Time for an update...
While the blog was left fallow a few things happened. I managed to finish my PhD, so yay. I've submitted the first chapter of my dissertation for publication, so keep an eye out. I plan to write a summary of it for the more casual reader. I'm preparing the remaining three chapters for publication as well, and that will likely close out the 5+ year project about the human impacts on southern South American marine food webs. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, my advisor Marilyn Fogel has been publishing her life story over at
her own blog, which she has updated much more consistently than me. It's a good read, I'd highly recommend it. Near the end of my graduate student career, I sat down with her, and she asked what I planned to do after finishing, and, replying honestly, I didn't know. She offered me a job on the spot: stay a little longer, work as a postdoc! so I did!
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| The Salton Sea during field sampling a few weeks ago |
So now I'm living the good life, getting my PhD work to a larger audience by publishing in journals, and working on some new research: the Salton Sea. The first of that research I just presented at Riverside's own
Postdoctoral Association. I was fortunate enough to convey the research clearly and effectively, by sticking to the core message: that the Salton Sea in nearing an ecological tipping point and is in crisis. And I won the top prize for best poster! It might not be one of those "better poster" formats with the QR code taking up half the space, but I think it presents the details in a fairly easy to read way. Feel free to
check it out here or stop by the hallway in front of lab in the Geology building at UCR.
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| My fellow postdoc and labmate Kaycee Morra talking about her birds at the 2019 Postdoc Symposium. |
Of course, a lot of work went into this data and I'm especially thankful to Brenda Bermudez who weighed out all the samples and helped collect samples, which is not easy. Boat access to the sea is essentially cut off at this point as there's no good way to launch a boat due to the mud. Below are some illustrations of working in the Salton Sea.
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| Making a ramp to get to the water. Future fieldwork will likely involve some sort of fishing pole. |
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| Getting stuck in the stinky mud |
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| Barnacle feet: a new type of spa treatment |
