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Rooker Lab Graduate Students |
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Jessica Beck Email: beckj@tamug.edu |
Background: |
| I’m originally from Pennsylvania where I received my B.S. in Biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1998. In August 2002 I graduated with my M.S. in Marine Biology from the Florida Institute of Technology under Dr. Ralph Turingan where my master’s research focused on feeding kinematics and prey-capture success of hatchery-reared larval red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus. | |
| Research Interests: | |
| Early life history of estuarine and coastal species, population dynamics, stock enhancement issues, fisheries management | |
| Current Research: | |
| My dissertation research involves a comparison of the survival strategies employed by hatchery-reared and wild-caught red drum juveniles in Texas bays and estuaries. Hatchery-reared and wild individuals will be subjected to a series of experiments in order to isolate specific behavioral and physiological traits which may contribute to variability in mortality rates between populations. Several questions will be addressed in this study: 1) Does rearing environment affect survival skills of hatchery red drum? 2) Does exposure to stimuli (e.g. prey types, predators) enhance survival skills of hatchery red drum? 3) Do hatchery and wild red drum exhibit different survival strategies? Results of these trials will be used to develop and improve current pre-conditioning techniques in order to increase overall survival of hatchery-reared individuals after release. | |
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