Research Topics

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Available research topics and mentors include the following.

• Field collections, common garden experiments, and analyses of morphological and DNA data to test species boundaries in Euphorbia, Oxalis, or Viola, plant genera that are diverse in the GCP (Dr. Alford)
• Field surveys and lab studies investigating the ecology and best management practices of imperiled and exotic species of ants in the GCP (Dr. Baudier)
• Field collection of fossiliferous rocks in the GCP and identification of vertebrate microfossils to develop a more complete picture of speciation in the GCP during the Late Cretaceous (Dr. Brink)
• Effects of prescribed fire on pollinator diversity in longleaf pine forests of the GCP (Dr. Davis)
• Hydrologic connectivity and nutrient dynamics between channel and floodplain aquatic habitats in the GCP, especially in the Mississippi River basin (Dr. Heitmuller)
• Use microsatellite loci and sibship analysis to estimate the effective number of breeders for annual cohorts of the federally listed Gulf sturgeon, which only occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and rivers of the GCP (Dr. Kreiser)
• Functional importance and diversity of mycorrhizal and decomposer fungi in terrestrial and aquatic habitats of the GCP, specifically freshwater marshes and longleaf pine habitats (Dr. Kuehn)
• Collecting and screening water samples for eDNA from estuarine waters of the GCP for Smalltooth Sawfish, Florida Manatee, or Gulf Sturgeon to assess the occurrence, status, and habitat use of these highly threatened species (Dr. Phillips)
• Assessing nest site selection by gopher tortoises, a vulnerable keystone species of the GCP, via comparison of habitat characteristics between burrows that were actual nest sites and randomly selected nearby burrows that lacked nests (Dr. Qualls)
• Sampling field and experimental (mesocosm) topminnow hybrid zones to better understand the origins of biodiversity in GCP. Topminnows are a group that diversified within the GCP, and numerous documented natural hybrid zones near Hattiesburg are natural laboratories of evolution readily available for field and experimental studies (Dr. Schaefer)
• Spatial distribution and economic valuation of carbon sequestration and flood mitigation potential in the GCP under climate change (Dr. Stan)
• Relating environmental variables to spatial variation of floodplain mosquitoes across land-use types from around the GCP (Dr. Yee)
• Fundamental multidisciplinary and applied research focused on understanding the tripartite interactions between ticks, their microbes, and microbial pathogens they transmit to their mammalian host, especially tick-borne diseases such as Rickettsiosis, and Ehrlichiosis using a variety of multidisciplinary ecological, molecular, physiological, biochemical, and computational approaches (Dr. Karim)