New publication: Hawksbill satellite tracks from Antigua and Jamaica

My coauthors and I recently had an article published in the Caribbean Journal of Science. Our paper makes use of satellite tracking data collected on post-nesting hawksbill sea turtles over 1998-2001. Eight individuals were tracked from Antigua and Jamaica as part of a collaborative project between NOAA and multiple Caribbean sea turtle programs, but these data were never published. We are excited to disseminate the information on critically endangered hawksbills! The above map shows the migrations of the four Jamaican turtles—check out the paper itself for more.

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New publication: Effects of urbanization on key deer

I am excited to share that my collaborators and I just had a new article come out in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. The article, titled “Urbanization affects the behavior of a predator-free ungulate in protected lands,” details changes in important key deer behaviors in close proximity to urban areas. We also highlight how the Florida Keys ecosystems lack terrestrial apex predators, providing a kind of “control” system for assessing impacts of urbanization on deer without confounding effects from predators. This work came to fruition via close collaboration with my coauthors Dr. Mike Cove, Olivia Siegal, and Dr. Marcus Lashley. I was a technician for Mike’s dissertation research many moons ago, and we have revisited his datasets for several papers over the past few years—check out my research pages for more.

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Media coverage: “Seaweed is putting sea turtles in a hot mess”

Hakai Magazine just published a short piece relaying some of the findings of our recent scientific journal article: “Beached Sargassum alters sand thermal environments: Implications for incubating sea turtle eggs.” The author of the Hakai piece, Richard Kemeny, does a nice job putting the content into a popular science format. It was also awesome to see a a quote included from scientist who I admire a great deal, Dr. Stephanie Kamel (UNC Wilmington). So a shout out to her! We hosted her for a seminar during my PhD days at NC State—she gave a super interesting talk and was a pleasure to spend some time with.

If you missed the link above, here it is again: Hakai Magazine article

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New publication: Sargassum affects incubation temperatures

I am excited to share a new article out in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. In it, my coauthors and I assess how Sargassum macroalgae, when washed up onto beaches, affects the incubation environment of sea turtle eggs. With so much Sargassum inundating shorelines in the Tropical North Atlantic, and given that incubation temperatures affect hatchling sex and survival, we hope our results can provide useful information to researchers and nesting beach managers in the region. Big thanks to my coauthors Dr. Kevin Gross and Dr. Seth Stapleton!

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New publication: Sargassum impedes nesting turtles

Hot off the press, my collaborators and I just had a new article come out in the journal Climate Change Ecology. The title does a good job of summarizing the big take home message: The Atlantic Sargassum invasion impedes beach access for nesting sea turtles. My coauthers (Dr. Seth Stapleton, Dr. Craig Layman, and Dr. Martha Burford Reiskind) and I focus on the hawksbill rookery at Jumby Bay, Antigua, to show how coastal Sargassum accumulation affects spatiotemporal patterns in nesting. Stay posted for more Sargassum-related work coming out soon.

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P. h. Done! and a NOAA postdoctoral position ahead

On June 25, I gave an exit seminar and defended my dissertation to complete my PhD at NC State (title slide pictured above). It has been a terrific 5.5 years here, and I am excited for the next step. I will be joining NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, CA as an NRC Postdoctoral Associate. Working with Dr. Jeff Seminoff and the Marine Turtle Ecology & Assessment Program, I will contribute to several projects, many featuring stable isotope tools.

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New publication: population viability of sea turtles in the context of global warming

I am excited to share a new review out in the journal BioScience. In it, my coauthors and I explore what global warming means for sea turtle populations. We highlight fascinating new research but also point out key areas that still limit our understanding. A shout out to the team of coauthors that made this work possible: Dr. Jeff Seminoff, Dr. Craig Layman, Dr. Seth Stapleton, Dr. Matthew Godfrey, and Dr. Martha Burford Reiskind. This is the first chapter of my dissertation and I am pumped to see it published.

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New publication: sand organic matter

Hot off the press, I recently published a short paper with my coauthor Dr. Seth Stapleton that describes how gradients in sand organic matter on Caribbean beaches match gradients in color. This is a very simple premise, but by quantitatively proving a relationship exists rather than just assuming, we hope this may help beach managers make quick decisions at their sites. Sand is limited in organic nutrients relative to other sediment types, so understanding the distribution of organic matter on beaches can be especially important for certain studies and management efforts. Fieldwork was completed in Antigua in collaboration with the Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project.

Check out the paper HERE!

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How I started grad school

Check out a my new post in the Burford Reiskind Lab‘s “Conservation Currents” blog. It briefly details how I found a research opportunity and implemented a plan to make it into a grad school project.

Read it HERE on the blog page!

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A statement on diversity, inclusion, and solidarity

This year has brought a cultural reckoning as the anti-Black racism inherent in so much of America and its systems has been laid bare in the collective conscience of society like never before. As a person that has benefited from privilege my whole life, I have been using this time to learn, reflect, plan, and start to act.

My advisor, lab members, and I (the Burford Reiskind Lab) recently drafted a statement that I will paste below. These ideas represent my own personal views on diversity, inclusion, equity, and solidarity with the current movement. You can view the original posted to the Conservation Currents blog here.

 

Burford Reiskind Lab Statement

Collectively as a lab, we present our lab statement that addresses solidarity, inclusion, our core values, and anti-Black racism and anti-racism actions we support and are taking as a lab at the university, and as a PI.

In Solidarity

Members of the Burford Reiskind lab are sickened by the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery and many more, which are sobering reminders of the systemic racism our country was founded on and that continues to present day. This includes institutional racism that promotes inequities that white citizens in the country continue to benefit from, as well as blatant acts of discrimination, oppression, and exclusion. We stand with Black Lives Matter and Antiracist leaders in our communities in academia, in Raleigh, in North Carolina, in our nation, and beyond. We acknowledge that we have not done enough in the past, and thus were complicit to the perpetuation of systemic racism. The call has come from many of our Black colleagues and other underrepresented groups in academia, “to become true allies through action!” We are responding to this call by crafting our own inclusion and core value statements and committing to specific activities as a lab that we hope will promote meaningful future change and the destruction of existing systems of oppression. This is a work in progress and as we learn more we will continue to update and add to our statement. We will post a blog report on our activities once per semester, to help keep ourselves accountable.

Inclusion

We are committed to making sure our lab and our university are safe communities for all people. We recognize that anti-Black racism does not occur in isolation—there is also anti-indigenous and other forms of racism, sexism, classism, trans-antagonism, heterosexism and homophobia, ableism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression. Students, faculty, and staff in these groups feel both micro and macro-aggressions, discrimination, and marginalization in our classrooms, in the hiring process, and in the work environment. Underrepresentation is pervasive in STEM fields, including the life sciences, and represents a failure to promote equity in all facets of research, education, outreach, and extension. This lack of diversity is not only morally problematic because of inadequately addressed systemic oppression, but it hinders the ability of STEM initiatives to solve the very problems they set out to address in order to better the world we live in. A diversity of voices and perspectives is better equipped to tackle any problem. We are committed to providing an environment that is welcoming to and supportive of all humans.

We also seek to celebrate and elevate our colleagues from underrepresented groups by highlighting their work with our students, in our lab meetings, on our websites, and in our outreach. We encourage others to do the same (check out Black in the Ivory: @BlackInTheIvory ; Black in Stem: @BlackAFinSTEM @BlackAndStem @BlackInStem ; Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS): @MISS_Elasmo)

Core Values

We believe that equity is essential to a work environment where ALL scientists thrive and succeed. We aspire to the core values elegantly expressed by Black Lives Matter (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/) and highlight some of our specific values as follows.

  1. We strive to create a lab environment that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives and experiences, and honors ALL identities (including race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, ability) with acceptance and support
  2. We will listen with empathy and openness to understand others’ perspectives
  3. We will value humbleness and humility to admit when we get things wrong
  4. We will actively stand up for our core values and values highlighted by Black Lives Matter with accountability and integrity

Actions we are taking to promote inclusion and diversity in our lab and community

  1. We provide a competitive payment for undergraduate research assistants in the lab to reduce barriers to participation.
  2. We include undergraduate students in our lab meetings and events and actively mentor these undergraduates
  3. Outreach through our science learning modules for K through 8th grade with schools in our region
  4. Reading papers in our field by BIPOC scholars will be part of our lab meetings to increase representation in citations and knowledge base
  5. Equity in authorship following goals highlighted by Dr. Max Liboiron here
  6. Allowing remote work and flexible schedules to accommodate the need of lab members

Actions we support within the broader academic system

We believe in the importance of levelling the playing field, but additionally, the value of taking active steps to increase representation for underrepresented groups, especially in faculty and administration. Here are some steps we support at NC State.

  1. Eliminate barriers to underrepresented/marginalized groups such as application fees and standardized test score requirements for both undergraduate and graduate applications
  2. Build diversity training into degree requirements and professional training, with an emphasis on updating outdated models/modules
  3. Work with other university leaders for independent research funds for BIPOC undergraduate and graduate students research projects

Actions I’m taking as PI

As the laboratory head and faculty member, I recognize that I have often been silent or sat down when I was dismissed for speaking up, and I know I should have spoken up and kept standing, and that inaction has helped perpetuate racism in the sciences. I commit to actively fighting racism and injustice in my lab, in my department, in my college, in the University and in my communities within and outside of academia. I know I will make mistakes, but I’m committed to educating myself until I do get it right, and to holding myself and our lab to our core values of inclusion. Here’s a few things I’ve done, I am doing, and will continue to do, that I will expand as I learn more ways I can be an active ally.

  1. Trainee in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HMII) Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) Inclusive classroom Workshop & Training at NCSU  –  completed March 2019
  2. Mentor for the HMMI CUREs Inclusive classroom Workshop & Training mentor at NCSU – Spring 2020
  3. Attending the Columbia University EdX Training course on Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom – Summer 2020
  4. Holding weekly office hours for BIPOC graduate students at NC State, to hear and elevate their concerns and suggestions for change to the leadership at the University
  5. Facilitating a semester event for the Graduate Peer Mentor/Mentee program for the GG Scholars program and for affiliated Graduate programs that want to join.
  6. Facilitating a graduate student Discussion Group on Allyship & Inclusion

Signed by all members of the Burford Reiskind Lab

PI: Martha Burford Reiskind

Postdoctoral Associates: Erica Henry & Elsita Kiekebusch

PhD Students: Emily Reed & Andy Maurer

Undergraduate Researcher: Emma Wallace

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