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Research Faculty, Staff and Students

This page contains brief biographies of the multifaceted individuals who make up the "Crew." It takes a unique combination of talents to achieve continued success, and that is exactly what these people have contributed.

Dr. Martin O'Connell is the Director of the Nekton Research Laboratory, as well as Associate Chair and Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Orleans. He is the principal investigator for our current Chandeleur Island, Lake Pontchartrain, and Bayou St. John/City Park fish surveys. He earned his Ph.D. from The University of Southern Mississippi where his dissertation research addressed the exploitation of inundated floodplains by fishes of low order, blackwater streams. His research interests include fish ecology, fish behavior, and the conservation of freshwater fishes and mussels.

Fish Assemblage Stability Over Fifty Years in the Lake Pontchartrain estuary; comparisons among habitats using canonical correspondence analysis. Application of a diffusion model to describe a recent invasion: Observations and insights concerning early stages of expansion for the introduced Rio Grande Cichlid

Chris Schieble "Chief" is the Senior Research Biologist for all the current research projects including, the Chandeleur Islands, Bayou St. John/City Park, and Lake Pontchartrain surveys. He has conducted field sampling for nekton, benthos and phytoplankton on Lake Pontchartrain since 1996, while completing over 3500 collections in that estuary. He earned his B.Sc. from The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 1993 and his M.Sc. from UNO in 1998. His research interests include: life histories of freshwater and marine fishes, in particular the utilization of barrier islands by lemon sharks as nursery areas, hurricane impacts on saltwater seagrass fish assemblages, and temporal and spatial patterns of fish distribution in an estuary.

Use of hurricane generated wash-over corridors by fishes at the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: preliminary data on potential ecological impacts and fish interactions FACTORS AFFECTING HIGH YIELDS OF FISHES IN DIURNAL AND NOCTURNAL TRAWLS OF THE LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN ESTUARY: GEAR AVOIDANCE AND NOCTURNAL BEHAVIOR. New occurrences of fishes in Lake Pontchartrain: a comparison with historical data over the last half-century Impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Ivan on the Fish and Invertebrate Assemblages in Seagrass Communities of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana.

Jon McKenzie is a Ph.D student in the Earth and Environmental Sciences
department. He earned a B.Sc in marine biology from the University of
North Carolina Wilmington with an emphasis on reef fish ecology. Jon
earned a Masters in natural resources from Delaware State University.
At DSU he studied the potential of a freshwater mussel (Elliptio
complanata) to be a biomechanical filter for aquaculture ponds. Here
at the University of New Orleans, Jon is investigating recent
observations of recently pupped lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris)
at the Chandeleur Islands. Using satellite tags and observational data
he hopes to determine if lemon sharks are using these islands as a
primary nursery area.

Patrick Smith is a graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He earned his B.Sc. in Biology from Augusta State University and plans to defend his thesis in Earth and Environmental Sciences in Spring 2012. His current research is on the habitat use and health of reintroduced red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) in Bayou St. John, an urban waterway within the city limits of New Orleans. Currently, the animals are being tracked using surgically implanted acoustic transmitters and moored receivers. These data are being compared to long-term continuous water quality data and hydrologic models. Future plans include using similar criteria to model red drum movement and habitat selection in unimpounded marshes within the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.


 

Dr. Will Stein is an oncologist who has returned to higher education in pursuit of his lifelong passion of studying tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) in Louisiana as part of his doctoral dissertation. In his quest to find juvenile tarpon within the Pontchartrain basin Dr. Stein is conducting an extensive survey of the marsh bordering the ICWW called the land bridge area. Utilizing a castnet as the primary collecting gear, Dr. Stein is systematically sampling the marsh ponds and bayous by deliniating the marsh into quadrats and randomly sampling four points within each quadrat on a monthly basis over the course of two years.

Rebecca Cope is a master’s student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She earned her bachelor’s in both Biology and Marine Science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 2004. For her thesis, Rebecca is assessing changes in the adult and larval fish and invertebrate assemblages in Lake Pontchartrain in response to the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Rebecca also works as an Environmental Specialist for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, surveying habitats under consideration for development and writing comments for the wetland regulatory permitting programs of the federal and state government concerning these developments

Dr. Tom Lorenz is a postdoctoral researcher and instructor at UNO who is directing the invasive species survey project in Port Suphur Louisiana. This project, funded by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, is a faunal survey utilizing electrofishing equipment to document the densities of non-native tilapia and Rio Grande cichlids in the canals and marshes of Plaquemines Parish. These exotics were accidentally introduced in these areas, removed by the LDWF, and now subsequent monitoring of the size of the population is required to determine if the densities are increasing. Dr. Lorenz is an alumnus of UNO and earned his Ph.D here conducting behavioral experiments with Rio Grand cichlids and native sunfishes.
 

 
Jenny Wolff is an undergraduate student worker in the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has worked in the Nekton Lab for over a year and has proven to be a very adept researcher who's primary duties are assisting with the field collections of data on the Pontchartrain project as well as data acquisition and laboratory work on the Bayou St. John/City Park project. Her primary research interests include fish behavior and the study of aquatic plants.
Shane Abeare is a PhD student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He earned a BSc in biology, with a chemistry minor, from the University of Michigan-Flint. After working and volunteering with the Peace Corps in West Africa, Shane earned an MSc in African Mammalogy at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. After graduating, he worked a couple of years in wildlife conservation, and realized the need that exists for fisheries-trained marine conservationists. After returning from Africa, Shane earned an MSc in Oceanography and Coastal Science, with a statistics minor, from Louisiana State University, and is now pursuing a PhD at UNO. For his PhD research, he will be addressing coastal fisheries management issues on the coasts of Madagascar. In particular, he will be assessing the state/productivity of the artisanal coral reef fisheries, and the connectivity of the stocks from the different regions of the Malagasy coastline.
Maiadah Bader is an undergraduate in the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has worked in the Nekton Lab for over a year and has proven to be a very reliableresearcher who's primary duties are assisting with the field collections of data on the Pontchartrain and Borgne crab project as well as helping with the tarpon project. Maiadah has undertaken an independent research project surveying a recolonization event in an ephemeral marsh pond after an inundation event. Her poster presentation is below.