Graduate Student Directory

Research Interests: My PhD research at Virginia Tech will focus on the social and ecological aspects of provisioning fisheries in the Great Lakes. Provisioning fisheries, a subset of recreational angling, fulfill the social needs and dietary needs of poor and vulnerable people, many of whom are new migrants to North American cities surrounding the Great Lakes. This research is expected to improve fisheries management by quantifying provisioning fisheries catches and their potential impacts that are currently unrecognized, and to help local policymakers understand the importance of provisioning fisheries on the lives of vulnerable citizens whose numbers are expected to increase in the future (Advisor: Castello).

Research Interests: am broadly interested in fish behavior and interspecific interactions among stream fish communities. Currently, I am applying selfish-herd theory to a nest building fish, the bluehead chub, by studying the feeding and vigilance behaviors of the chub and its associated species (Advisor: Emmanuel Frimpong).

Research Interest: I am interested in climate change effects on Amazon fish catch. My research focuses on how climate changes affect hydrological aspects, fish traits and future potential changes over river-floodplain fisheries along the Amazon River (Advisor: Dr. Leandro Castello).

Research Interests: am investigating if there is a cleaning, mutualistic relationship between snapping turtles and freshwater minnows, whereby freshwater minnows graze on the algae found on the snapping turtles carapace and limb's for nourishment, while the snapping turtle's health benefits from this cleaning (Advisor: Frimpong).

Research Interests: Joe is studying the effects of land use and conservation practices on stream fish communities, as well as the effects of livestock grazing on Bog Turtle wetland habitat. His MS research focused on long-term changes in the distribution of New River fishes. Before coming to Virginia Tech, Joe worked as a Habitat Biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, mapping the distribution of freshwater fishes across Alaska (Advisor: Angermeier).

Research Interests: I am broadly interested in understanding how organisms respond to disturbance and environmental fluctuation to further our understanding of how organisms may respond to anthropogenic change. My current research at Virginia Tech investigates the adaptations that bluehead chub possess for nesting in hydrologically variable conditions, and the tradeoffs that are associated with these adaptations (Advisor: Frimpong).

Research Interests: Broadly, I am interested in coastal ecosystems and wildlife management. My research is part of the Long-Term Ecological Research program in the Virginia Coast Reserve, which is dedicated to understanding how short- and long-term drivers such as storms and sea-level rise impact ecosystem state changes on the Virginia coastal barrier system. I am studying the factors that drive American Oystercatcher and Piping Plover breeding success on Virginia’s barrier islands and how geomorphic changes on the islands affect their populations (Advisor: Karpanty).

Research Interests: My research focuses on the conservation and management of imperiled freshwater mussels and fishes, with an emphasis on assessing species distributions and population dynamics, monitoring T&E and non-game species, evaluating population restoration techniques and sampling designs, and conservation genetics (Advisors: Hallerman and Ford).