the Susquehanna River via periphyton biomonitors. Health Physics Journal 92(3): 219-225.
• 2006 Velinsky, D.J., K.L. Bushaw-Newton, D.A. Kreeger, and T.E. Johnson. Effects of small dam removal on stream chemistry in southeastern Pennsylvania. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 25(3): 569-582.
• 2004 Hertler, H., J. Spotilla and D.A. Kreeger. Effects of houseboats on organisms of the La Parguera Reserve, Puerto Rico. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.98: 391-407.

Technical Reports and Other Writings

• Kreeger, D. and J. Titus. 2008. Delaware Bay. Section 3.7 in: Background Documents Supporting Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1: Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise [Titus, J.G. and E.M. Strange (eds.)]. EPA 430R07004. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C, pp. 242-250. http://epa.gov/climatechange/effects/coastal/background.html
• CCSP, 2009: Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region. A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. James G. Titus, Eric K. Anderson, Donald R. Cahoon, Ste phen Gill, Robert E. Thieler, and Jeffress S. Williams (Lead Authors). [D. Kreeger was one of several Contributing authors]. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D.C., USA. 790 p.
• Kreeger, D. and J.G. Titus. 2008. Delaware Bay. Section 3.7 In: Background Documents Supporting Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1: Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise [Titus, J.G. and E.M. Strange (eds.)] EPA 430R07004. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., pp. 242-250.
  http://epa.gov/climatechange/effects/coastal/background.html (report)
• Kreeger, D. and D. Bushek. 2008. Combating Tidal Marsh Erosion with ‘Living Shorelines’. Estuary News 19(1): 12-13. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). 2008. 2006-07 San Antonio Bay Oyster Population Health Assessment. Report No. 08-X. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. XX pp. (PI’s: D. Kreeger and R. Thomas).
• Kreeger, D. 2008. Ecosystem-based Management for Tomorrow's Estuary. Estuary News 18(2): 5-6. Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE). 2008. State of the Estuary Report. 2008. Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Report #08-01. 36 pp.
• Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). 2007. 2005-06 San Antonio Bay Oyster Population Health Assessment. Report No. 07-X. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. XX pp. (PI’s: D. Kreeger and R. Thomas)

Education:

• PhD, Ecology, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), Syracuse, New York, 2012
• Master’s equivalent, Ecology, Department of Agronomic Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Albacete, Spain, 2009
• BS, Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY-ESF, 2001

Curriculum Vitae:

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Research Interests:

Watershed and stream ecology, aquatic macroinvertebrate ecology and as bioindicators, restoration ecology, human stressors on aquatic ecosystems, climate change

Bio:

Stefanie Kroll is the project science director of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative, a collaboration between over 50 nonprofit groups working in watershed conservation. She has a PhD in ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. She obtained a master’s-equivalent at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Albacete, Spain, after working in interpretation and translation, and teaching English for several years. Her focus on aquatic ecosystems is not surprising given that she grew up spending summers fishing and canoeing in the lakes and streams of New York State and surrounding areas. She volunteers with the Raritan Headwaters Association and the Tookany-Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership. She also works with Academy of Natural Sciences' Women In Natural Sciences program. Previous work includes forest inventory, program support for a nonprofit environmental organization, community assessment of Onondaga Lake and stream surveys throughout Spain. More information is available on her current work at ansp.org/drwi.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Kroll, S.A., E.E. Morris, S.J. Long, A.E. Hajek, 2013. Parasitism of Sirex noctilio by non-sterilizing Deladenus siricidicola in northeastern North America. Biological Control 67: 203-211.
• Kroll, S.A., N.H. Ringler, J. De las Heras, J.J. Gómez-Alday, A. Moratalla, R.D. Briggs, 2012. Changes in stream water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in response to flow regulation and inter-basin transfer: The Segura River Basin (SE Spain), Ecohydrology 6(5): 878-888.
• Kroll, S.A., C. Navarro, M.C. Cano, J. De las Heras, 2009. The influence of land use on stream water quality and macroinvertebrate biotic indices in rivers within Castilla-La Mancha (Spain).  Limnetica 28(2): 203-214.

Education:

• PhD, Geology, University of Florida, 2013
• BS, Geology (environmental concentration), The College of William & Mary, 2007

Research Interests:

• Solute sources and cycling in freshwater systems
• Stream metabolism & ecosystem functioning
• Geochemical-ecological interactions
• Groundwater-surface water interactions
• Adaptive management of water resources and aquatic ecosystems

Bio:

I am an eco-geochemist: an aqueous geochemist by training with an interest in the interactions between ecology, geochemistry and hydrology in freshwater systems. As a research scientist, my goal is both to advance basic understanding and to provide tools and concepts to aid in the sustainable use, management and restoration of water resources and aquatic ecosystems.

I am currently a research scientist and section Leader for Biogeochemistry at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University's Patrick Center for Environmental Resealch and an assistant research professor in Drexel University's Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Sciences.  Prior to this I was a staff scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Dept. of Hydrogeology where my research focused on the impact of the hyporheic zone on whole-stream solute and ecosystem dynamics. I completed my PhD in 2013 at the University of Florida, investigating the hydrologic and biogeochemical processes controlling solute sources and cycling in streams, and the reciprocal interactions between solute availability and the elemental requirements of aquatic vegetation. During my PhD I was a Fellow in the NSF IGERT 'Adaptive Management: Wise use of Water, Wetlands and Watersheds', which incorporated interdisciplinary coursework and research experiences to train scientists to address emerging issues in coupled human and natural systems and the interplay of policy and science required to manage them. Prior to my PhD I received my BS from The College of William & Mary.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Kurz M.J., Drummond J.D., Knapp J.L.A., Mendoza-Lera C., Schmadel N.M., Klaar M.J., Jäger A.*, Folegot S.*, Lee-Cullin J., Ward A.S., Zarnetske J.P., Datry T., Milner A.M., Lewandowski J., Hannah D.M., Krause S. (2018) Woody debris is related to reach-scale hotspots of lowland stream ecosystem respiration under baseflow conditions. Ecohydrology., 11:e1952.
• Folegot S.*, Hannah D.M., Dugdale S.J., Kurz M.J., Drummond J.D., Klaar M.J., Lee-Cullin J.*, Keller T., Marti E., Zarnetske J.P., Ward A.S., & Krause S. (2017) Low flow controls on stream micro-thermal dynamics.  Limnologica.
• Baranov, V.*, Milošević, D., Kurz, M. J., Zarnetske, J. P., Sabater, F., Marti, E., Robertson, A., Brandt, T.*, Sorolla, A., Lewandowski, J., & Krause, S. (2017) Helophyte impacts on the response of hyporheic invertebrate communities to inundation events in intermittent streams. Ecohydrol.
• Kurz M.J., Drummond J.D., Marti E., Zarnetske J.P., Lee-Cullin J.*, Klaar M.J., Folegot S.*, Keller T., Ward A.S., Fleckenstein J.H., Datry T., Hannah D.M., & Krause S. (2017) Impacts of water level on metabolism and transient storage in vegetated lowland rivers: Insights from a mesocosm study. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 122, 628–644, 10.1002/2016JG003695.
• Khadka M.B., Martin J.B. & Kurz M.J. (2017) Synoptic estimates of diffuse groundwater seepage to a spring-fed karst river at high spatial resolution using an automated radon measurement technique. J. Hydrology 544: 86-96.
• ​Vieweg M.*, Kurz M.J., Trauth N., Fleckenstein J.H., Musolff A. & Schmidt C. (2016) Estimating time-variable aerobic respiration in the streambed by combining electrical conductivity and dissolved oxygen time-series. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 121(8): 2199–2215.
• : 988-1001.​J. Hydrology 540 Climate control of decadal-scale increases in apparent ages of eogenetic karst spring water. & Khadka M.B. (2016) Kurz M.J., Martin J.B., 
• Schmadel N.M., Ward A.S., Kurz M.J., Fleckenstein J.H., Zarnetske J.P., Hannah D.M., Blume T., Vieweg M.*, Blaen P.J., Schmidt C., Knapp J.L.A.*, Klaar M.J., Romeijn P.*, Datry T., Keller T., Folegot S.*, Marruedo A.I.* & Krause S. (2016) Stream solute tracer timescales changing with discharge and reach length confound process interpretation. Water Resources Research 52(4):  3227–3245.
• Kurz M.J., Mart in J.B., Cohen M.J., & Hensley R.S (2015) Diffusion and seepage-driven element fluxes from the hyporheic zone of a karst river. Freshwater Science 34(1): 206-221.
• Kurz M.J., de Montety V., Martin J.B., Cohen M.J., & Foster C. (2013) Controls on diel metal cycles in a biologically productive carbonate-dominated river. Chemical Geology 358: 61-74.
• Cohen M.J., Kurz M.J., Heffernan J.B., Martin J.B., Douglass R.L., Foster C.R., & Thomas R.G. (2013) Diel phosphorus variation and the stoichiometry of ecosystem metabolism in a large spring-fed river. Ecological Monographs 83(2), 155-176.
• de Montety V., Martin J.B., Cohen M.J., Foster C. & Kurz M.J. (2011) Influence of diel biogeochemical cycles on carbonate equilibrium in a karst river. Chemical Geology 283(1-2), 31-43.
• de Montety V., Martin J.B., Kurz M.J., Cohen M.J. and Foster, C. (2010) Influence of biogeochemically induced carbonate cycles on metals content of a karst river, in Birkle P. & Torres-Alvarado I.S., eds., Water-Rock Interaction XIII: Taylor & Francis Group, London. ISBN 978-0-415-60426-0.

*indicates student author
See more publications and presentations here

Education:

• BA, University of Chicago (1995)
• PhD, Cornell University (2003)

Curriculum Vitae:

Livshultz CV

Research Interests:

The ca. 250,000 species of flowering plants around us display a vast diversity of floral forms. The fundamental questions I’m interested in are how differences in floral form produce different floral functions and how natural selection acts on floral function to produce the diversity of floral forms that we see.

My focus is on the Apocynaceae, the milkweed and dogbane family, a group of ca. 5000 species of flowering plants. Milkweeds (ca. 3000 of the 5000 Apocynaceae species) have evolved some of the most remarkable countermeasures to the unreliability of animal pollinators. The average pollen transfer efficiency (percentage of removed pollen grains deposited on conspecific stigmas) of milkweeds is greater than 10 percent while more typical animal-pollinated flowers with pollen dispersed in monads have an average pollen transfer efficiency of less than 1 percent). This extra-ordinary function is produced by some of the most structurally complex flowers in the world, comparable only to those of orchids. I’m using a diversity of approaches including pollination biology, evolutionary tree reconstruction, biogeography, climate niche analysis, and comparative development to understand where, when, how and why milkweeds got so efficient.

I’m also studying the evolution and species diversity of the genus Dischidia, a group of about 80 species from Southeast Asia that have evolved a symbiotic relationship with ants including some remarkable chemical and morphological modifications that function in this relationship. Species of Dischidia have ant-attractive seeds, inducing the ants to collect them, and some also modified leaves that function as ant houses.

As curator of the PH herbarium, one of my priorities is to develop databases that allow researchers to easily access information from herbarium specimens to track changes in plant distributions, flowering times and associations. These data are fundamental to helping us understand the unprecedented global change that we are experiencing today. As one of the oldest herbaria in North America, with specimens dating to the 18th century, the Academy’s collection represents a uniquely long record of plants over time. The information contained in these specimens is currently difficult to use since it is distributed among a million plus individual samples. Assembling this information into a database where it can be easily accessed and queried will help reveal how our environment has been changing over the past 300 years.

Bio:

Tatyana Livshultz, PhD, is currently assistant curator of the Botanical Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Before coming to the Academy in 2008, she was an assistant professor of biology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a post-doctoral fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. She has published 12 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, is a member of the Collections Committee of the American Society for Plant Taxonomy and vice-president of the Philadelphia Botanical Club. Livshultz’s research focus on the evolution and pollination of the predominantly tropical milkweed family requires frequent fieldwork in the tropics and subtropics. Current projects are located in Taiwan, the Bahamas and Mississippi.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Straub, S.C.K., Fishbein, M., Livshultz, T., Foster, Z., Parks, M., Weitemier, K., Cronn, R.C., & Liston, A. 2011. Building a model: Developing genomic resources for common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) with low coverage genome sequencing. BMC Genomics. 12(1): 211.
• Livshultz, T. 2010. The phylogenetic position of milkweeds (Apocynaceae subfamilies Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae): Evidence from the nucleus and chloroplast. Taxon 59: 1016-1030.
• Meve, U., Laurente, O., Alejandro, G.J., & Livshultz, T. 2009. Systematics of Clemensiella (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae). Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66:447-457. Livshultz, T. 2007. The identity of Dischidia micholitzii (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae). Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 64: 311-315.
• Livshultz, T., D. J. Middleton, M. E. Endress, and J. K. Williams. 2007. Phylogeny of Apocynoideae (Apocynaceae) and the APSA clade. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 94: 324-359.
• Simões, A. O., T. Livshultz, E. Conti, and M. E. Endress. 2007. Phylogeny and systematics of Rauvolfioideae (Apocynaceae) based on molecular and morphological evidence. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 94: 268-297.
• Luckow, M., R. H. Fortunato, S. Sede, T. Livshultz. 2005. The phylogenetic affinities of two mysterious monotypic mimosoids from southern South America. Systematic Botany 30(3): 585-602.

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

I like to describe myself as a traditional seismologist working in non-traditional settings. I started out as a classically trained geologist with an interest in earthquakes and volcanoes. I decided to focus on earthquakes and spent the majority of my graduate career identifying and studying earthquakes local to Antarctica. In the course of that project I found a group of earthquakes associated with a subglacial volcanic complex which brought me back to my interest in volcanoes. My current focus of research is looking into the seismic events associated with volcanoes, both those in eruptive cycles and those in quiescence. In particular, I am looking at a type of event called a DLP (deep long period seismic event) that has been recognized at a (limited) number of volcanoes but not fully understood. These events should provide us a unique opportunity to study mantle/crust interaction at a variety of locales. In addition, I am also interested in all long period and deep volcanic events and I continue to look at the seismicity unique to Antarctica. My work is highly field based as many of the areas I am interested in studying do not have permanent seismic networks. Prior to my arrival at Drexel, I participated as a team member in deployments in the Isparta Angle of Turkey, the eastern plateau of Antarctica and the Island of Four Mountains in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

Bio:

Amanda Lough started as an assistant professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science at Drexel University in 2016. She came to BEES from her post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegies Institution for Science in Washington D.C. Prior to her post-doc at DTM, she earned her doctorate and masters from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned her Bachelor of Science, Summa Cum Laude, with departmental honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While at the University of Missouri she was invited to join the Phi Beta Kappa honors fraternity as one of the top ten juniors in the college of arts and science.

Selected Publications:

• Lough, A. C., C. G. Barcheck, D. A. Wiens, A. Nyblade, and S. Anandakrishnan (2015), A previously unreported type of seismic source in the firn layer of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 120, 2237–2252, doi:10.1002/2015JF003658.
• Lough, Amanda Colleen, "Studies of Seismic Sources in Antarctica Using an Extensive Deployment of Broadband Seismographs" (2014). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). Paper 1319. openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1319, doi: 10.7936/K7TH8JRC.
• Lough, A.C., Wiens, D.A., Barcheck, C.G., Anandakrishnan, S., Aster, R.C., Blankenship, D.D., Huerta, A.D., Nyblade, A., Young, D.A. and Wilson, T.J. (2013), Seismic detection of an active subglacial magmatic complex in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, Nature Geoscience, 6(12), 1031-1035, doi: 10.1038/ngeo1992

Education:

• BS, Biology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1964
• PhD, Zoology, University of Michigan, 1970

Research Interests:

Most of my research concerns the diversity and diversification of fishes. I seek to document and interpret the character (morphological and molecular) and taxonomic diversity of living and fossil fishes in the interrelated fields of systematics, faunistics and biogeography, and paleobiology. My work has a significant field component with exploration and collecting in poorly-known tropical freshwater habitats and regions.

Bio:

John Lundberg is a systematist and ichthyologist with an active research program on tropical fish diversity and evolution. He received his PhD in 1970 at the University of Michigan, and has 41 years of postgraduate research, teaching and curatorial experience. He has published more than 90 papers in peer reviewed professional journals. He held tenured, full professorships at two Research-I universities - Duke (1970-1992) and the University of Arizona (1992-2000). He moved in early 2000 to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia (ANSP) as Chaplin Chair and Curator of Ichthyology. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Pennsylvania (Biology) and a research associate appointment at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. John’s research includes living and fossil fishes. He has had NSF awards that supported exploration and documentation of the deep river channel biotas of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, the evolutionary history of South American catfishes, and a 5-year global inventory of all species of catfishes. At Duke and Arizona he taught undergraduate and graduate courses comparative anatomy, ichthyology, systematic methods and evolutionary biology. He has been major advisor to 13 PhD students and five postdoctoral scientists. At Duke he served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Biology and at Arizona he directed an NSF-funded graduate training program in biological diversification. He was President of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in 2009 and continues as a governor in that society. At the Academy he oversees, builds and promotes one of the world’s largest and most active research collections of fishes. John refers to the Academy’s Ichthyology Department as an “international crossroads for ichthyologists.”

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Lundberg, J. G., L. G. Marshall, J. Guerrero, B. Horton, M. C. Malabarba and F. Wesselingh. 1998. The Stage for Neotropical Fish Diversification: A History of Tropical South American Rivers. Chapter 1:13-48. In L.R. Malabarba, R.E.Reis, R.P.Vari, C.A.S.Lucena and Z.M.S.Lucena eds. Phylogeny and Classification of Neotropical Fishes. Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia, PUCRS. Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• Lundberg, J. G. 1998. The Temporal Context for Diversification of Neotropical Fishes. Chapter 2:49-68. In L.R. Malabarba, R.E.Reis, R.P.Vari, C.A.S.Lucena and Z.M.S.Lucena eds. Phylogeny and Classification of Neotropical Fishes. Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia, PUCRS. Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• Lundberg, J. G., M. Kottelat, G. R. Smith, M. Stiassny and T. Gill. 2000. So Many Fishes, So Little Time: An Overview of Recent Ichthyological Discoveries in Fresh Waters. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 87(1) 26-62.
• Lundberg, J. G. (text) and R. Troll (art). 2001. Freshwater Riches of the Amazon. Natural History Magazine, American Museum of Natural History. September 2001.
• Cox Fernandes, C., J. Podos, J. G. Lundberg. 2004. Tributaries Enhance the Diversity of Electric Fishes in Amazon River Channels. Science, 304: 1960-1962.
• Rodiles-Hernández, R., D. A. Hendrickson, J. G. Lundberg & J. M. Humphries. 2005. Lacantunia enigmatica (Teleostei: Siluriformes) a new and phylogenetically puzzling freshwater fish from Mesoamerica. Zootaxa 1000: 1–24.

Education:

• BS, Biology, Lewis and Clark College, 1974
• MS, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1979
• PhD, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1983

Research Interests:

Richard McCourt’s research is on the biodiversity, evolution, ecology, and systematics of green algae, specifically a group known as charophyte algae. These green algae are among the closest living algal relatives of land plants and include some well-known algae such as stoneworts and Spirogyra. He is working on reconstructing the phylogeny of these algae-that is, the evolutionary tree of green algae and land plants. A comprehensive phylogeny of green algae will help explain ancient evolutionary events that allowed the descendants of green algae to emerge from their habitats in freshwater ponds and diversify into the hundreds of thousands of species that live on land today.

McCourt has also conducted research on the ecology of intertidal algae in the Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico. He studied habitat partitioning and phenology (seasonal patterns of growth and reproduction) of sympatric species of Sargassum, large brown seaweeds that occur in huge floating masses in Atlantic gyres, as well as in subtidal and intertidal areas in the subtropics and tropics. He has also worked in historical botany, publishing a number of papers on the Lewis and Clark Herbarium at the Academy, and he co-authored with Earle E. Spamer a Special Publication CD-ROM and a short book on the Lewis and Clark Herbarium.

Additional Websites:

Assembling the Green Algal Tree of Life, gratol.org
The Phycological Society of America, psaalgae.org
Botany Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences, ansp.org/research/systematics-evolution/collections/botany/

Current and Recent Research:

• Molecular barcoding seaweeds of the Cheasapeake. (With Dr. John D. Hall)
• 2016-2018. Livshultz , T. (co-PI) and R. McCourt (co-PI). $100,200. NSF Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) Program. Digitization TCN: Collaborative: The Microfungi Collections Consortium: A Networked Approach to Digitizing Small Fungi with Large Impacts on the Function and Health of Ecosystems.
• 2012-2017. $100,280 ANSP portion of total, $694,370. Collaborative Research: Digitization TCN: The Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium: Accessing 150 Years of Specimen Data to Understand Changes in the Marine/Aquatic Environment. (co-PI with K.G. Karol, K. Barringer, T. Livshulz; part of larger Collaborative Award through ADBC program).
• 2010-2015. ATOL: Collaborative Research: Assembling the Green Algal Tree of Life (GrAToL). Collaborative Award with colleagues at the New York Botanical Garden (Kenneth G. Karol), University of Connecticut (Louise A. Lewis and Paul O. Lewis), University of Alabama (Juan Lopez-Bautista), and University of Maryland (Charles F. Delwiche). Includes several Research Experience for Undergraduates REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) supplements. (DEB 1036478).
• 2010-2013. Collaborative Research: Phylogeny and Systematics of the Characeae (Charales). Co-PI with Dr. Kenneth Karol, New York Botanical Garden (DEB 1020948).

Post Doctorate Researchers:

• John D. Hall, PhD. 2011-present, NSF funded, Assembling the Green Algal Tree of Life project (www.gratol.org). Hall works on the systematics and phylogeny of conjugating green algae, as well as other algal groups.

Drexel Co-op Students:

• Emily Qian
• Dung Ha Seo
• Lindsey White
• Lauren Einhorn

Graduate Student:

• Lincoln Rehm - Lincoln is studying the ecology and evolution of giant clams and their endosymbiotic algae on coral reefs in in Palau.

Bio:

Rick McCourt, PhD has worked at the Academy since 1997. Before that he was an associate professor at DePaul University in Chicago, where he taught algal biology, aquatic biology, ecology, evolution and introductory biology. McCourt is Curator of Botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Rick McCourt, PhD, is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Phycological Society of America (psaalgae.org), and also serves on the Publications and Financial Advisory Committees of the Botanical Society of America.

Previous to joining BEES, McCourt worked at the National Science Foundation as Program Director in the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Collection in Support of Biological Research, Major Research Instrumentation, Living Stocks Collections), the Division of Environmental Biology (Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster), and the Division of Graduate Education (NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education [GK-12], Graduate Research Fellowship Program). He also served on the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections and co-authored a report on NSF-supported collections (Skog, J., McCourt, R.M., Corman, J. 2009. The NSF Scientific Collections Survey: A Brief Overview of Findings). He was on the working group for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections at NSF (ADBC).

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• 2018. Hall, J. D., Sheath, R. G., McCourt, R. M. and Stancheva, R. Ochlochaete incrustans sp. nov. a new species of freshwater ulvophycean algae from California, U.S.A. with notes on Friedaea torrenticola.  Phycologia  57 (4), 465–476. Published June 21, 2018.
• 2017. Karol, K. G., Skawinski, P. M., McCourt, R. M., Nault, M. E., Evans, R., Barton, M.E., Berg, M. S., Pereleberg, J., and Hall, J. D. First discovery of the charophycean green alga Lychnothamnus barbatus (Charophyceae) extant in the New World.  American Journal of Botany.  (Published online 7/2/2017; 10.3732/ajb.1700172)
• 2017. Hall, J. D. and McCourt, R. M.  Zygnematophyta.  In:  Handbook of the Protists 2nd Edition. L. Margulis, J. Archibald, A. Simpson and C. Slamovit. Springer International Publishing. Online: DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32669-6_41-1 (Published May 1, 2017)
• 2017. Perez, W., Casanova, M. T., Hall, J.D., McCourt, R.M., and Karol, K. G.  Phylogenetic congruence of ribosomal operon and plastid gene sequences for the Characeae with an emphasis on Tolypella (Characeae, Charophyceae).  Phycologia 56:230-237.
• 2016. McCourt, R. M., Karol, K. G., Hall, J. D., Casanova, M., T., Grant, M. C.  Charales.  In:  Handbook of the Protists 2nd Edition. L. Margulis, J. Archibald, A. Simpson and C. Slamovit. Springer International Publishing.
• 2016. McCourt, R. M.  Life Finds a Way: Novel algae in reactor cooling ponds. Journal of Phycology 52:687-688.
• 2016. McCourt, R. M. Archaeplastida, esp. Viridiplantae and red algae, esp. streptophytes. Embryophyte origins. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology. Online, Article 254. Elsevier Press.
• 2015. Hall, J. D. and McCourt R. M. Conjugating green algae and desmids. pp. 429-457. In: Freshwater Algae of North America: Classification and Ecology, 2nd Edition. Eds.: Wehr, J. D., Sheath, R. G., and Kociolek, R. P. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
• 2015. Perez, W., Hall, J.D., McCourt, R.M., and Karol, K. G. Oospore dimensions and morphology in North American Tolypella (Charophyceae, Charophyta). Journal of Phycology. 51:310-320. Article first published online: 11 FEB 2015. DOI:10.1111/jpy.12275
• 2014. Perez, W., Hall, J. D., McCourt, R. M., and Karol, K. G. Phylogeny of North American Tolypella (Charophyceae, Charophyta) based on plastid DNA sequences with a description of Tolypella ramosissima sp. nov. Published Journal of Phycology. 50:776-789.
• 2014. Stancheva, R., Hall, Herberger, K., Lewis, McCourt, Sheath, R. G., and Holzinger, A. Phylogenetic position of Zygogonium ericetorum Kütz. (Zygnematophyceae, Charophyta) from a high alpine habitat and ultrastructural charSacterization of unusual aplanospores. Journal of Phycology 50:790-803.
• 2013. Stancheva, R., J. D. Hall, R. M. McCourt, and R. G. Sheath. 2013. Identity and phylogenetic placement of Spirogyra species (Zygnematophyceae, Charophyta) from California streams and elsewhere1. Journal of Phycology 49:588-607.
• 2011. Hanlon, M.R., Mock, S., Nuthulapati, P., Gonzales, M.B. and 11 others including McCourt, R.M. My-Plant.org: A Phylogenetically structured social network. IEEE Gateway Conference Proceedings.
• 2010. McCourt, R.M. and Spamer, E.S. The Herbarium of Lewis & Clark (sidebar). In: Peck, W.and Stround, G. T. A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• 2010. McCourt, R. M. A Brief Natural History of Algae in the Gulf of California. In R. C. Brusca, Ed. Biodiversity and Conservation in the Gulf of California. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.
• 2009. Skog, J., McCourt, R.M., Corman, J. The NSF Scientific Collections Survey: A Brief Overview of Findings. NSF Report
• 2008. Hall, J. D., Karol, K. G., McCourt, R. M., and Delwiche, C. F. Phylogeny of the conjugating green algae based on chloroplast and mitochondrial nucleotide sequence data. Journal of Phycology 44:467-477.
• 2006. Hausner G, Olson R, Simon D, Johnson I, Sanders ER, Karol KG, McCourt RM, Zimmerly S. Origin and evolution of the chloroplast trnK (matK) intron: A model for evolution of group II intron RNA structures. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 23(2):380-391.
• 2005. Drummond CS, Hall J, Karol KG, Delwiche CF, McCourt RM. Phylogeny of Spirogyra and Sirogonium  (Zygnematophyceae) based on rbcL sequence data. Journal of Phycology. 41(5):1055-1064.
• 2005. Feist, M. Grambast-Fessard, N., Guerlesquin M., Karol, K.G., McCourt, R.M, Lu Hui-nan, Zhang Shan-zen & Wang Qi-fei. Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology, Part B, Protista, Vol.1, Charophyta. Geological Society of America & The University of Kansas Press.
• 2004. McCourt RM, Delwiche CF, Karol KG. Charophyte algae and land plant origins. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 19(12):661-666.
• 2004. Lewis LA, McCourt RM. Green algae and the origin of land plants. American Journal of Botany 91(10):1535-1556.2005.
• 2004. McCourt, R.M. and Spamer, E.E. Jefferson’s Botanists: Lewis & Clark Discover the Plants of the West. Academy of Natural Sciences.
• 1995. Anton, T. and McCourt, R.M. The New Science Journalists. Ballantine Books.

Science Journalism and News:

• 2018. Surprising discovery of Civil War plant.  Academy of Natural Sciences Blog.
• 2016. Academy keeping tabs on Earth’s biodiversity.  Philadelphia Inquirer.

Drexel Courses Taught:

• ENVS/BEES 202 The Tree of Life

Education:

• BA, LaSalle College, 1977
• PhD, Colorado State University, 1989. Advisor: C.R. Tracy
• Post-doc, Drexel University, 1988-1990. Advisor: J.R. Spotila
• MD, Johns Hopkins University, 1981
• Residency, Internal Medicine, Vanderbilt University, 1981-1984

Research Interests:

• Thermal, hydric, & energetic effects on the activity and distribution of reptiles and amphibians
• Physical constraints on heat and mass exchange by reptiles and amphbians
• Physiological and physical constraints on gas exchange in sea turtle nests - effects on metabolism and development

Specialization:

Physiological and biophysical ecology

Selected Publications:

• Paladino, F.V., M.P. O'Connor, and J.R. Spotila. 1990. Metabolism and heat exchange in the leatherback sea turtle: A warm turtle in a cool ocean. Nature 344:858-860.
• O'Connor, M.P. and C.R. Tracy. 1992. Thermoregulation by juvenile woodhouse toads (Bufo woodhousei) in the laboratory and the field. Copeia 1992:865-876.
• O'Connor. M.P. 1999. Physiological and ecological implications of a simple model of heating and cooling in reptiles. Journal of Thermal Biology 24:113-136.
• O'Connor, M.P., A.E. Sieg, and A.E. Dunham. 2006. Linking physiological effects on activity and resource use to population level phenomena. Integrative and Comparative Biology 46:1093–1109.
• Sieg, A.E., M.P. O'Connor, J.N. McNair, B.W. Grant, S.J. Agosta, and A.E. Dunham. 2009. Mammalian metabolic allometry: Do intraspecific variation, phylogeny, and regression models matter? American Naturalist 174: 720-733

Education:

• Postdoctoral Fellow, NSF (DEB-9303244) and University of California/NSF Animal Behavior Research Training Grant. University of California-Davis, 1993-1996
• PhD, Zoology and Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990-1993
• MS, Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989
• BS, Biology Cum Laude, Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia PA), 1986

Research Interests:

• Brain plasticity and the evolution of brain structure
• Social behavior and division of labor, especially of eusocial Hymenoptera
• Thermal ecology and thermal physiology
• Network models of social group organization
• Behavior and ecology of bird-army ant interactions
• Human-safe insecticides

Specialization:

Animal behavior, neuroecology, social insects, tropical ecology, thermal physiology

Selected Publications:

• Gilkey P., D. Bolshakov, J. Kowala, L. Taylor, S. O’Donnell, D. Marenda, & L. Sirot. In press. Lethal effects of erythritol on the mosquito Aedes aegypti Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Applied Entomology.
• O'Donnell, S., S. Bulova, M. Barrett, & C. von Beeren. In press. Worker-caste differences in brain investment reflect soldier behavioral specialization (Eciton army ants, Formicidae: Dorylinae). BMC Zoology. 
• O’Donnell, S., K. Fiocca, M. Campbell, S. Bulova, P. Zelanko, & D. Velinsky. In press. Adult nutrition and reproductive physiology: a stable isotope analysis in a eusocial paper wasp (Mischocyttarus mastigophorus, Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
• Baudier K.M., C.L. D’Amelio, R. Malhotra, M.P. O’Connor & S. O’Donnell. In press. Extreme insolation: climatic variation shapes the evolution of thermal tolerance at multiple scales. American Naturalist.
• O’Donnell, S. 2018. The neurobiology of climate change. Science of Nature - Naturwissenschaften 105: 11.
• O’Connor M.P. & S. O’Donnell. 2017. Implications of iterative communication for biological system performance. Journal of Theoretical Biology 436: 93-104.
• O’Donnell S., S.J. Bulova, S. DeLeon, P. Khodak, S. Miller, & E. Sulger. 2015. Distributed cognition and social brains: reductions in mushroom body investment accompanied the origins of sociality in wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282: 20150791.
• O’Donnell, S., K.M. Baudier & D.R. Marenda. 2017. Erythritol ingestion impairs adult reproduction and causes larval mortality in Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Journal of Applied Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/jen.12409
• O’Donnell, S. 2017. Evidence for facilitation among avian army-ant attendants: specialization and species associations across elevations. Biotropica. DOI: 10.1111/btp.12452

Current Funding

• PI on Stein Fellowship for collaborative research in Israel (Ben Gurion University), Thermal physiology of ants and the ecology of seed dispersal, July 2018-December 2019.
• Lead PI on Sponsored Research Agreement, Biologic Insecticides/Academic Venture Technologies, Developing erythritol as a novel human-safe insecticide (Daniel Marenda co-PI).
• Co-PI on Wistar-Morris fund grant (D. Velinsky PI): Using stable isotopes to test the role of nutrition in division of labor.

Education:

• PhD, Zoology, University of Michigan

Research Interests:

I am a taxon scientist who specializes on the the taxonomy and biogeography of Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids and their relatives), but I concentrate mainly on grasshoppers (Acridoidea) and crickets (Grylloidea). My principal interest, besides discovering new taxa, is in studying the origin of species.

Over my career I have worked mainly on large faunal treatments of crickets (crickets of Australia, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Fiji, and New Caledonia) and grasshoppers (North America and southern Africa). I have discovered and named approximately 1600 species and have discovered nearly 25% of the World’s 5000+ cricket species.

My main emphasis has been in studying the earliest stages of speciation. In crickets I use mainly the songs for initial recognition of species. This allowed me to discover large numbers of species that could not be distinguished by morphology alone.

I spent approximately 15 years assembling major online catalogs to the world’s species of Orthoptera, Mantodea, Phasmida and Blattodea. All told, the catalogs cover about 45,000 species. The databases are almost unique in biology in scope; they cover all known species and have begun to accumulate everything known about the world’s species (images, distribution, habitat, ecology, life cycles, etc). The Orthoptera Species File is now financially endowed and will be supported in perpetuity. No other taxonomic databases are as comprehensive.

I am currently attempting to complete two faunal treatments of grasshoppers: an all-species taxonomic treatment of North American grasshoppers, covering the entire continent (plus the Caribbean basin), plus an all-species treatment of the grasshoppers of Southern Africa (from the Zambezi southwards). Each volume will contain approximately 1000 species (of these about 20% of the species are expected to be new to science).

I spend much of my time working in museums that have good holdings of North American and southern African grasshoppers (Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, University of Michigan, California Academy of Sciences, and the National Insect Collection in Pretoria).

Bio:

Daniel Otte, PhD is currently senior curator in the Division of Systematics and Evolutionary Biology at the Academy of Natural Sciences. He was a postdoctoral fellow of Richard Alexander, PhD of the University of Michigan for 15 months in Australia (1968-1969). He served as assistant professor of Zoology at the University of Texas at Austin from 1969 to 1975. He served as Associate Curator of Entomology from 1975 to 1980 and as Senior Curator of Entomology from 1980 to the present.

He has conducted research on crickets throughout the world, but especially in Hawaii, Australia, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and various Pacific islands. His research on grasshoppers has taken place throughout North America (Belize to Canada) and in Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botwana, and Lesotho).

During his career he has discovered more than 1500 new species.

He was recipient of the Leidy Medal at the Academy of Natural Sciences for his work on evolution and systematics of insects.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• 2009. Crickets of the Caribbean (D. Otte and D. Perez-Gelabert). Publications on Orthopteran Diversity. The Orthopterists Society. 792 pp.
• 1994. The Crickets of Hawaii: Origin, Systematics and Evolution. Academy of Natural Sciences. 400 pp.
• 1984. The North American Grasshoppers. Vol. 2. Oedipodinae. Harvard University Press. 366 pp.
• 1983. The Australian Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Academy of Natural Sciences Monograph No. 22. 477 pp. (D. Otte and R. D. Alexander).
• 1981. The North American Grasshoppers. Vol. 1. Acrididae: Gomphocerinae and Acridinae. Harvard University Press. 272 pp.

Education:

• MS, Botany, University of St. Petersburg, Russia, 1984
• PhD, Ecology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1993

Research Interests:

My research is on the taxonomy, ecology and biogeography of diatoms. I am using light and scanning electron microscopy, geometric morphometric shape analysis, molecular methods and ecological modeling techniques to study diatom communities of various geographical areas, to understand how environmental change affects their structure and function, to reveal biogeographical patterns of diatoms, and to reconstruct the phylogeny of monoraphid diatoms.

Bio:

Marina Potapova is currently an assistant curator of the Diatom Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Before coming to the Academy in 1999, she worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden, and University of St. Petersburg, Russia. She has published more than 40 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, is a council member of the International Diatom Society and an associate editor of two international journals, Phycologia and Diatom Research. Potapova’s research is focused on biogeographical and ecological patterns of freshwater diatoms, applications of shape analysis to diatom taxonomy, and systematics of monoraphid diatoms. She is as a member of Editorial Board and one the contributors to the on-line diatom flora of the United States, a collaborative project aimed at compiling a comprehensive illustrated guide to diatom species. Other projects include a detailed study of diatoms in the North Central Pennsylvania, diatoms of Beringia (Northeastern Asia and Alaska), and ecological synthesis of river diatom data for the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Analysis Program. Potapova is also leading a project supported by the National Science Foundation and aimed at computerizing and making available online the vast resources of the ANSP Diatom Herbarium, which is one of the largest diatom collections in the World.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Potapova, M. 2012. New species and combinations in monoraphid diatoms (family Achnanthidiaceae) from North America. Diatom Research 27: 29-42.
• English, J.D. and Potapova, M. 2012. Ontogenetic and interspecific valve shape variation in the Pinnatae group of the genus Surirella and the description of S. lacrimula sp. nov. Diatom Research 27: 9-27.
• Potapova, M. 2011. Patterns of Diatom Distribution In Relation to Salinity. Pages 313-332 in: Seckbach, J and J.P. Kociolek (Eds.) The Diatom World. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology (COLE) Book Series, V.19, Springer, Dordrecht.
• Potapova, M. and Carlisle D.M. 2011. Development and application of indices to assess the condition of benthic algal communities in U.S. streams and rivers. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 2011-1126.
• Spaulding, S.A., Lubinski, D.J. and Potapova, M. 2010. Diatoms of the United States. http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu (web publication).
• Potapova, M. & Snoeijs, P. 1997. The natural life cycle in wild populations of Diatoma moniliformis (Bacillariophyceae) and its disruption in an aberrant environment. Journal of Phycology. V.33: 924-937.

Education:

• BS, Geology, Princeton University, 1981
• PhD, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 1989

Research Interests:

My research centers on the magnitude and origin of species-level diversity in the Mollusca. Estimates of the total number of living mollusk species range from less than 100,000 to more than 200,000, but that the actual number known is about 75,000. I use an informatics approach to better document the known diversity of mollusks and to estimate their total diversity. I developed Malacolog, an online database of Western Atlantic marine gastropods, and am an editor for the Mollusca in the World Register of Marine Species. My field work is currently centered in the Philippines, which has the world’s highest diversity of marine mollusks, where I am a Co-PI on the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont ICBG, and in Jamaica, which has one of the most diverse faunas of terrestrial mollusks in the world, for which I have developed an interactive key.

Bio:

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Batomalaque, G. A. and G. Rosenberg. 2018. Three new species of Zaptyx (Gastropoda: Eupulmonata: Clausiliidae) from the Babuan and Batanes islands, Philippines. Archive für Molluskenkunde 147: 77-86, doi: 10.1127/arch.moll/147/077-086.
• Sei, M., D. G. Robinson, A. J. Geneva, and G. Rosenberg. 2017. Doubled helix: Sagdoidea is the overlooked sister group of Helicoidea (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 122: 697–728, doi: 10.1093/biolinnean/blx082.
• Distel, D. L., M. A. Altamia, Z. Lin, J. R. Shipway, A. Hand, I. Forteza, R. Antemano, M. G. J. P. Limbaco, A. G. Tebo, R. Dechavez, J. Albano, G. Rosenberg, G. P. Concepcion, E. W. Schmidt, and M. G. Haygood. 2017. Discovery of chemoautotrophic symbiosis in the giant shipworm Kuphus polythalamia (Bivalvia: Teredinidae) extends wooden-steps theory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(18): E3652–E3658, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1620470114.
• Uit de Weerd, D., D. G. Robinson and G. Rosenberg. 2016. Evolutionary and biogeographical history of the land snail family Urocoptidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) across the Caribbean region. Journal of Biogeography 43: 763–777. doi 10.1111/jbi.12692.
• Rosenberg, G. 2014 A new critical estimate of named species-level diversity of the recent Mollusca. American Malacological Bulletin 32(2): 308-322. doi: 10.4003/006.032.0204.
• Rosenberg, G. and R. Salisbury. 2014. Seven new species of Thala (Gastropoda: Costellariidae) from the Indo-Pacific. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia163: 179-223. doi 10.1635/053.163.0106.
• Nekola, J. C. and G. Rosenberg. 2013. Vertigo marciae (Gastropoda: Vertiginidae), a new land snail from Jamaica. Nautilus 127(3): 107–114.
• Rosenberg, G., E. F. García and F. Moretzsohn. 2009. Gastropods (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico. Pp. 579-699 in D. L. Felder and D. K. Camp, eds., The Gulf of Mexico: Origins, Waters and Marine Life. Texas A&M University Press.
• Rosenberg, G. and I. V. Muratov. 2006. Status report on the terrestrial Mollusca of Jamaica. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 155: 117-161. doi 10.1635/i0097-3157-155-1-117.1.
• McClain, C. R., A. G. Boyer and G. Rosenberg. 2006. The Island Rule and the evolution of body size in the deep sea. Journal of Biogeography 33: 1578-1584. doi 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01545.x.
• Rosenberg, G. 1992. The Encyclopedia of Seashells. Dorset Press, New York. 224 pp., 300+ color illustrations.
  
  
  

Education:

• BS, Molecular Genetics, University of Rochester, 1999 (advisors: John Jaenike & Wolfgang Stephan)
• PhD, Ecology and Evolution, University of Arizona, 2004 (advisor: Nancy Moran)
• NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 2005-2006 (advisor: Naomi Pierce)
• Green Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 2006-2007 (advisor: Naomi Pierce)

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

• Roles of bacterial symbionts in ant evolution
• Function, stability, and dynamics of heritable symbiont communities in aphids
• Genomic mechanisms driving correlations between symbiosis and insect ecology
• Coevolutionary histories between insects and their microbes

Symbiosis is a defining feature of eukaryotic biology. Animals are no exception, exhibiting nearly ubiquitous relationships with bacterial symbionts that shape their nutrition, digestion, and defense. Many of these interactions are ancient and highly specialized, having enabled the colonization of previously inhospitable niches and the subsequent diversification of their animal hosts.

Through a combination of molecular, bioinformatic, phylogenetic, and experimental techniques, my lab’s research investigates the functional significance and evolutionary histories of symbioses between animals and bacteria. Our lab- and field-based studies focus on two research systems, aphids and ants, enabling explorations of symbiont-mediated adaptation across recent to ancient timescales. Our findings suggest the potential for defensive symbionts to drive rapid adaptation in aphid populations and the impacts of nutritional symbionts on the success of several diverse lineages of herbivorous ants.

Current Federal Funding

NSF, Integrative and Organismal Biology, Award #1754597. "Collaborative Research: Competition and cooperation in the defensive symbiont communities of aphids.” $487,591. 2018-2022. (role: PI; with PI Kerry Oliver, Associate Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Georgia)

NSF, Dimensions of Biodiversity, Award #1442144 “Dimensions: Identifying how the ecological and evolutionary interactions between host and symbiont shape holobiont biodiversity.” 2015-2020. (PI, along with: PI Corrie Moreau, Assistant Curator of Entomology, Field Museum of Natural History; PI John Wertz, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Calvin College; PI Scott Powell, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, George Washington University).

Research Focus

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Parfrey LW, Moreau CS, Russell JA. (2018) Introduction – The host-associated microbiome: Pattern, process, and function. Molecular Ecology 27: 1749–1765.
• Hu Y*, Sanders J*, Łukasik P, D’Amelio CL, Millar JS, Vann DR, Lan Y, Newton JA, Schotanus, Kronauer DJC, Pierce NE, Moreau CS, Wertz J, Engel P, Russell JA. (2018) Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome. Nature Communications 9: 964. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Rock DI*, Smith AH*, Joffe J, Albertus A, Wong N, O’Connor M, Oliver K, Russell JA (2018) Context-dependent vertical transmission shapes strong symbiont community structure in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Molecular Ecology 27: 2039-2056. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Łukasik P, Newton JA, Sanders JG, Hu Y, Moreau CS, Kronauer DJC, O’Donnell S, Koga R, Russell JA (2017) The structured diversity of specialized gut symbionts of the New World army ants. Molecular Ecology 26: 3808-3825.
• Russell JA, Oliver KM, Hansen AK (2017) Band-aids for Buchnera and B vitamins for all. Molecular Ecology 26: 2199-2203. (invited perspective article)
• Hu Y, Holway DA, Łukasik P, Chau L, Kay AD, LeBrun EG, Miller KA, Sanders JG, Suarez AV, Russell JA (2017) By their own devices: invasive Argentine ants have shifted diet without clear aid from symbiotic microbes. Molecular Ecology 26: 1608-1630.
• Russell JA, Sanders JG, Moreau CM (2017) Hotspots for symbiosis: Function, evolution, and specificity of ant-microbe associations from trunk to tips of the ant phylogeny (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 24: 43-69. (invited review)
• Oliver KM, Russell JA (2016) Introduction to symbiosis. In: Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology, vol. 4: 282-290. Edited by Kliman RM, Oxford Academic Press.
• Smith AH, Łukasik P, O’Connor MP, Lee A, Mayo G, Drott MT, Doll S, Tuttle R, DiSciullo RA, Messina A, Oliver KM, Russell JA (2015) Patterns, causes, and consequences of defensive microbiome dynamics across multiple scales. Molecular Ecology: accepted.
• Sullam KE, Rubin BER, Dalton CM, Kilham SS, Flecker AS, Russell JA (2015) Divergence across diet, time, and populations rules out parallel evolution in the gut microbiomes of Trinidadian guppies. ISME Journal doi:10.1038/ismej.2014.231.
• Russell JA, Hu Y, Chau L, Pauliushchyk M, Anastopoulos I, Anandan A, Waring MS. (2014) Indoor biofilter growth and exposure to airborne chemicals drive similar changes in the bacterial communities of plant roots. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 80: 4805-4813.
• Russell JA, Dubilier N, Rudgers JA (2014) Nature’s microbiome: introduction. Molecular Ecology 23: 1225-1237.
• Hu Y, Łukasik P, Moreau CS, Russell JA (2014) Correlates of gut community composition across an ant species (Cephalotes varians) elucidate causes and consequences of symbiotic variability. Molecular Ecology 23: 1284-1300.
• Oliver KM, Smith AH, Russell JA (2014) Defensive symbiosis in the real world—diversity and maintenance of protective bacteria across aphids and other insects. Functional Ecology 28: 341-355. (invited review) (cover image)
• Russell JA, Weldon S, Smith AH, Kim KL, Hu Y, Łukasik P, Doll S, Anastopoulos I, Novin M, Oliver KM (2013) Uncovering symbiont-driven genetic diversity across North American pea aphids. Molecular Ecology 22: 2045-2059.
• Russell JA, Funaro CF, Milton Y, Goldman-Huertas B, Suh D, Moreau CS, Kronauer D, Pierce NE (2012) A veritable menagerie of heritable bacteria across the ants, lepidopterans, and beyond. PLoS One 7(12): e51027. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051027
• Sullam KE, Essinger S, Lozupone CA, O’Connor M, Rosen G, Knight R, Kilham SS, Russell JA. (2012) Environmental and ecological factors that shape the gut bacterial communities of fish: a meta-analysis. Molecular Ecology 21: 3363-3378.
• Anderson KE*, Russell JA*, Moreau CS, Katuz S, Sullam KE, Hu Y, Basinger U, Mott BM, Buch N, Wheeler D (2012) Highly similar microbial communities are shared among related and trophically similar ant species. Molecular Ecology 21: 2282-2296. (*co-first-authors)
• Russell JA (2012) The ants are unique and enigmatic hosts of prevalent Wolbachia symbionts. Myrmecological News 16: 7-23. (invited review)
• Funaro CF, Kronauer DJC, Moreau CS, Goldman-Huertas B, Pierce NE, Russell JA. (2011) Army ants harbor a host-specific clade of Entomoplasmatales bacteria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77: 346-350.
• Russell JA, Moreau C, Goldman-Huertas B, Fujiwara M, Lohman D, Pierce NE. (2009) Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA: 106: 21236-21241.
• Russell JA, Goldman-Huertas B, Moreau CS, Baldo, L, Stahlhut JK, Werren JH, Pierce NE (2009) Specialization and geographic isolation among Wolbachia symbionts from ants and lycaenid butterflies. Evolution 63: 624-640.
• Oliver KM, Russell JA, Moran NA, Hunter MS (2003) Facultative bacterial symbionts in aphids confer resistance to parasitic wasps. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100: 1803-1807.

Education:

• BA, Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Geneseo, 2000
• MS, Geology, University of Cincinnati
• PhD, Geosciences, Penn State, 2009

Research Interests:

• Paleoecology
• Ocean Acidification
• Extinction Recovery Dynamics
• Global Warming

Bio:

Jocelyn Sessa, PhD, is a paleobiologist who uses the fossil record as a natural laboratory to study times of change in earth’s history. Her research melds fossil and modern data to elucidate the response of mollusk faunas (clams and snails) to environmental perturbations across space and time. Sessa’s studies span a wide range of events, from the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs to past climatic fluctuations, including intervals of past and present global warming. By analyzing the chemistry of mollusk shells, she also reconstructs the climatic conditions that affected ecosystems.

A new research initiative is focused on determining historical baselines for modern ocean acidification, to ascertain whether certain regions or species in the global ocean may be more resilient to future changes in ocean chemistry than others. Sessa’s hunt for mollusks is a worldwide endeavor, with fieldwork along the US eastern seaboard, the US Gulf Coast, California, Romania and Angola. An important facet of her scholarship is mentoring high school through graduate students in research projects. Sessa is passionate about making science accessible to everyone. Since 2007, she has participated in programs to engage groups under-represented in the sciences, and is excited to continue this work in the Philadelphia Area.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Jardine, P.E., Harrington, G.J., Sessa, J.A., Dašková, J. 2018. Drivers and constraints on floral latitudinal diversification gradients. Journal of Biogeography 45:1408-1419; doi:10.1111/jbi.13216.
• Self-Trail, J.M., Robinson, M.M., Bralower, T.J., Sessa, J.A., Hajek, E.A., Kump, L.R., Trampush, S.M., Willard, D.A., Edwards, L.E., Powars, D.A., and Wandless, G.A. 2017. Coastal marine response to global climate change during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, Salisbury Embayment. Paleoceanography 32:1-19 doi:10.1002/2017PA003096.
• Janssen, A.W., Sessa, J.A., and Thomas, E. 2016. Pteropoda (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Thecosomata)from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum of the United States Atlantic Coastal Plain.Palaeontologia Electronica. 19.3.47A: 1-26. http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2016/1662-pteropoda-from-the-usa-petm
• Knoll, K., Landman, N. H., Cochran, J. K., MacLeod, K. G., and Sessa, J. A. 2016. Microstructural preservation and the effects of diagenesis on the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of Late Cretaceous aragonitic mollusks from the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Western Interior Seaway. American Journal of Science 316:591–613.
• Sessa, J.A., Larina, E., Knoll, K., Garb, M. Cochran, J.K., Huber, B.T., MacLeod, K.G., Landman, N.H. 2015. Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112:15562-15567. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/11/1507554112.
• Sluijs, A., van Roij, L., Harrington, G.J., Schouten, S., Sessa, J.A., Levay, L.J., Reichart, G.J., Slomp, C.P. 2014. Warming, euxinia and sea level rise during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on the Gulf Coastal Plain: implications for ocean oxygenation and nutrient cycling. Climate of the Past 10:1421-1439.
• Sessa, J.A., Callapez, P.M., Dinis, P.A., Hendy, A.J.W. 2013. Paleoenvironmental and paleobiogeographical implications of a Middle Pleistocene mollusc assemblage from the marine terraces of Baía das Pipas, Angola. Journal of Paleontology 87:1016-1040.
• Sessa, J.A., Ivany, L.C., Schlossnagle, T.H., Samson, S.D., Schellenberg, S.A. 2012. The fidelity of oxygen and strontium isotope values from shallow shelf settings: Implications for temperature and age reconstructions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 342-343:27-39.
• Sessa, J.A., Bralower, T.J., Patzkowsky, M.E., Handley, J.C. Ivany, L.C. 2012. Environmental and biological controls on the diversity and ecology of Late Cretaceous through early Paleogene marine ecosystems in the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain. Paleobiology 38: 218-239.
• Sessa, J.A., Patzkowsky, M.E., Bralower, T.J. 2009. Impact of lithification on the diversity, size distribution, and recovery dynamics of marine invertebrate assemblages. Geology 337:115-118.
• Alroy et al. 2008. Phanerozoic trends in the global diversity of marine invertebrates, Science 321: 97–100.
• Gibbs, S.J., Bown, P.R., Sessa, J.A., Bralower, T.J., Wilson, P.A. 2006. Nannoplankton origination and extinction across the PETM, Science 314:1770-1773.

Education:

• BS, Biology, Boston College
• MS, Biology, Rutgers University

Research Interests:

Bio:

Ron Smith is a BEES instructor and teaches environmental science in the Haddonfield School District in Haddonfield, NJ. Ron researches shorebird abundance and disturbance along the NJ coast, surveys amphibian diversity in the NJ Pine Barrens and practices ecological restoration, with focus on riparian corridors, along the Cooper River in the Lower Delaware Watershed. Centered out of Pinelands Preservation Alliance in Southampton, NJ, Ron leads the Life Science Field Training Institute for educators during the summer.

Specialization:

Education:

• BS, Biology, University of Dayton, Ohio
• PhD, Vertebrate Zoology and Physiological Ecology, University of Arkansas

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

Biology of sea turtles, crocodiles, salamanders and giant pandas

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Hertler, H., A. R. Boettner, G. I. Ramírez-Toro, H. Minnigh, J. Spotila, D. Kreeger. 2009. Spatial variability associated with shifting land use: Water quality and sediment metals in La Parguera, Southwest Puerto Rico. Marine Pollution Bulletin 58: 672–678.
• Santidrián Tomillo, P., J. S. Suss, B. P. Wallace, K. D. Magrini, G. Blanco, F. V. Paladino and J. R. Spotila. 2009. Influence of emergence success on the annual reproductive output of leatherback turtles. Marine Biology 156: 2021-2031.
• Sieg, A. E., E. Zandona, V. M. Izzo, F. V. Paladino, and J. R. Spotila. 2010. Population level “flipperedness” in the eastern Pacific leatherback turtle. Behavioural Brain Research 206: 135-138.
• Shillinger, G. L. A. M. Swithenbank, S. J. Bograd, H. Bailey, M. R. Castelton, B. P.Wallace, J. R. Spotila, F. V. Paladino, R. Piedra, B. A. Block. 2010. Identification of high-use internesting habitats for eastern Pacific leatherback turtles: role of the environment and implications for conservation. Endangered Species Research. 10:215-2432 doi: 10.3354/esr00251

Education:

• Diploma, Geology, University of Lausanne (Switzerland), 2001
• MSc, Earth Science, University of Lausanne (Switzerland), 2002
• PhD, Geology & Geophysics, University of Hawaii, 2008

Research Interests:

I use multidisciplinary approaches to study the entirety of the volcanic system, from magma generation, to transport, and emplacement. I am particularly interested in the cyclicity of volcanic eruptions, volcanic degassing processes, and large igneous provinces. My research commonly uses a wide array of methods, ranging from volcano monitoring and thermal remote sensing, to high-temperature geochemistry, igneous petrology, and experimental volcanology.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Carr, B.B., Clarke, A.B., Arrowsmith, J.R., Vanderkluysen, L. & Dhanu, B.E. 2018. The emplacement of the active lava flow at Sinabung Volcano, Sumatra, Indonesia, documented by structure-from-motion photogrammetry. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.
• Rader, E.L., Vanderkluysen, L. & Clarke, A.B. 2017. The role of pulsating effusion rates on inflation in sustained lava flow fields. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 477, 73–83. 
• Bryan, S., Clarke, A.B., Vanderkluysen, L., Groppi, C., Paine, S., Bliss, D.W., Aberle, J. & Mauskopf, P. 2017. Measuring Water Vapor and Ash in Volcanic Eruptions with a Millimeter-Wave Radar/Imager. IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55(6).   
• Renne, P.R., Sprain, C.J., Richards, M.A., Self, S., Vanderkluysen, L. & Pande, K. 2015. State shift in Deccan volcanism at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, possibly induced by impact. Science 350, 76-78.
• Vanderkluysen, L., Harris, A.J.L., Kelfoun, K. Bonadonna, C., & Ripepe, M. 2012. Bombs behaving badly: Unexpected trajectories of volcanic projectiles. Bulletin of Volcanology 74(8), 1849–1858.

Current Projects:

• In situ characterization of airborne volcanic ash and aerosols using sUAS-mounted instrumentation. PhD project.
• Eruptive history and volcanic hazards on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. PhD project.
• Fluctuations in volcanic gas emissions at mud pots and geysers, Yellowstone Volcano. Various student projects.
• 3D architecture and volume estimates of eruptive units of the Deccan Traps large igneous province (India). Undergraduate student projects.
• Refining geochemistry-based methods of basalt classification using machine learning algorithms. Various student projects.
• New methodologies and instrumentation for the monitoring of “wet” volcanoes
• Effusive-explosive transitions and cyclicality at persistently active arc volcanoes
  
  

Education:

• BS, Oceanography, Minor in chemistry, Florida Institute of Technology, 1977
• PhD, Chemical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, 1987

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

• Fate and transport of chemical contaminants
• Stable isotope and nutrient biogeochemistry
• Sediment geochemistry and deposition
• Water quality

Bio:

David Velinsky, PhD, is Head of the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science at Drexel University and Vice President of Academy Science at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. He obtained a BS Degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Oceanography with a minor in Chemistry and was awarded his PhD degree from Old Dominion University in Chemical Oceanography.

For his doctorate, Velinsky studied the cycling of trace elements in coastal marshes of the Delaware Estuary for his dissertation. He then continued his studies as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware and at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington. He used stable isotopes to study nutrient sources in anoxic environments around the world (e.g., Black Sea and Framvaren Fjord, Norway).

Velinsky is currently studying the movement and cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in estuarine and freshwater environments in the mid-Atlantic region. A focus of his work are aspects of water quality and wetland ecosystem services in the Delaware and Barnegat Bays. Velinsky is the author of 50 peer-reviewed publications and has delivered more than 70 presentations at local, national and international scientific meetings. He is a member of the Toxics Advisory Committee at the Delaware River Basin Commission and a member of the Science Advisory Board for the State of New Jersey.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Unger, V., T. Elsey-Quirk, C. Sommerfield and D. Velinsky. 2016. Stability of organic carbon accumulating in Spartina alterniflora-dominated salt marshes of the mid-Atlantic US. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science. 182: 179-189.
• Nyphus. R. and others. 2016. Environmental Deans and Directors Call for NSF Climate Funding. Science. Science 352: 755-756.
• Ashley, J.T.F, R. Soroka, Y. Cintron, A. Sarno, L. Zaoudeh, D. J. Velinsky and J. Baker. 2016. Can polychlorinated biphenyls be removed from Chesapeake Bay by a commercial fishery? Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2(12); 397–406
• Paudel, B., T. Belton, H. Pang and D.J. Velinsky. 2016 Spatial variability of estuarineenvironmental drivers and response by phytoplankton: A model based approach. Ecological Informatics 34 (2016) 1–12
• Velinsky, D.J., H. Holland, and F.N Scatena. 2015. 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science presented to Robert Arbuckle Berner. Journal of the Franklin Institute 352(7): 2591-2595.
• Rowell, H.C, R.F. Bopp, F. Peng, D.J.Velinsky, and J.A. Bloomfield. 2015. Annually LaminatedSediments in Onondaga Lake, NY: high resolution stratigraphy for interpreting lake degradation and recovery. Journal of Paleolimnology 53: 107-121 (DOI 10.1007/s10933-014-9811-5)
• Weston, N.B, S.C. Neubauer, D.J. Velinsky and M.A. Vile. 2014. Net Ecosystem Carbon Exchange an the Greenhouse Gas Balance of Tidal Marshes along an Estuarine Salinity Gradient. Biogeochemistry:120: 163-189. (August)
• Pearson, S.H., S.S. Kilham, D.J. Velinsky, J.R. Spotila, and H.W. Avery. 2013 Stable isotopes of C and Nreveal habitat dependent dietary overlap between native and introduced turtles Pseudemys rubriventrisand Trachemys scripta. PLOS One 8(5): e62891 (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062891)
• Smith, A.J., R.L. Thomas, J.K. Nolan, D.J. Velinsky, S. Klein, and B.T. Duffy. 2013. Regional nutrientthresholds in wadeable streams of New York State protective of aquatic life. Ecol. Ind. 29: 455-467.
• Elsey-Quirk, T., A. Smyth, M. Piehler, J. Mead and D.J. Velinsky 2013. Exchange of nitrogen through anurban tidal freshwater wetland in Philadelphia, PA. Jour. Environ. Qual. 42: 1-12.
• Ismail, N.S., D.J. Velinsky, J.T.F. Ashley and R.W. Sanders. 2013. Chorioallantoic membrane as a non lethal sampling method for polychlorinated biphenyls analysis in the northern diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin). Chemistry and Ecology 29(5): 391-4023.
• Velinsky, D.J., G.R. Riedel, J.T. Ashley and J. Cornwell 2011. A contamination history of the Anacostia River, Washington, D.C. Environmental Assessment and Monitoring (published online).
• Weston, N.B., M.A. Vile, S.C. Neubauer and D.J. Velinsky. 2011. Accelerated microbial organic matter mineralization following salt-water intrusion into tidal freshwater marsh soils. Biogeochemistry 102 (1-3):135-151.
• Stansley, W., D.J. Velinsky and R. Thomas. 2010. Mercury and halogenated organic contaminants in river otters (Lontra Canadensis) in New Jersey USA. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry; 29: 2235-2242.
• Ashley, J.T.F., J.S. Ward, M.W. Schafer, H.M. Stapleton, and D.J. Velinsky. 2010 Polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in fish oil supplements: Evaluating exposure and health risks. Food Additives and Contaminants 27(8): 1177-1185.
• Ashley, J.T.F., M.L. Webster, J.E. Baker, R. Horwitz, and D.J. Velinsky. 2009. Polychlorinated biphenyls in sediment and biota from the Delaware River estuary. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 158: 89-105.
• McGee, B.L, A.E. Pinkney, D.J. Velinsky, J.T.F. Ashley, D.J. Fisher, L.C. Ferrington and T.J Norberg-King. 2009. Using the sediment quality triad to characterize baseline conditions in the Anacostia River, Washington, DC. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment: 156: 51-67.

Education:

• AB, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
• MA/PhD, Physical Geography, University of California, Berkeley
• Post-Doctoral: Land, Air & Water Resources, UC Davis
• Post-Doctoral: Depto. Geología; CICESE, Baja California, México

Research Interests:

I am a coastal scientist broadly interested in implications of global and regional environmental change, and unraveling the interacting effects of multiple anthropogenic stressors on coastal ecosystems to promote more informed management, conservation, and restoration.  Current and recent projects address the implementation and success of coastal climate-adaptation strategies in southern New England; developing indicators of nutrient enrichment for Long Island, NY estuaries; using CT scans to visualize belowground biomass of wetland plants; toxicological effects of macroalgae; and the 150-year reconstruction of cumulative nitrogen pollution in Narragansett Bay.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Watson, E.B., C. Wigand, M. Cencer, K. Blount. 2015. Inundation and precipitation effects on growth and flowering of the high marsh species Juncus gerardii. Aquatic Botany 121: 52-56.
• Watson, E.B., A.J. Oczkowski, C. Wigand, A. Hanson, E.W. Davey, S.C. Crosby, R.L. Johnson, and H.M. Andrews. 2014. Nutrient enrichment and precipitation changes do not enhance resiliency of salt marshes to sea level rise in the Northeastern U.S. Climatic Change 125: 501-509.
• Wigand, C., C.T. Roman, E. Davey, M. Stolt, R.L. Johnson, A.R. Hanson, E.B. Watson, S.B. Moran, D.R. Cahoon, J.C. Lynch, and P. Rafferty. 2014. Below the disappearing marshes of an urban estuary: historic nitrogen trends and soil structure. Ecological Applications 24: 633-649.
• García-García, A., M. Leavey, and E. B. Watson. 2013. High resolution seismic study of the Holocene infill of the Elkhorn Slough, Central California. Continental Shelf Research 55: 108-118.
• Watson, E.B., and R. Byrne. 2013. Late Holocene salt marsh expansion in southern San Francisco Bay, California. Estuaries and Coasts 36: 643-653.
• Watson, E.B., K. Wasson, G.B. Pasternack, A. Woolfolk, E. Van Dyke, A.B. Gray, A. Pakenham, and R.A. Wheatcroft.  2011. Applications from paleoecology to environmental management and restoration in a dynamic coastal environment. Restoration Ecology 19: 765-775.

Education:

• BS, Natural Resources, University of Michigan, 1993
• MS, Zoology, University of Minnesota, 1997
• PhD, Zoology, Louisiana State University, 2003

Research Interests:

My current research program focuses on three main areas: 1) avian phylogenetics, comparative biology and evolutionary history, 2) biodiversity surveys of birds and their parasites and pathogens, and 3) coevolutionary history of birds and their parasites.  My research involves both active field collecting of bird and associated parasite specimens and analysis of DNA sequence data to reconstruct the evolutionary histories of birds and their parasites.  Specimens housed in natural history collections such as the Academy of Natural Sciences are a critical resource for my research program.

Bio:

Jason Weckstein is an associate professor in Drexel's BEES department and associate curator in the department of Ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Jason obtained his BS degree in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan in 1993, his MS in Zoology from the University of Minnesota and his PhD from Louisiana State University in 2003.  After obtaining his PhD Jason was a postdoctoral fellow at the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where he stayed on as a staff scientist until joining the BEES faculty.  Jason has over 17 years of experience working in natural history museums and has conducted research on birds and their parasites in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Brazil.  In addition to his teaching, training, and research, Jason's additional interests at the Academy of Natural Sciences include collections building, curation and public outreach.

Specialization:

Selected Publications:

• Lutz, H. L., J. D. Weckstein, J. S. L. Patané, J. M. Bates, A. Aleixo. 2013. Biogeography and spatio-temporal diversification of Selenidera and Andigena toucans (Aves : Ramphastidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69:873-883.
• Valim, M. P. and J. D. Weckstein. 2013. A drop in the bucket of the megadiverse chewing louse genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera, Amblycera, Menoponidae): ten new species from Amazonian Brazil.  Folia Parasitologica 60:377-400.
• Seeholzer, G. F., B. M. Winger, M. G. Harvey, D. Caceres A., and J. D. Weckstein. 2012. A new species of barbet (Capitoninae: Capito) from the Cerros del Sira, Ucayali, Peru. Auk 129:551-559.
• Johnson, K. P., J. D. Weckstein, S. E. Bush, and D. H. Clayton. 2011. The evolution of host specificity in dove body lice. Parasitology 138:1730-1736.
• Johnson, K. P. and J. D. Weckstein. 2011. The Central American land bridge as an engine of diversification in new world doves. Journal of Biogeography 38:1069-1076.
• Johnson, K. P., J. D. Weckstein, M. J. Meyer, and D. H. Clayton. 2011. There and back again: Switching between host orders by avian body lice (Ischnocera: Goniodidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 102:614-625.
• Weckstein, J. D. 2005. Molecular Phylogenetics of the Ramphastos toucans: Implications for the evolution of morphology, vocalizations, and coloration. Auk 122:1191-1209.
• Weckstein, J. D. 2004. Biogeography explains cophylogenetic patterns in toucan chewing lice. Systematic Biology 53:154-164.