Post by Ashley Marranzino

Hi everyone!

My name is Ashley Marranzino. I am an incoming PhD student working with Dr. Tracey Sutton. I am excited to be joining the fantastic team aboard the R/V Point Sur for my first DEEPEND cruise!

For this cruise I work predominately with “team fish” and help to weight, measure, and preserve every single fish specimen we collect after they have been identified. A range of scientists use the specimens we collect during DEEPEND cruises, so we make sure certain species are preserved appropriately for future analyses on topics like genetics, morphology, and diet.

Post by:  Heather Bracken-Grissom

Hi everyone!  My name is Heather Bracken-Grissom and I am an Associate Professor at Florida International University.  My lab studies crustacean systematics and genomics, but today I want to talk about life at sea.  Ever wonder if we get a little stir-crazy living on a research vessel in very tight corridors?  Well, the answer is YES, so we need to be creative in the ways we get our bodies moving.  Not only do we find creative ways to exercise on the ship, we also need to work off ALL the delicious food (and goodies) Chef Michael is cooking up for us every day!  Exhibit A below J

Photo:  Chef Michael and lunch options! (Photo:  HBG)

Post by Matt Woodstock

Hey everyone!

My name is Matt Woodstock and I am a PhD Candidate at Florida International University working under Dr. Yuying Zhang. The focus of my dissertation research is to develop computer models that simulate conditions we observe in the Gulf of Mexico and answer ecosystem-level questions about the ecology of the system. Examples of these types of questions are changes to food web structure as populations fluctuate over time, the influence of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the mortality rates of mesopelagic animals, and vertical nutrient transfer by vertically migrating fishes and cetaceans. Ecosystem-based modelling is rarely done in the oceanic zone because it requires a lot of data, but because of projects like DEEPEND these types of research questions are feasible. Previously I completed a masters under Dr. Tracey Sutton studying the diet and parasites of mesopelagic fishes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Post by Drew Mertzlufft

Heya!

My name is Drew Mertzlufft and I am pursuing a Masters degree in marine biology in the Oceanic Ecology lab at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) under the guidance of Dr. Tracey Sutton. The main goal of my thesis project is to describe the diet and ecology of pelagic juvenile scorpionfishes (suborder: Scorpaenoidei) from the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). In addition, I am creating a taxonomic key to aid in the future identification of Atlantic pelagic juvenile scorpaenoids. While the taxonomy, diet, ecology, and life history of adult scorpionfishes in the GoM are well documented, the identification methods, diet, and food web relationships of juvenile scorpionfish remain largely unresolved.