Friends of Long Marine Lab supports 11 student research projects

January 1, 2007

Albatrosses, harbor seals, steelhead trout, and leopard sharks are among the subjects of the 11 student research projects that will be supported this year by the Friends of Long Marine Lab Student Research and Education Awards. The awards will provide a total of $9,512 in research funding for the student projects, which were selected by a proposal review committee.

The award recipients will be recognized at a special ceremony and reception at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center on Thursday, January 25. In addition, the Friends of Long Marine Lab will honor the top two student research award recipients--Caren Barceló, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, and Brett Walker, a graduate student in ocean sciences--with a special award to be presented at the annual Global Oceans Gourmet Dinner on April 14 at Chaminade.

The Friends of LML provides funding for public education, marine mammal programs, and student research, as well as the development and operation of the Seymour Center. The Student Research and Education Awards come from the interest generated by five different endowments: the Jane McHenry Student Awards Fund, the Lillian McPherson Rouse Student Award Fund, the Friends of LML Student Support Fund, the Mark T. MacMillan Memorial Prize Fund, and the Ken Norris Marine Mammal Research Award.

The winning student researchers and their projects are as follows:

Masako Abney
"The effects of hydrostatic pressure on the hair layer of pinnipeds"

Caren Barceló
"Do hitchhiking crabs eat feces of epibionts? The diet of columbus crabs with sea turtles in the Pacific, looking specifically at crab diet and social structure"

Alison Collins
"Importance of marine derived nutrients for juvenile steelhead reared in seasonal coastal lagoon"

Amanda Jensen
"Genetic analysis of Mugil cephalus populations in the northern Gulf of California"

Michelle Kappes
"Oceanographic habitat use of four species of albatrosses: A comparative study"

Lana Krol
"A study of the resting rate metabolism of the leopard shark Triakis semifasciata under different physiological conditions"

Jennifer Lehman
"Investigating the existence of autotrophic archaea in the mesopelagic ocean using stable Carbon 13 and Nitrogen 15 isotopic fractionation patterns of individual amino acids"

Leslie Roland
"Pinnipeds consuming the McFish of the sea? Assessing the diet of S.F. Bay harbor seals using compound-specific isotope analysis"

Nicole Teutschel
"Northern elephant seal weaner foraging success as determined by mass and whisker stable Carbon 13 and Nitrogen 15 isotope ratios"

Brett Walker
"Upwelling and the California current system: A dynamic source of coastal dissolved organic matter"

Justin Yeakel
"The coyotes of Isla Magdalena: Impacts of fisheries by-catch on a desert island"