ccolliton

I’m a first year master’s student at UMass Boston in the School for the Environment studying vernal pools. I’m working out of the Freshwater Ecology Lab with Dr. Alan Christian as my advisor, as well as the Nantucket Field Station on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

My prior experience in freshwater research makes me uniquely suited for this research. In 2018, I completed my honors thesis for my Environmental Science BS on the effects of the Watertown Dam on water quality and habitat quality in the Charles River (An Assessment of Water Quality Surrounding the Watertown Dam (Watertown, MA) Through Analysis of Benthic Macroinvertebrates Present). This study uses similar methods of macroinvertebrate collection, water chemistry measurement, habitat assessment, and data interpretation as my undergraduate honors thesis and are commonly used procedures in my advisor's research laboratory. My advisor, Dr. Alan Christian, is a broadly trained freshwater ecologist with nearly 30 years’ experience and a focus on freshwater invertebrate ecology and conservation. Furthermore, I have been a field assistant to Greg Whitmore since May of 2018; Whitmore is NBI grant recipient studying the freshwater streams of Nantucket through June 2019. Field methods for this study are also similar, and this opportunity has helped acquaint me with the island’s respect for and conservation of nature.

April 2019