Rasmuson Fellows
2010 Award Recipients
•Christy Gleason, M.S. Oceanography
Advisor: Brenda Norcross
Christine Gleason is a M.S. student focusing on Fisheries Oceanography at UAF. She graduated from UAF with a
Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and has worked throughout Alaskan and Russian waters doing fisheries fieldwork.
Her thesis title is Otolith chemistry of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) and Arctic staghorn sculpin (Gymnocanthus
tricuspis) in the Chukchi Sea. The Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea to the Arctic Ocean which supports forage
fish for apex predators. Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) and Arctic staghorn sculpin (Gymnocanthus tricuspis)
are the dominant forage fish, though their geographic distribution and movement within the Chukchi Sea is understudied.
Her research focuses on the application of otolith chemistry as tool to learn about Arctic marine fish.
•Elena Fernandez, M.S. Oceanography
Advisor: Jeremy Mathis
My interest in marine organisms' physiological response to ocean acidification started with a few college courses, and was reaffirmed with a Research Experience for Undergraduates fellowship at University of Alaska Southeast with Dr. Sherry Tamone. In the UAS REU program, I focused on the metabolic response, both in terms of standard metabolic rate and enzyme activity, of lyre crabs (Hyas lyratus) to ocean acidification. This interdisciplinary approach to looking at a problem fascinated me, and my developing curiosity in commercially harvested species was combined with my wide variety of existing interests: resource sustainability, physiological ecology, classical physiological techniques, marine biology, and nature's chemical cycles.
After finishing a B.A. in Biology at Kenyon College (Ohio), I knew that I had to be back in Alaska. I was accepted to UAF's Oceanography program in the fall of 2008, and plans were developed to take my REU project one step further. Working in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Mathis (UAF) and Dr. Tom Hurst (NOAA) at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, I will study the effects of ocean acidification on larval and juvenile walleye Pollock. An interdisciplinary approach is at the heart of the project: simulating an oceanographic phenomenon and studying the resulting physiological parameters of growth, stress, and metabolism in this commercially fished species. This novel series of incubations and experiments will provide a snapshot of how these organisms will respond to changing ocean conditions on various levels. These results should also provide a glimpse as to the fate of this multi-billion dollar industry in response to the projected changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
•Laurinda Marcello, M.S. Fisheries
Advisor: Franz Mueter
Laurinda Marcello is pursuing a M.S. in fisheries at UAF in Juneau. Her thesis is entitled "Effects of Climate Variability and Fishing on Gadid-Crustacean Interactions in Subarctic Ecosystems." In order to identify the most important factors regulating interactions between gadoids and crustaceans and their population dynamics, she is conducting comparative analyses within and among a number of subarctic ecosystems. Before coming to UAF, she completed her undergraduate degree at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, receiving a B.A. in biology with a minor in mathematics. Laurinda spent her childhood in Sitka, one of Alaska's most important commercial fishing ports, and chose to return to her home state for her graduate education.
•Greg Albrecht, M.S. Marine Biology Candidate
Advisor: Sarah Mincks Hardy
Defining genetic population structure in the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in the Bering, Chukchi
and Beaufort seas
Greg Albrecht is an M.S. student in Marine Biology, studying the genetic population structure of snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) throughout their Bering/Arctic Seas distribution. He is a native born Alaskan from Juneau with a fisheries degree earned at the University of Idaho. His lifelong passions of fishing, boating and the marine world led him to UAF in the fall of 2008 where he took a semester of graduate courses that led to his official acceptance into the program the following year. His research focuses primarily on the question of population connectivity within a highly valuable commercial species that is contracting at its southern end while experiencing fishing pressures further north each year.
Currently, the snow crab population is managed as a single unit and fishing is not permitted within the arctic. Identifying the presence or absence of breaks in the larval dispersal and gene flow of the species will provide pertinent information to managers. Additionally, should climate change lead to a warmer Arctic with a potential for a snow crab fishery, establishing baseline information on the population structure will aid in the proper management of the resource.
•Julie Nielsen, Ph.D. Fisheries Candidate
Advisor: Andrew Seitz
New methods for characterizing spatial dynamics of Pacific cod and Pacific halibut in Alaska
My goal is to support the management of sustainable fisheries and marine ecosystem conservation in Alaska by conducting research on the spatial distribution and movement of fish species. This information is needed to increase our understanding of stock structure and to help develop spatially explicit stock assessment models for many of Alaska's valuable commercially fished species. For my Ph. D. research at UAF SFOS, I will develop 1) methods for using new geomagnetic archival tags to determine large-scale movements of demersal fishes in Alaska, and 2) a model that incorporates both large-scale and fine-scale information, such as daily movement rates, to predict transfer rates between management regions. I will deploy geomagnetic archival tags in Pacific halibut and Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska to develop these methods, with the resulting products being relevant to any highly valuable demersal fish species such as sablefish. This research will build on my past experience studying the spatial distribution and movement of Tanner and red king crabs in Glacier Bay using acoustic telemetry. I am grateful for the support from the Rasmuson Fellowship that will enable me to pursue this research project.
•Michael Garvin, Ph.D. Fisheries Candidate
Advisor: Anthony Gharrett
A molecular genetic analysis of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) populations: mixed stock analysis and population structure
I have always had an interest in fish and in salmon particularly. In 2004, I left a career in biotech to pursue a Master's degree at UAF SFOS that combined my background in molecular biology and technology development with salmon and fisheries management. The majority of that thesis work focused on the development of informative genetic markers (SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms) in chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) by reducing ascertainment bias. I also developed several inexpensive methods for genotyping and discovering SNPs. The tools and the data that I generated are being used by the Alaska Department of Fish and game and the National Marine Fisheries Service for salmon bycatch analysis. Chum salmon populations in western Alaska have been in decline in recent years and bycatch by the pollock fleet has increased. The origin of those bycatch is of interest to many parties and this can be determined using some of the genetic tools that I developed.
My Ph D. thesis is focused on five main areas that I am proposing for five chapters.
Chapter 1 is focused on SNPs in ecology and evolution. I was asked to write a review on the technical aspects of these markers for the journal Molecular Ecology Resources. Although these markers have been surveyed in humans and other model organisms for a few years, they are not used extensively in non-model organism. They are rapidly becoming the marker of choice for many studies and this review focuses on the technical aspects of incorporating SNPs into a laboratory. The manuscript has been submitted and is under review.
Chapter 2 is a short chapter that will report the conversion of SNPs that were discovered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game into an inexpensive assay that I developed. The reagent costs are an order of magnitude cheaper than the standard genotyping assay.
Chapter 3 will evaluate the chum genetic baseline that we have developed. It is a baseline that combines two types of molecular markers, SNPs and microsatellites. Two questions that I will attempt to answer will be what is the resolution of the baseline (how many geographic regions can we assign bycatch samples to), and how many more SNPs will we need to equal or improve upon the microsatellite baseline that has been developed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.
Chapter 4 will describe the genetic structure of populations on the Kuskokwim River drainage in more detail than has been done previously. Some populations that I have genotyped have not been studied before, and we genotyped the fish with both SNPs and microsatellites. Another objective of this chapter will be to determine if any of the loci (genomic regions) are under selection (adaptive divergence) in these populations.
I am also interested in the phylogeography of chum salmon and possible refugia during the last glacial maximum. This may be a fifth chapter if I can obtain funding to perform an analysis of mitochondrial DNA.
