May 8, 2006
Myers Trust awards grants to nine UCSC students
for marine research
By Tim Stephens
The Dr. Earl H. Myers and Ethel M. Myers Oceanographic and
Marine Biology Trust of Pebble Beach has granted $13,300 to
nine UCSC students who conduct marine-related research.
Each year the trust supports the work of outstanding student
researchers in the Monterey Bay Area. The trust was established
by the estates of Earl H. Myers, an internationally known oceanographic
biologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station who
died in 1975, and his wife and research assistant Ethel M. Myers,
who died in 1985.
The awards include the Ferd Ruth Award, established in honor
of the late Ferd Ruth and given this year to UCSC student Matt
Bromage. Ferd Ruth and his son Steve have managed the Myers
Trust since its inception.
This year's awards, which range from $1,000 to $2,900, went
to the following graduate students:
Yvette R. Alva, "Reconstructing the biogeography
of reef fish in the Tropical Eastern Pacific" (faculty
adviser Giacomo Bernardi, ecology and evolutionary biology)
Matt Bromage (Ferd Ruth Award), "SEA-LABS: A sensor
network for real-time monitoring of shallow marine habitat"
(faculty advisers Donald Potts, ecology and evolutionary biology,
and Katia Obraczka, computer engineering)
Petra Dekens, "Seasonal and interannual climate
variability associated with El Nino Southern Oscillation during
the early Holocene" (faculty advisers Christina Ravelo
and Matthew McCarthy, ocean sciences)
Robin Dunkin, "Seasonal changes in metabolic rate,
caloric intake, body mass, and blubber thickness in cetaceans"
(faculty adviser Terrie Williams, ecology and evolutionary biology)
Katie Griffith, "Distribution and abundance of
Cuscuta salina (salt marsh dodder) at Elkhorn Slough"
(faculty advisers Todd Newberry and Peter Raimondi, ecology and
evolutionary biology)
Sora Kim, "A biogeochemical approach to study dietary
changes of white sharks off the California coast from modern,
historical and archaeological vertebrae remains" (faculty
adviser Paul Koch)
Kelly M. Newton, "At-sea mortality patterns of
Monterey Bay seabirds" (faculty advisers Donald Croll and
Bernie Tershy, ecology and evolutionary biology)
David L. Revell, "Shoreline stability: linking
natural history and ecology along the Santa Barbara coast to
inform coastal decision-making and conservation" (faculty
adviser Gary Griggs, Earth sciences)
Dana K. Wingfield, "Elucidating habitat use of
foraging juvenile loggerhead turtles in Baja California Sur,
Mexico" (faculty advisers Gary Griggs, Earth sciences,
and Donald Croll, ecology and evolutionary biology)