Inhabitants

Lab Inhabitants

Erica Young

      general dogsbody, complaints department…

link to CV

Alicia Hanson – grad student – ecology of freshwater viruses

Chang-Jae Choigrad student – toxin detection using algal chl a fluorescence, flow cytometry

Jason Berg – grad student – invasive plant species in Cedarburg Bog

Philip Lee – grad student – Great Lakes aquatic ecology

Zac Driscoll – undergrad research experience student – Use of P sources by algae

Jessi Sielicki – undergrad researcher – hydrolytic enzymes in pitcher plants

Kaytee Pokrzywinski  – undergrad research experience student – Si cycling in Lake Michigan

Former inhabitants now doing other stuff…

Jason Mills

      – postdoctoral associate – wetland ecology and invasive species. Now teaching at St Norbert College, WI

Chelsea Lowes – grad student – use of P forms by phytoplankton (defended July 2009!). Now at NOAA

Terry Bott – grad student – pitcher plant ecology (defended Aug 2007!) – now teaching at UWM and MATC

Lori Pansch – research technician (2006 – 2007) – APA regulation – now at WI DNR

Former undergrad research students

Tyler Dassey (2008-9) –

      undergrad research experience student – Use of P sources by algae

Nicolas Nadelhoffer (2008) – undergrad research intern hydrology of Cedarburg Bog

Amy Rymaszewski (2008) – undergrad researcher – algae, cyanobacteria, pitcher plants

Pamela Stogsdill (2008) – undergrad researcher – dendrochronology (with UWMFS)

Leah Klatt (2007) Shrub traits database for Cedarburg Bog vegetation analysis (with UWMFS)

Lizz Waring (2007) Herb traits database for Cedarburg Bog vegetation analysis (with UWMFS)

Mary McQuiggin (2007) GIS Plant community mapping in Cedarburg Bog (with UWMFS)

Jason Schroeder (2007) GIS landscape classification of wetland catchment (with UWMFS)

Danielle Sippel (2007) Wetland vegetation – tamarack and invasive buckthorn (with UWMFS)

Jamie Smith (2006) Pitcher plant ultrastructure using SEM (with Heather Owen EM Lab)

Rebecca Tucker (REU 2006) APA in Cladophora – now grad student at Purdue University!

Marie Barabas (2006) Diatom photosynthesis

Teresa Roth (REU 2005) Cladophora P use

Brett Floyd (REU 2004) Cladophora nutrient status

Vanessa Ash (2004) Freezing stress in Cladophora

Inhabitant Profiles

    • Dr Jason Mills

    • BS Univ Wisconsin-Stevens Point 1998

 

      PhD Univ Wisconsin-Madison 2005

Research Interests

        Plant community ecology

 

        Invasive species

 

        Ecological change

Research Project:

        My research at the Cedarburg Bog focuses on vegetation change and biological invasion. Most of the data I work with come from two samples of the vegetation, the first conducted in 1991 and the second in 2006. In collaboration with Erica Young, Gretchen Meyer and Jim Reinartz, I explored these data for signs of vegetation change that might result from climate change. The Cedarburg Bog contains many plant species unusual in southern Wisconsin, but common much further north (e.g., near Upper Peninsula of Michigan and into Canada). These northern species might be especially sensitive to a changing climate, since they tend to prefer cooler conditions. Having compared the vegetation data from 1991 and 2006, I found no sign that northern species, as a group, had declined in abundance. Of course, our samples span only 15 years. The most dramatic change involved the exotic shrub glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula). Despite dramatic increases in the abundance of buckthorn (it nearly doubled in frequency), the invasion elicited little apparent response among co-occurring plants in the Cedarburg Bog. Compared to the results presented in the vast majority published studies of biological invasions, our findings are unusual. We believe that disturbance history influences the response of a plant community to invasion. Cedarburg Bog is largely undisturbed, so the plants that grow there may more easily accommodate invaders than plants at disturbed sites.

Publications:

        Mills JE, Schroeder J, Reinartz J, Meyer G, Young EB. Land cover and land use changes (1941 to 2000) on the landscape surrounding a large, undisturbed wetland. Submitted.

Mills JE, Reinartz J, Meyer GA and Young EB. An exotic invasive shrub has greater recruitment and broader distribution than native shrub species across diverse wetland habitats. Submitted

Mills J.E., Reinartz J.A., Meyer G.A., Young E.B. 2009. Exotic shrub invasion in an undisturbed wetland has little community-level effect over a 15-year period. Biological Invasions 11: 1803-1820.

Mills J.E. 2008. Fifty years of change in Wisconsin cedar glades. American Midland Naturalist 159:214–224.

    • Alicia Hanson

    • BS (Marine Biology) Hawaii Pacific University 2005

Research Intern at the Whale Center of New England,
Gloucester, MA 2005

Hometown:

        Oshkosh, WI

Interests:

        Freshwater Viruses, Phosphorus cycling in Lake Michigan, Teaching Biology

Research Project:

        Examining the viral community in Lake Michigan and the role of viral cell lysis in freshwater phosphorus cycles.

Publications:

      Hanson A, Yabes J, Primavera L. 2008. Cultivation of Lemon Basil, Ocimum americanum, in two different hydroponic configurations supplemented with various concentrations of Tilapia aquaculture green water. BIOS. In Press
  • Chelsea Lowes

    – now at NOAA in D.C. on a Knauss Fellowship for 2009

      BS (Environmental Chemistry) Lake Superior State University, 2006

Hometown:

        Rapid City, MI

Interests:

        Great Lakes ecology, Phosphorus use by freshwater phytoplankton

 

        Great Lakes preservation through environmental policy and public education

Research Project:

        Investigating the ability of cyanobacterial isolates and Lake Michigan phytoplankton communities to grow on alternative phosphorus sources, including glyphosate – the most widely used herbicide in the world!

Other relevant research experience:

        NSF-REU at Furman University working on phosphorus and nitrogen dynamics in a small, urban watershed. 2004

Intern for Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in Petoskey, MI. Performed erosion and Cladophora surveys on large inland lakes in Northern Lower Michigan. Also participated in public education and outreach regarding important local ecological issues. 2005

Intern for the Conservation Research Alliance in Traverse City, MI. Conducted road-stream crossing inventory on important local trout rivers, erosion surveys, and assisted with public outreach and educational programs.

    • Chang Jae Choi

    • BS (Life Sciences) Korea University

 

      BS (Environmental Biology) Korea University

Hometown:

        Seoul, South Korea

Interests:

        Phytoplankton Mortality, Caspases and metacaspases, Evolution of programmed cell death pathways

Research Project:

        In the Young lab, Chang Jae has been investigating algal responses to aquatic toxins using chlorophyll a fluorescence characteristics and using flow cytometry to characterize cyanobacteria. In the Berges lab, his PhD thesis research involves examining the role of caspases in mortality processes in microalgae.

Publications:

        Bowler C et al. 2008. The Phaeodactylum genome reveals the dynamics nature and multi-lineage evolutionary hisotry of diatom genomes. Nature 456: 239-244.

Franklin DJ, Choi CJ, Hughes C, Malin G, Berges JA. Large proportions of dead cells have little effect on variable chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv:Fm): implications for field surveys. Marine Ecology Progress Series 382: 35-40.

Choi CJ, Young EB. Rapid Detection of Dissolved Freshwater Toxins Using Chlorophyll a Fluorescence in Diverse Microalgal Species. Submitted.

  • Jason Berg

Associate of Art (Visual Comm)
Madison Area Tech College 2000
BS University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 2007

Interests:

    Invasive species ecology

Research Project:

    Investigating the role of propagule pressure on the establishment success of invasive glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) in the Cedarburg Bog wetland complex – in collaboration with Jason Mills, Gretchen Meyer and Jim Reinartz at the UWM Field Station. See more in Jason Mills’ profile above.

Other relevant research experience:

      Fisheries Technician WI Department of Natural Resources- Waukesha, WI 2006-2007

Researcher Assistant, Mallard Ridge Wetland Complex, 2007

    • Philip Lee

Degree:

        BS UW Oskhosh 2007

Interests:

        Great Lakes Production and Ecology, microbial diversity

Research Project:

        Lake Michigan nutrient dynamics, dreissenid mussels and benthic processes.

Research Experience:

        Antarctic phytoplankton – intern at McMurdo Research Base, Antarctica 2007-8.

Genetic diversity in freshwater aquatic plants – UW Oshkosh, summer 2008.

    • Terry Bott

      – Terry now has teaching positions at UWM and MATC

    • BS (Cons & Environ Sci) Univ Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2004

 

      MS Univ Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2007

Research Interests:

        Pitcher Plant ecology, Wetland Ecosystems, Teaching Biological Sciences

Research Project:

        Phenotypic plasticity and nutritional ecology of the Northern Pitcher Plant Sarracenia purpurea in two adjacent but chemically distinct wetland environments

Publications:

      Bott T, Meyer GA and Young EB. 2008. Nutrient limitation and morphological plasticity of the carnivorous pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea in contrasting wetland environments. New Phytologist. 180: 631-641.