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USGS Employee Honored by Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist Helen Light was honored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at its annual Partnership Luncheon on April 27 in Panama City, Fla. Light was one of 35 individuals from various agencies and organizations honored by the USFWS. A botanist who works in the USGS Hydrologic Studies Section in Tallahassee, Fla., Light was recognized for her outstanding and lengthy history of commitment to conservation of the Apalachicola and other Florida rivers. The Apalachicola is a coastal-plain river that begins at the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers at the Florida State line and flows 106 mi (about 70 mi as the crow flies) to the Gulf of Mexico, where it empties into Apalachicola Bay. Light has developed a complete and quantitative description of the flood-plain connectivity that allows evaluation of how changes in flow may affect flood-plain ecology; she has provided much of the technical data that led to the discontinuation of dredging; and she has coordinated substantial data collection and analyses of the changing geomorphology of the Apalachicola River. In an upcoming USGS Scientific Investigations Report, she discusses water-level decline in the Apalachicola, which is Florida's largest river in terms of discharge. Although the award was primarily for her work on the Apalachicola River, it also recognized Light's work on other rivers. She has conducted research on the Suwannee River, for example, in flood-plain forests all the way down the treeline, where forests give way to marshes about 2 km from the coast. She and her coworker Melanie Darst are authoring a chapter on the Suwannee River tidal freshwater forests in an upcoming book titled Ecology of Tidal Freshwater Swamps of the Southeastern United States, due to be published early next year. Light has been working at the USGS office in Tallahassee since 1979, conducting research on forested river flood plains in north Florida.
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in this issue:
USGS Studies Aid Puget Sound Recovery
USGS FISC Participates in 2006 Marine Quest Geography Team Visits USGS Woods Hole Science Center USGS Participates in Career Fairs at MIT USGS Scientist Attends Annual Field Trip for 20th Year National Ocean Sciences Bowl Competitors Tour Laboratories in Woods Hole WHSTEP Science and Math Safari Explores Use of Sound in Ocean Research
USGS Biologist Contributes Technical Expertise to Dive-Rescue Class
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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