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Jaime Bremer-Alvarado (MARB) Conservation and population genetics of aquatic organisms - His research focuses on large pelagic fishes, primarily tunas and swordfish; molecular systematics and phylogenetics and biogeography of fishes; Adaptive significance of molecular and morphological traits; Studies of clinical genetic variation; implications of variance in reproductive success, variance on the patterns of genetic variation of populations; genetics in mariculture.

Rainer Amon (MARS) Biological/Chemical Oceanography - His research focuses on biogeochemistry of dissolved organic matter in Arctic rivers and the Arctic Ocean; Land-Ocean transport of carbon and nitrogen in light of environmental change; chemical and optical characterization of DOM and its use as a tracer for water masses; and environmental factors controlling the activity of bacteria, including pathogens in urban and coastal water bodies.

Ayal Anis (MARS) Physical Oceanography - His research focuses on mixing processes and turbulence in the surface and bottom boundary layers in the oceans and lakes; air-sea interactions and physics of heat and momentum transfer between the atmosphere and the aquatic boundary layer (specifically, convective and surface-wave related processes); physical oceanography of coastal regions; and model-aided analysis of the response of lakes/coastal ocean to external forcing.

Anna Armitage (MARB) Coastal Wetlands Ecosystems - Her research examines the community-level interactions that structure coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes, tidal mudflats, seagrass beds, and tidal freshwater wetlands. She is particularly interested in changes in trophic interactions following habitat restoration, nutrient enrichment, or other human disturbances. Her ultimate research goal is to incorporate our understanding of coastal ecosystem dynamics into the management of restored and anthropogenically impacted habitats. She seeks to apply her findings to the design and management of restored coastal wetlands, maintenance of water quality standards in local watersheds, and coastal habitat management in the face of near-term sea level rise. Students in her lab will utilize field experiments and diverse analytical procedures (stable isotopes, HPLC, stoichiometry) to investigate community dynamics in tropical, subtropical, and temperate environments.

Robin Brinkmeyer (MARS/MARB) Molecular Microbial Ecology - Her research focuses on Molecular microbial ecology, Molecular systematics and phylogeny of prokaryotes, Biogeography of prokaryotic populations, Role of bacteria in biogeochemical processes.  She currently has large projects funded focused on Galveston Bay and its associated Bayous.  In the past year, Dr. Brinkmeyer supported 20 undergraduate students involved in research, either working in her lab as student workers or conducting research projects for directed study credits. She currently has four undergraduate student research scholars (Aggie Scholars) that are conducting their thesis research in her lab. She has four manuscripts in prep that include undergraduates as co-authors.

Randall Davis-MARB- Marine mammal physiology and behavior-  His research focuses on physiological ecology of marine mammals and birds, comparative physiology and behavior of diving vertebrates, animal energetics and locomotory performance.  Research locations include the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Arctic, Subarctic and Antarctica.  Dr. Davis also runs the Alice Cove Field Research Station each summer in eastern Prince William Sound.  A number of TAMUG faculty conduct research through this facility, including marine geology, phytoplankton, benthic ecology and sea otter research. There is the potential of sending one or two REU Interns to work in his field station for a portion of their time in the program, depending on availability of space and funding.

Timothy Dellapenna (MARS) Coastal Marine Geology/High Resolution Marine Geophysics - Research interests include quantification of the record of marine sedimentary processes using a combination of sediment analyses, short lived radio isotopes and high resolution marine geophysics. Focus areas include: 1) Coastal morphodynamics of the shore face and inner shelf; 2) Modern river mouth processes and sediment dispersal on the continental shelf; 3) Estuarine sedimentary processes and modern strata formation.  His lab has an extensive inventory of high resolution geophysical equipment available for local field research.

Patrick Louchouarn (MARS) Biogeochemistry - Over the past decade, Prof. Louchouarn has worked in multidisciplinary research to understand the impacts of environmental perturbations on biogeochemical cycling at ecosystem interfaces and to address capacity building in earth and environmental education in diverse communities. The orientation of his research in biogeochemistry deals with 1) the identification of fire markers and combustion by-products in complex environmental mixtures and their application to reconstructions of fire/combustion history and 2) natural and human-induced fluctuations in material fluxes within watersheds.

Christopher Marshall (MARB) Vertebrate Functional Morphology and Biomechanics - His area of research is comparative functional organismal biology and ecomorphology. My research program integrates morphology and behavioral performance studies of vertebrates to understand organismal adaptations to their environment.   Dr. Marshall is interested in how vertebrates detect, acquire, ingest and digest food, and how these systems affect behavioral performance and foraging ecology.  Such studies integrate several research tools including classic animal dissections, histology, electron microscopy, kinematics (motion analysis), electromyography and other electrophysiological techniques. Recent research topics investigate the feeding apparatus and foraging behavior in benthic foraging marine mammals.  Other interests include: comparative neurobiology, and the evolution and function of sensory systems.

Antionietta Quigg (MARB) Elemental dynamics on physiology, primary productivity and phytoplankton community composition in coastal ecosystems - Dr. Quigg’s research interests include development of bioassays using ecologically relevant marine fauna, for toxicity studies and bioremediation.  In addition, she is focuses on evolution of phytoplankton and development in the field of geobiology through interdisciplinary research.

Jay Rooker (MARB) Ecology of estuarine, coastal, and pelagic fishes - His research focuses on recruitment processes, particularly factors affecting early life growth and survival; life history and migration studies; analytical approaches to fish demography.  His research centers on the community and population ecology of aquatic organisms, with a special emphasis marine fishes. He is particularly interested in linkages between habitat selection, individual responses, and survival during early life stages. His work is both laboratory and field-based, and typically uses both quantitative and experimental approaches to elucidate the importance of biotic and abiotic factors that influence early life growth, condition, and survival.

Gil Rowe (MARB) Benthos and biogeochemical processes in the deep Gulf of Mexico - His research interests include benthos, cycling of organic carbon and nitrogen, benthic-pelagic coupling, models of carbon cycling in benthic food webs.  Dr. Rowe's Lab has been involved in a broad spectrum of projects with a single underlying theme: the dynamics, size structure and species composition of organisms living on or near the sea floor. The largest project, now in its 5th year, is the Deep Gulf of Mexico Benthos (DGoMB) study supported by the Minerals Management Service of the Dept. of the Interior. Stretching from Mexico to Florida, from depths of 200 m out to the Sigsbee Deep at 3.65 Ian, this study is attempting to define the underlying relationships between community structure at the species level and total community processes related to biomass, respiration and secondary production.

Peter Santschi (MARS) Chemical Oceanography, Limnology and Hydrology - His research interests include tracer applications using radioactive and stable isotopes, relationships between trace element and natural organic matter geochemistry, and importance of exopolymeric substances for trace element binding and removal from natural waters. Recent work centered on relationships between actinide elements, 129I, a number of trace and ultra-trace elements, PCBs, dioxins, and natural organic matter, including humic exopolymeric substances in the aquatic environment.  Dr. Santschi is also the head of the LOER.

Anja Schulze (MARB) Ecology and evolution of marine invertebrate - Her area of interest is broadly in evolution and development of marine invertebrates. Most of her past research has been in phylogenetics, i.e. the reconstruction of evolutionary history using molecular and morphological markers. She has worked on a variety of animal groups, such as nudibranch molluscs, polychaete and sipunculan worms. Currently she is using DNA barcoding techniques to detect invasive species of marine invertebrates in Galveston Bay. REU students could participate in this research by helping with plankton collections, sorting, photographic documentation and subsequent processing of samples for molecular work. She is also studying population connectivity of macrofaunal invertebrates from deep sea sediments in the Gulf of Mexico. REU students could learn to identify and sort deep-sea invertebrates.

John Schwarz (MARB) Seafood Microbiology/Microbial Ecology - His research interests include field and laboratory investigations of seafood-associated pathogenic microorganisms with respect to public health; development and evaluation of rapid molecular techniques for detecting microorganisms; ecological studies of microorganisms in the estuarine environment; current studies focus on species of the genus Vibrio.

Bernd Wursig (MARB) Social and foraging strategies of whales and dolphins - Research focuses on long-term studies of the behavioral ecology of dolphins, porpoises & whales; elucidating differences of foraging techniques in different environments; and flexibilities of adaptation in social marine mammals & in social animals in general.  Dr. Wursig also runs the Dusky Dolphin Research Station, located in Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand.  The station is located around the 42nd Parallel South, near the deep water Kaikoura Canyon that is connected to the Tongan Trench.
 

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