Graduate Student Profiles 2022-2023

Graduate Student Profiles
Student Thesis Topic Major Advisor
Courtney Bayles Assessment of Strand Feeding Common Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Waters surrounding Captain Sam's Inlet, South Carolina: are Anthropogenic Impacts Influencing This Specialized Foraging Strategy? Brian Balmer
Hayden Bessette Jody Beers
Shannon Bley Investigation of Microplastics in Stormwater Ponds and Chronic Exposure to Grass Shrimp (Palaemon pugio) with a Focus on Tire Wear Particles John Weinstein
Elizabeth Bullard Drivers of Estuarine Finfish Community Structure: A Case Study of South Carolina Coastal Estuaries Joseph Ballenger
Christopher Carbon
Matt Carr
Kelly Cusick Michael Janech
Leah DiMaggio Lane snapper Lutjanus synagris: documenting age, growth, and reproductive biology in the U.S. Caribbean Virginia Shervette
Evan Dunn
Raven Ferguson Examining variation in response to No. 2 fuel oil exposure between tall- and short-form saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora): Implications for marsh restoration after an oil spill Paul Pennington
Gautam Ghosh Analysis of proteins associated with domoic acid toxicosis in cerebrospinal fluid of California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) Michael Janech
Jesi Gibbs Melissa Hughes
Maria Granquist Monitoring Microbiome changes of Mesphotic Corals during husbandry for restoration Thomas Greig
Ethan Johnson Temperature effects on the Sulfur for Phosphorus Lipid Substitution Strategy in P-limited Synechococcus WH-7803 Jack DiTullio
Gabby Jones
Hunt Jones Does Microbiome Diversity Affect the Cycling and Retention of Nutrients in Caribbean Sponges? Christopher Freeman
Margaret Knight Leslie Hart
Hannah Korper
Clayr Kroenke Application of eDNA, Metabarcoding, and PCR Techniques to Survey Community Variability and Pathogen Prevalence in Two South Salt Marsh Systems: A Pilot Study Thomas Greig
Jess Kusher Jack DiTullio
Dimitrios Kyridis
Kassidy Lange Biological Characteristics of Two Mesophotic Gorgonian Corals and
Suitability for Restoration
Peter Etnoyer
Hannah Linde
Kerryanne Litzenberg Physiological effects of age and temperature on blood chemistry, metabolism,
and mortality of harvested horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus
Jody Beers
Kelsey Martin Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in aquaculture feeds and potential dietary exposure from aquaculturally-raised fish Ashley Boggs
Alex Martinez
Grace McGrew
Robin Minch Do Environmental Conditions, Ontogeny, and Sexual Maturity Drive Changes in Ray Abundance and Distribution? Tracey Smart
Alexandra Mitchell Understanding reproductive development in female White Shrimp Penaeus setiferus in support of sustainable fisheries management Michael Kendrick
Alexander Parry Assessing Heterotrophic Feeding in Ecologically Dominant Caribbean Sponge Species Christopher Freeman
Emily Parsons Roadmaps to Restoration: the Effects of Genetic Relatedness on Fertilization Success of Threatened Stony Corals in the Florida Keys  Cheryl Woodley
Colin Perkins-Taylor Using unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) to investigate the body condition and blow microbiome of an estuarine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) population in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A. Norman Levine
Elle Pestorius Heather Fullerton
Nicole Principe Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to Understand the Habitat Use and Distribution Patterns of Common Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Cooper River and Surrounding Waters of Charleston, South Carolina Norman Levine
Rachel Prostko Predator and Refuge Density Effects on Movement and Mating Behavior of Snapping Shrimp Alpheus angulosus Melissa Hughes
Anna Quintrell Characterization of Microbiome in Coastal Shark Species Heather Fullerton
Rachel Radick Characterizing Invertebrate Communities Associated with the Cryptogenic Alga Chondria tumulosa in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawai’i Heather Spalding
Josh Ratay Characterization of loggerhead (Caretta caretta), Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), and green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtle diets in South Carolina, USA David Owens
Brandon Reding Modeling the Effects of Sample Size on Empirically Derived Natural Mortality Estimates Based on Maximum Age Walter Bubley
Ellen Reiber Population Genetic and Stock Enhancement Tools for Conservation of the Overfished White Seabass, Atractoscion nobilis Tanya Darden
Ian Rolfe Adaptations to the Photosynthetic Potential and Pigmentation of Mesophotic
Macroalgae in the Hawaiian Archipelago
Heather Spalding
Courtney Saldana Effects of Predicted Future Ocean Acidification and Dredging-Induced Turbidity on the Scleractinian Coral Lipidome Tracey Schock
Mikayla Sonnenfield Jack DiTullio
Jonathan Stewart The Impact of Select Fluorine Free Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) on the Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea virginica Ed Wirth
Carly Lynn Strange Ecological Association of Early Life History Stages of Fishes with Bottom Coverage of Benthic Algae Antony Harold
Michael Thienes Variability in Size at Maturity of Femail Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) in Coastal South Carolina Michael Kendrick
Anna Thornton Marie DeLorenzo
Annabelle Tierney Distribution and characterization of microplastics in sediments and commercial shrimp species in South Carolina estuaries Andrew Tweel
Conor Torris A Survey of Epibionts of Marine Arthropods in the Charleston Estuary John Zardus
Caroline Tribble Assessing the Influence of Anthropogenic Noise on Atlantic Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Vocalizations Using Long-Term Passive Acoustic Monitoring in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina Eric Montie
Lukas Troha Modeling the Selectivity and Fishing Mortality of Red Drum, Sciaenops ocellatus, in South Carolina from a Multiyear Tag-Recapture Study Joseph Ballenger
Gabrielle Tutelo Diet Composition of Juvenile Snapper-Grouper Species along the Southeast U.S. Atlantic Coast Tracey Smart
Ryan Ware
Josiah Waters Examining Temporal Patterns of Benthic Microalgal Community Structures in a South Carolina Salt Marsh Craig Plante
Catlyn Wells Characterizing the habitat utilization of commercially and recreationally important reef fish in the Southeast, US Walter Bubley
Jessica Wenclawiak Plastic Litter in Charleston Harbor: Characterizing Spatiotemporal Changes in Abundance and Assessing Microplastic Uptake and Depuration in Oysters, Crassostrea virginica John Weinstein
Morgan Will Predictive Habitat Modeling of Mesophotic and Deep-Sea Coral Species in the Gulf of Mexico Peter Etnoyer
Taylor Williams Reproductive System and Population Connectivity of a Cryptogenic,
Invasive-Like Red Alga at Manawai, Papahānaumokuākea Marine
National Monument
Heather Spalding
Matthew Young Utilizing Trace Elements and Stable Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Distribution of Scalloped (Sphyrna lewini) and Carolina (Sphyrna gilberti) Hammerheads Gorka Sancho
Adam Ziegler Determining Genetic Differentiation Among Populations of the Ecosystem Engineer, Diopatra cuprea, Using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) Erik Sotka