ALUMNI CORNER
MEES RESEARCH CENTER
Nicholas Silverson Photo Courtesy: UMCES/CBL
Nicholas Silverson (M.S. ‘22) is a second year MEES Master’s student in the Earth and Ocean Foundation at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Nicholas, advised by Dr. Lee Grebmeier and Dr. Lee Cooper, is conducting research focusing on the biodiversity, community, and population structure of ocean floor animals (benthic macrofauna) in the Pacific Arctic. This research aims at understanding how climate change is impacting ocean floor communities through factors like warming waters and reduced sea ice, which impacts primary production and energy flow in these seasonally productive ecosystems.
Jennifer Brundage
Jennifer Brundage (M.S., 2010) is a Biologist and the Regional Liaison with the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water. Jennifer provides guidance for states and authorized tribes in establishing and revising their water quality standards. Jennifer matriculated into the MEES Master’s graduate program in 2008 at the University of Maryland, College Park under the advisement of Dr. Andrew Baldwin. Jennifer’s thesis research entitled, “Prescribed Grazing as a Means to Control Common Reed in Maryland Wetlands,” was one of the first studies of its kind in the U.S. – previously only one published study had been conducted in North America, which used goats, sheep and cattle to control Phragmites populations in New Jersey. Jennifer earned her Master’s in MEES in 2010 and currently works as a Biologist at the EPA, where she has worked for over a decade at the intersection of tribal reserved rights and water quality standards since 2015.
wetland ecology, biodiversity. water quality & TRIBAL RESERVE RIGHTS
jennifer brundage (M.S., 2010)
Jennifer Brundage
Jennifer Brundage (M.S., 2010) is a Biologist and the Regional Liaison with the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water. Jennifer provides guidance for states and authorized tribes in establishing and revising their water quality standards. Prior to joining the MEES Graduate Program, this local Virginia native graduated with her Bachelor’s in Environmental Biology from McGill University in Quebec, Canada in 2004. Under the advisement of Dr. Kevin McCann, Jennifer had the opportunity to conduct research examining the plankton paradox which is based on the idea that species that compete for the same resources should not be able to coexist. However, hundreds of species of phytoplankton are found to coexist throughout the year. Jennifer’s hypothesis posited that predators enhance phytoplankton food web stability through prey switching – when the density of the preferred prey declines, the predator switches to a less nutritious prey. After months of collecting and analyzing the data, the results did not follow the expected pattern showing no evidence of prey switching. The setback actually opened up a series of subsequent breakthroughs, and Jennifer was able to present the data in a final report to a committee of McGill faculty members and researchers. Post graduation, Jennifer desired to pursue graduate study in ecology, but wanted to gain practical skills in the field as well as take advantage of her French European citizenship and moved to England in 2004 and worked as a Ecologist for Naturally Wild Consultants, a small herpetological consulting company based in Yorkshire offering a suite of ecological services through various stages of projects requiring ecology, habitat creation, and protected species licensing for UK infrastructure and development. Jennifer’s work there involved surveys for plants, invasive and protected species including snakes, lizards and the great crested newt. Later that year, Jennifer had the opportunity to work as an Environment and Ecology consultant with a small group of landscape architects with Glendale Environmental preparing contract bids, surveying and completing environmental impact assessments. Over the next two years, Jenniver’s increasing load of responsibility expanded to overhauling the company’s Environmental Management System (EMS) by rewriting the systems manual, implementing new forms and workflow systems throughout the partner holding company Parkwood Holdings which had about 2,000 employees. Jennifer trained 22 new auditors through designing and teaching two separate two day courses, was commissioned and completed a project called the “Severn Stroke” which determined the feasibility of restoring a 333 hectare area of intensively farmed land to a wet grassland habitat, as well as engaged with local residents in various other projects and initiatives. These experiences field Jennifer’s desire to further study wetlands and limnotic systems' role in delivering ecosystem services while being concentrated reserves of biodiversity and biomass. Jennifer matriculated into the MEES Master’s graduate program in 2008 at the University of Maryland, College Park under the advisement of Dr. Andrew Baldwin. Jennifer’s thesis research entitled, “Prescribed Grazing as a Means to Control Common Reed in Maryland Wetlands,” was one of the first studies of its kind in the U.S. – previously only one published study had been conducted in North America, which used goats, sheep and cattle to control Phragmites populations in New Jersey. Jennifer's research expanded on this past work studying whether this grazing has any negative effects on nutrient cycling. Nutrients are a leading cause of impaired water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, and this study will examine whether grazing can be a sustainable means of reaching the Chesapeake 2000 Bay Agreement goals for reducing invasive species without endangering goals for water quality. While grazing is a common management tool in Europe for restoring biodiversity, this goes against prevailing wisdom in the U.S., especially for wetlands. The thesis research results showed that grazing significantly elevated soil water total nitrogen and total phosphorus levels and reduced soil water-soluble phosphorus levels. The nutrient pool analysis indicated that grazing reduced the fertility of the system. The results of the study aimed at further informing the development of an alternative, sustainable approach to controlling Phragmites that integrates the local agricultural community while benefiting the local ecology. While at College Park, Jennifer was also an active university community member; teaching a Wetlands Ecology class composed of 20 graduate and undergraduate students, supervising two part time laboratory assistants, and guided both graduate and undergraduate students with wetland delineation, and plant identification for graded collections among other duties, all while conducting thesis research. Jennifer earned her Master’s in MEES in 2010 with a perfect 4.0 GPA, and worked for two years as an Environmental Associate for Analytical Services, a Lanham, Maryland based federal contracted laboratory specializing in electron and optical microscopy as well lead and microbial analysis. Jennifer’s duties included: managing the U.S. Department of Commerce’s EMS and the Herbert C. Hoover Building Sustainable Sites landscaping certification program, and publishing the Department’s quarterly newsletter (Energy and Environment). In 2012, Jennifer was selected for a one year fellowship as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Fellow (ORISE) in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and developed guidance for states in setting their water quality standards. After working in the US Department of Commerce, Jennifer returned to the EPA, and has worked for almost a decade as a Biologist providing guidance for states and authorized tribes in establishing and revising their water quality standards. Jennifer has worked at the intersection of tribal reserved rights and water quality standards since 2015. For more on Jennifer, please click here.
Dr. Stephanie Stotts Photo Courtesy: Consortium for the Advancement of Hydrological Science, Inc.
Dr. stephanie stotts
forest ecology & Urban communities: environmental health, climate change & environmental justice
Stephanie Stotts is Associate Professor of Forest Ecology in the Departments of Natural Sciences and Agriculture, Food and Resource Science at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and serves as faculty lead for UMES' Urban Forestry Program. Dr. Stotts, who recently was appointed to the MEES Graduate Faculty, is a dendroecologist with expertise in tree and root response to changing environmental conditions. As part of a $35 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Urban and Community Forest Grant, Dr. Stotts leads UMES’ grant activities aimed at improving the health and vibrancy of communities through planting and maintaining trees, forests and green spaces. Dr. Stotts was recently featured in an October 2024 UMES article regarding the creation of a Center for Urban Forestry at UMES aimed at providing the local urban community access to the health benefits provided by trees through urban forestry.
“Research shows that 70% of underserved urban residents do not have access to natural areas. Therefore, without urban forests, many urban residents will not receive the very real benefits that trees provide,” Stotts said. “Urban forestry provides a solution to an environmental justice problem, access to the health benefits provided by trees.” (link)
In addition, the center will serve as an important resource for forestry professionals to obtain continuing education credits, as well as hosting future annual projects to further enhance the site for the community which include: additional plantings, tree care and maintenance, educational workshops and events.
Dr. Stotts earned her Master’s in Natural Resource Management in 2008 from Delaware State University and her Bachelor’s in Biology from Baker University in 2005. Under the advisement of Dr. Michael O’Neal, Dr. Jim Pizzuto, Dr. Brian Hanson, and Dr. Cliff Hupp, Dr. Stotts earned her doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Delaware in 2013. Her doctoral research focused on how the morphology (or forms) of trees in the riparian zone, a transitional area between land and water that is rich in biodiversity and ecological function, both reflects and controls river bank processes and evaluated the use of tree geometry data in developing riverbank stability forecasts. Using riparian tree-geometry and bank-characteristic data from four study sites along a mercury-contaminated reach of the South River in Virginia, the research results revealed that the tree’s lean angle and percent root-plate undercut, which is the percentage of the tree's root system that is exposed or undercut at the base, are effective measures not only in assessing the erosion potential along river banks, but in further developing mitigation strategies for these flood prone areas particularly during periods of heavy rain and snow melt, since river bank erosion is a complex process that is influenced by many different factors and cannot be directly measured.
Dr. Stotts has also organized many events, including The Tree Campus Higher Education Program which recognizes that college campuses are ecosystems, providing a healthier environment for the students and community. In the UMES article commemorating UMES’ national ADF certification as an official Trea Campus, Dr. Stotts commented on the beneficial effects of forestry which include cleaning the air, reducing asthma rates and the heat island effect. Dr. Stotts was also recently featured on WBOC, a local CBS affiliate, in a news segment discussing salt water intrusion and her involvement as co-director and liaison between two projects: an NSF Coastal Critical Zone study at the University of Delaware, and a UMES research team project aimed at managing and protecting coastal areas of the Chesapeake Bay watershed for resilience to climate change. For more information on Dr. Stotts, please click here.
MEES RESEARCH CENTER
biodiversity, community, and population structure of benthic macrofauna in the pacific arctic
Nicholas Silverson Photo Courtesy: UMCES/CBL
Nicholas Silverson (M.S. ‘22) is a second year MEES Master’s student in the Earth and Ocean Foundation at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences. Nicholas, advised by Dr. Lee Grebmeier and Dr. Lee Cooper, is conducting research focusing on the biodiversity, community, and population structure of ocean floor animals (benthic macrofauna) in the Pacific Arctic. This research aims at understanding how climate change is impacting ocean floor communities through factors like warming waters and reduced sea ice, which impacts primary production and energy flow in these seasonally productive ecosystems. As part of this effort, Nicholas worked alongside Dr. Matthew Galaska, principal investigator at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)’s Ocean Molecular Ecology (OME) group; incorporating a genomics approach to questions of biodiversity and population structure. This past February, PMEL recently published an article featuring Nicholas detailing his experiences on two research cruises off the coast of Alaska this past summer on the Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a Canadian Coast Guard ice-capable buoy tender, and the research vessel Sikuliaq, owned by the NSF. Along with Dr. Galaska, and his advisors Drs. Grebmeier and Cooper, Nicholas designed a sampling protocol and sampled sites in the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO), which consists of observation sites from the northern Bering to the Beaufort Seas that document and evaluate biological changes at productive hot spots. Prior to joining the MEES Graduate Program, Nicholas graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Studies in 2011 from Bates College where his undergraduate thesis, under the advisement of Dr. William G. Ambrose was titled: “Interannual variation in the growth patterns of the circumpolar green sea urchin (Stronglyocentrotus droebachiensis) in a high-Arctic Fjord on Svalbard as a proxy for climatic variability”. Nicholas's thesis focused on exploring the suitability of using the growth rates of the circumpolar green urchin as a proxy for historical climate variability. Silverson presented his results at the 2011 Benthic Ecology Meeting in Mobile, Alabama, and according to Dr. Ambrose, his advisor, his presentation was so impressive that Silverson was offered a position as a graduate student in the lab of one of the leaders in the field of echinoderm growth. Silverson went on to accumulate an extensive research background working in terrestrial systems first as a Research Technician at the US Department of Agriculture, where he conceptualized and conducted host-range experiments for proposed biocontrol agents of two invasive weeds, Brazilian Pepper and Chinese Tallow. Silverson hypothesized that the presence of specialist predation on an invasive plant would limit its dominance and allow native plants to compete, all without negatively affecting native and commercially important species in the new range. This resulted in two publications and the eventual approval for the release of a biocontrol agent on Brazilian Pepper. Nicholas then worked as a Museum Specialist at the National Museum of Natural History where he was part of a team studying Lepidoptera, the taxonomic order that contains moths. With the help of Barcode of Life Database (BOLD), an NSF funded effort, a project to barcode representatives from every North American variety of this larger, but less studied and understood species was conducted and resulted in a genetic library which can not only be expanded to all other insect orders, but also resulted in a publication. Since entering the MEES program, Nicholas has continued to demonstrate academic and scholastic excellence by not only maintaining an impressive cumulative 4.0 GPA, but was awarded the highly selective and prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF) (2023) which provides an annual stipend of $37,000 along with three (3) years of support including a $12,000 cost of education allowance and access to opportunities for professional development. Silverson was one of only seven that were chosen from the College Park campus, joining only 34 awardees nationwide out of about 12,000 applications submitted each cycle. Nicholas is set to defend his thesis this Fall 2024 semester, for more information on Nicholas, please click here.