Gamble Rogers Drag-line Ditch Restoration Monitoring
Dr. Krejci and her students will be comparing zooplankton diversity and abundance before and after the restoration of dragline ditch locations. They will focus their sampling in the dragline areas, natural canals that will remain after restoration, and the main Matanzas/Halifax River. Initial site surveys and water quality analysis was conducted in Fall 2018. Pre sampling will begin January 2019 with follow up laboratory analysis. This study is in collaboration with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Aquatic Preserves and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
2018 superbloom impacts on zooplankton in the Indian River Lagoon, FL
In summer 2018, Dr. Krejci’s lab received funding through C.U.R.E. to study the impacts of the 2018 super algal bloom occurring in the Banana River (part of the Indian River Lagoon) on zooplankton density and diversity. Sampling of the superbloom and control sites in the Mosquito Lagoon occurred in June 2018. Undergraduate researcher, Jonathan Johnson, lead a resampling of superbloom sites in November 2018. Dr. Krejci and Jonathan are currently working on analyzing the new samples and preparing a manuscript for publication on the summer samples.
Additional summaries of this project can be found at the following links:
Halifax River Lagoon seasonal shifts in zooplankton density, abundance, and metagenomics
In September 2017, following Hurricane Irma, undergraduate researcher Kailey Richard spear headed zooplankton sampling in the Halifax River in Daytona Beach. This study aimed to determine the zooplankton species present in the lagoon and how they are impacted by seasonal changes and water quality. Monthly samples were collected for approximately 1 year and after Kailey graduated and began her graduate program, undergraduate Lakean McGregor took over as P.I. of the project with assistance from many of our laboratory researchers. Lakean completed the morphological analysis of the samples and is now beginning work on comparing the genetic diversity of the samples using 18s rRNA in collaboration with Dr. Albert Hayward B-CU’s geneticist.
Additional summaries of this project can be found at the following links:
Determining spatial and temporal patterns in water quality of the Halifax River Lagoon, FL
Dr. Krejci is collaborating with Dr. Juan Calderon, computer scientist at B-CU, Danithza “Danny” S. Rojas-Torres, master’s student at Universidad Nacional de Columbia, and B-CU undergraduate Jehmia Williams to utilize data from STORET to determine variations in water quality parameters in the Halifax from it’s northern boundary at High Bridge to the southern boundary at Ponce de Leon Inlet from 2014-2018. Previous work in Dr. Krejci’s lab reveled strong short timescale shifts in salinity. This current work will illuminate which areas of the Halifax experience high variability in water quality and if these changes are uniform across all sampling sites. A variety of multivariate statistics will be used to determine correlations between water quality parameters among each other, sampling seasons and sites.
Dr. Calderon and Danny are developing computer programming in Python to manage the large data set and aid in data cleanup and analysis.
Determining feeding selectivity of juvenile seahorses on wild zooplankton
The focus of this study is to develop an improved feeding protocol for seahorse species that still rely on wild zooplankton for commercial aquaculture. The long snout seahorse, Hippocampus reidi, is the target species to determine the size and species preferences they consumer from day 0-14. A pilot study was completed in Fall 2018 using the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus, donated from the Marine Discovery Center n New Smyrna Beach, FL. Undergraduate researcher, Alyssa Stubbs, is the P.I. on the project with undergraduate, Vikash Bisram, as a Co P.I.
Additional summaries of this project can be found at the following links:
The seahorses are 2 months old!
Dr. Sarah Krejci & the Aquatic Research Lab 