Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

My M.S. research examined the effects of cropping practices on the abundance and distribution of the beneficial invertebrate weed seed predator Harpalus rufipes DeGeer in Maine. Prior to my graduate studies in Maine, I was an educator and teen volunteer coordinator at the Ecotarium, an environmental learning center and museum in Worcester, MA. While at the museum, I developed and delivered interactive public programs on forest, freshwater, and marine ecology, initiated a teen volunteer amphibian monitoring project, and trained volunteers for public presentations. From 2002 to 2005, I also served as a part-time naturalist and staff scientist aboard whale watching vessels based out of Bar Harbor, ME and Gloucester, MA.. My research examines the effects of fish introductions on amphibian communities in historically fishless lakes in Maine. The objectives of this study are to 1) identify the amphibian species that occur in Maine's naturally fishless lakes, 2) determine if there are differences in amphibian communities of naturally fishless lakes and those that are stocked with fish, 3) determine recruitment success of amphibians typically associated with vernal pools that breed in these lakes, and 4) determine lake characteristics that affect breeding success by vernal pool amphibian species.