Caitlin Jensen

Caitlin Jensen

Caitlin Jensen is pursuing her M.S. in Geographic Information Science at San Francisco State University. Her master's thesis will focus on a GIS analysis of vessel traffic and endangered whale habitat in the Cordell Bank and Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries in California. Caitlin is applying what she has learned from her graduate studies at the DEVELOP National Program at NASA Ames Research Center, where she is leading a student project on modeling a harmful algal bloom (HAB) on the central California coast using NASA Earth observing systems. This project aims to use remotely-sensed MODIS imagery to map the extent of the bloom and identify environmental variables most statistically influential in HAB growth. This research will assist government agencies with mitigating and managing the ecological and economic impacts of HABs. Additionally, Caitlin collaborated on a project with the Oceanic Society involving the identification of critical areas for the vulnerable American crocodile in Turneffe Atoll, Belize. Using GIS methods, Caitlin contributed habitat suitability maps to the Oceanic Society's conservation plan proposal for development restrictions.

Caitlin received her B.S. in Biology from Boston College. Her experience with marine conservation began at the Dolphin and Whale Hospital and Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, FL. She then participated in a manatee photo-identificaiton internship at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and later decided to continue her work in marine mammal research on the island of Maui in 2009 at Pacific Whale Foundation. Following this, Caitlin accepted a position conducting forest bird surveys throughout Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island in 2010, where she was first introduced to the application of GIS for habitat conservation.

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Nyssa Silbiger

Nyssa Silbiger

Ms. Silbiger is currently pursuing her doctorate in the Zoology Department at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Her dissertation research addresses how natural environmental variability and human-induced environmental change influence bioerosion rates on Hawaiian coral reefs. Historically, management efforts to sustain coral reefs have focused on metrics of coral health, but reef resilience also depends on reef erosion rates. To manage for reef resilience, it is important to understand what environmental conditions have the greatest effect on bioerosion rates and how anthropogenic disturbances, specifically ocean acidification, may modify the reef's accretion-erosion balance. Her study is being conducted on multiple spatial scales throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago, including the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the Papahā'naumokuākea Marine National Monument. Ms. Silbiger's interest in marine ecology began at Florida State University where she earned her Bachelor's of Science in Biology with a Certification in Living Marine Resource Ecology.

During this time, she worked on projects on fiddler crab physiology in Wakulla Bay, Florida as well as anemone shrimp host-symbiont interactions in the Florida Keys. Her passion for marine research led her to earn a Master's of Science in Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her Master's thesis focused on the effect of sponge-produced dissolved inorganic nitrogen on seaweed communities in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Nyssa aspires to continue to conduct interdisciplinary research that can be used to influence coral reef management decisions. Her ultimate goal is to have a career as a researcher at an academic institution.

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Jan Vicente

Jan Vicente

Jan Vicente is pursuing a Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Russell Hill of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. His dissertation is focused on the impact that ocean acidification has on the ability of sponges to build their skeleton. He will be monitoring expression of silicatein and collagen genes of sponges under simulated ocean acidification conditions. In addition, he will study the bacterial communities associated with the sponges to determine if they can serve as biological indicators of environmental stressors, such as ocean acidification and climate change. On Caribbean reefs, sponges now rival reef-building corals in terms of abundance and biomass. In some reefs sponges can account for up to 80% of total reef biomass. Although sponges are believed to withstand the impacts of ocean acidification since most do not rely on a calcifying skeleton, there is a lack of research on the impact of acidification on sponge gene expression and sponge growth. Jan will be conducting his research on the Black Ball Sponge and the Red Vase Sponge, both common residents of the coral reefs of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Jan received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras in 2007, where he gained experience in natural product chemistry and chemotaxonomy of sponges. Inspired by the microbial world of sponges, he went on to complete a M.S. in Marine Science with a minor in Marine Policy from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2010. He then gained valuable experience as a sponge course participant of the 2010 NSF-AToL: Taxonomy, Systematics, and Ecology of Caribbean Sponge. In addition to his current research, Jan helps conduct sponge community surveys throughout the Caribbean on board NSF-funded UNOLS research cruises with Dr. Joseph Pawlik and his laboratory team. Jan would ultimately like to teach at an academic serving institution and continue conducting research on marine sponges.

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