Preparing for summer research & news

MS student Jessica Nichols and Davidson are preparing for a field trip to Rookery Bay, Florida to check on a field experiment. They are examining how wood-boring crustaceans and mollusks breakdown and alter structural complexity ​​of wood debris in mangroves and the how such alterations may affect habitat use by other species. Last year, Nichols and Davidson (along with help from Dr. Andrew Altieri and CSUS student Anthony Ziba) deployed structurally complex wood habitat mimics (vulnerable to borers), identical habitat mimics made of fiberglass (impervious to borers), and control plots (no structure control). 

New MS student Sarah Albright took a group of high school students to survey for invasive marine algae in San Francisco Bay. Sarah is interested in the role of fragmentation in facilitating invasion by invasive algae. 
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Finally, Ethan Roberts won 1st place at the Sacramento State Student Research & Creative Activity Spring Symposium. Ethan presented his updated results in his talk: "It's not the heat, it's the humidity: burrow
microhabitats created by a boring crustacean ameliorate stressful conditions in the intertidal." He received a small cash prize will be going on to to present his talk in a CSU-wide competition at CSU Fullerton later next month. Congrats to Ethan for his hard work!