UCF Wins Big at SEEConference

GSU SEEC 2014March 14 to 16, 2014 students from the University of Central Florida’s Biology Department presented their research projects on ecology and evolution during the Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference (SEEC), hosted by the Biology Department of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga.

UCF students returned from the conference with their heads held high, having won three of the four categories available. Of the 23 UCF students in attendance, 22 from Biology and one Math Ph.D., eight oral presentations and 13 poster presentations were given. In the end, six of our students projects received honors at the conference for their innovative work.

Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference 2014 Winners from UCF

Cody Gale – “Puke, Blood, Allelopathy: Chemical Ecology of the Florida Rosemary Grasshopper” 1st Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation Hojun Song, Department of Biology

Hollis Dahn – “Testing a Common Phylogeographic Break Using Desert Snakes” 2nd Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

Molly Grace – “Using a driving simulator to test the effectiveness of an animal detection system in reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions” 3rd Place Graduate Student Oral Presentation Ph.D. Student of Reed Noss, Department of Biology

Tiffani Manteuffel – “Native crayfish: how abundance and effects on decomposition differ across microhabitats in Florida freshwater rivers” 1st place Graduate Student Poster Presentation Masters Student of Ross Hinkle, Department of Biology

Ramin Beheshti – “Evaluating Genetic Diversity and Population Structure within Nerodia fasciata and N. clarkii Using Microsatellites” 1st Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

Lindsay Arick – “Determining Population Structure of the Florida Peninsular Lineage of Coluber constrictor 2nd Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

 

List of additional Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference 2014 presenters from UCF

Karlie Carman – “Structure and Diversity of Plant-Bee Interaction Networks across a Habitat Disturbance Gradient” Oral Presentation Masters Student of Ross Hinkle, Department of Biology

Jason Strickland – “Venom variation in rattlesnakes along a speciation gradient” Oral Presentation Ph.D. Student of Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

Jessica Hearns – “Habitat Selection Modeling in Aquatic Beetles” Oral Presentation Masters Student of Pedro Quintana-Ascencio, Department of Biology

Caitlyn Debevec – “Mosquito (Diptera:Culicidae) biodiversity in south-central Florida” Oral Presentation Masters Student of David Jenkins, Department of Biology

Ian Kutch – “Implications for Y chromosome variation in the evolution of the immune system” Oral Presentation Ph.D. Student of Kenneth Fedorka, Department of Biology

A. Christine Butterfield – “Flying under the LiDAR: relating forest structure to bat community diversity” Poster Presentation Masters Student of John Weishampel, Department of Biology

Hannah Perkins – “Dietary analysis of Florida’s largest, invasive, carnivorous lizard” Poster Presentation Masters Student of David Jenkins, Department of Biology

Joshua Castro – “Modeling interactions between two major Southeastern U.S. sea turtle nest predators and their effects on nest depredation rates” Poster Presentation Masters Student of John Weishampel, Department of Biology

Alexa Trujillo – “Using Genetics to Test for Congruency between Evolutionary History and Nomenclature in Florida Raccoons (Procyon lotor)” Poster Presentation Masters Student of Eric Hoffman, Department of Biology

Danae Perry – “Insect Immune Function in a Changing Climate” Poster Presentation Masters Student of Kenneth Fedorka, Department of Biology

Vicki Villanova – “Population genetics of the endangered Key deer using noninvasive sampling” Grad Student Poster Presentation Masters Student of Eric Hoffman, Department of Biology

Rachel Acuna – “A Morphological Assessment of the Federally Threatened Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake (Nerodia clarkii taeniata)” Poster Presentation Undergraduate Student of Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

Michael Schrum – “Assessing Relationships among Populations of Aspidomorphus muelleri” Poster Presentation Undergraduate Student of Christopher Parkinson, Department of Biology

Ji Min Noh – “A Comparative Study of Aposematic coleoptera on a Community Level” Poster Presentation Undergraduate Student of Hojun Song, Department of Biology

Thomas Carpino – “Uncovering the Genetic Diversity and Subspecies Status of the Key Ringneck Snake” Poster Presentation Undergraduate Student of Eric Hoffman, Department of Biology

Other Participants
Jeff Sharpe – Ph.D. Student of Andrew Nevai, Department of Mathematics
Juan Bogota-Gregory – Ph.D. Student of William Crampton, Department of Biology

The College of Sciences extends a big congratulations to all SEEC 2014 participants and applauds them for the time and effort they put into their research. Thank you to all of the professors who guided the each student in their project.

SEEC is a regional student run conference that allows undergraduates, graduates, and post-doctorates an opportunity to present research in ecology and evolution via poster and Oral presentations. The event is open to anyone with an interest in ecology and evolution research in the Southeastern reign of the United States.

For more information on the SEEC, please click here.



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