What is a Graduate Research Fellow?
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System's GRF program produces high quality research focused on improving coastal management while providing students with the opportunity to contribute to research and monitoring at a reserve. As part of the Reserve System, each National Estuarine Research Reserve provides opportunities for students to address research questions and estuarine management issues of local, regional and national significance.

GRF funds support management related research projects that enhance scientific understanding of the Reserve System ecosystem, provide information needed by reserve managers and coastal decision-makers, and improve public awareness and understanding of estuarine ecosystems and management issues. GRF funds are available on a competitive basis to students admitted to or enrolled in a full-time master's or doctoral program at U.S. accredited colleges and universities. Fellowships may be funded for up to three years. The amount of the award is $20,000 per annum and may be used to defray the costs of living, tuition, fees and research supplies. For more information on the graduate research fellowships and instructions on how to apply, visit the national program webpage.

Current Graduate Research Fellows

Katie Griffith
Ph.D. Candidate
Ocean Sciences Department
University of California, Santa Cruz

Katie is examining the distribution and abundance of Cuscuta salina (salt marsh dodder).  C. salina is a native, parasitic plant that is often found attached to Salicornia virginica (pickleweed) in Elkhorn Slough’s salt marshes.  Because C. salina does not photosynthesize, it survives by inserting plugs of tissue, called haustoria, into the host tissue and extracting water, sugars, and nutrients.  The distribution of C. salina is extremely patchy and Katie is investigating, both experimentally and through surveys, how this distribution is related to host quality, abiotic conditions, and/or seed recruitment. 

Rikke Kvist Preisler
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz

Rikke is investigating the biogeographic variation in abundance, morphology, and behavior of the European green crab, Carcinus maenas. Results from crab monitoring in Elkhorn Slough have shown that while relative abundances of native crabs have been declining since 2001, relative abundance of the European green crab has been increasing. This intriguing pattern has brought to our attention that the invasion success of the European green crab is highly variable in different estuaries and bays. Rikke is quantifying and comparing success of the green crab in estuaries and bays on the US West Coast, the US East Coast, and in Europe by measuring green crab size distributions, fecundity, relative abundance and behavior.

Past Graduate Research Fellows
Click on the links below to learn more about their research projects.

Scott Wankel
Ph.D.
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences
Stanford University

Scott's research focused on the use of stable isotopic tools, primarily the nitrogen (d15N) and oxygen (d18O) isotopic composition of nitrate, a ubiqutous contaminant found in Elkhorn Slough, for understanding important sources to the slough as well as transformations within marsh/mudflat regions. Surveys of water samples from over three years showed a high degree of variability in isotopic composition, highlighting both variability in sources of nitrate with the main channel as well as the hydrodynamic complexity of mixing of these sources. A compilation of these data show the influence of saltmarsh/mudflat sediments in controlling nitrate isotopic composition with the main channel through simultaneous denitrification and nitrification.

Laboratory based sediment core incubations indicated very active microbial communities at the water interface, including those responsible for mitigating large amounts of nitrate, a ubiqutous aquatic contaminant within the Elkhorn Slough ecosystem. Furthermore, his work highlighted the spatial variability that exists between relatively uncontaminated sites, such as South Marsh, and more impacted sites, such as Hudson Landing. The impacted sites exhibited generally higher denitrification rates, despite lower availability of organic carbon, suggesting microbial communites which are adapted to high nutrient conditions found at more polluted sites.

Kimberly Heiman
Ph. D.
Ecology and Evolution Department
Stanford University

Kimberly worked on the distribution and effect of invasive species on the native communities in Elkhorn Slough. Specifically, she looked at the effect of an invasive reef-forming worm on the biological communities inhabiting native mud flats. Ficopomatus enigmaticus is native to Australia and came to Elkhorn Slough less than 10 years ago. Today it forms reefs in the eastern end of the Slough. Observations show that this invasive species is spreading throughout the Slough. Understanding the rate of spread and the potential impact of this invasive species is one of Kimberly's research goals.

Jennifer Brown
Ph.D.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department
University of California Santa Cruz

Jennifer determined the relative importance of estuaries and shallow coastal areas as juvenile habitat for three species of flatfish that are common on the central California coast. She assessed the importance of these two habitats by comparing growth rates of juvenile flatfish living in estuaries, such as Elkhorn Slough, to those of juveniles living in sandy subtidal habitats, such as Monterey Bay. Jennifer also determined the proportion of adult fish that once used the estuary as juvenile habitat.

James (Jeb) Byers
Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara

As a graduate research fellow at ESNERR, Jeb studied the mechanisms by which the invasive mud snail Batillaria attramentaria is managing to displace the native horn snail Cerithidea californica. He discovered that the invader has the competitive edge over the native snail Jeb has also developed and tested predictive models, that can be applied to other invasive species.

Sarah Connors
M.S.
Ornithology and Mammology Lab
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

For the last three years, Sarah Connors, a graduate student at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and former graduate research fellow at ESNERR, has been studying shorebird use of mudflats in the Elkhorn Slough watershed. Sarah surveyed all the different mudflat regions within the slough watershed each month for 2 years to determine the abundance of shorebird species present in each area.

Andrea Woolfolk

While a graduate research fellow at ESNERR, Andrea experimentally tested the effects of human trampling and cattle grazing on Salicornia virginica assemblages at two sites in Elkhorn Slough. Overall, trampling and grazing can decrease S. virginica abundance, lead to changes in community structure, promote invasions by introduced species, and contribute to loss of marsh habitat.