Co-Principal Investigator
Evelyn Gaiser
Tel: 305.348.6145 | gaisere@fiu.edu
My research interests include: aquatic community ecology, algal biology, wetland ecology, diatom taxonomy, paleoecology.
I am especially interested in studies that examine variation in algal community structure in lakes and wetlands over long temporal scales.
James Heffernan
Tel: 352.846.0353 | j.heffernan@ufl.edu
Dr. Heffernan’s research addresses the causes and consequences of major changes in ecosystem structure (i.e. regime shifts or critical transitions) with an emphasis on feedbacks among vegetation, biogeochemical cycles, and hydrologic and geomorphic processes in aquatic and wetland ecosystems. Of particular interest are the effects of these interactions on ecosystem responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbance. The parallel goals of this research are to develop and test general ecological theory and to inform effective natural resource management and policy. Past and present study systems include riverine wetlands of the desert southwest, spring-fed rivers in north Florida, and patterned peatlands of the Florida Everglades, as well as aquatic systems in urban environments.
Laura Ogden
Tel: 305.348.6663 | ogdenl@fiu.edu
In the broadest sense, my research seeks to understand the ways in which human and nonhuman processes interact to create landscapes, with a particular emphasis on the politics that shape our landscape practices. My work bridges the social and biophysical sciences, both drawing from social and ecological theory and making contributions to these literatures. In particular, my work advances scholarship in environmental anthropology, post-humanities studies, and socioecological theory. For the past decade I have conducted fieldwork in the Florida Everglades, though I am currently involved in a new multi-site comparative project. I have published in both the American Anthropologist and Cultural Geographies. The University of Minnesota Press is publishing a forthcoming book, Swamplife: People, Gators and Mangroves Entangled in the Everglades that portrays the lively collaborations among mangroves, alligators, hunters, outlaws, and snakes in the Everglades.A related focus of my research examines the social and ecological impacts of land use/land cover change in southern Florida. Our study site, southern Miami-Dade County, has traditionally served as a rural, agricultural buffer between urban Miami and the Everglades. In the past twenty years, the region has experienced rapid urbanization with residential development replacing former rural lands. We refer to this research as the “lawn project,” reflecting the predominance of this type of land cover in our study site. Our research, which is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Florida Coastal Everglades, Long Term Ecological Research program (FCE LTER), seeks to understand the social and ecological implications of lawn production at multiple scales. Our overarching goal is twofold: to understand the complexity of the interactions, drivers and feedbacks that produce lawns (and “lawn people,” as Paul Robbins terms it) and to develop spatially-explicit theories of these patterns and processes. I have other ongoing projects on the cultural history of Everglades National Park that is supported by the National Park Service.
Michael Ross
Tel: 305.348.1420 | Michael.Ross@fiu.edu
As a result of the applied nature of my research, I've become involved in technical planning for the ecological components of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. In particular, I and others in my research group have worked hard to ensure that restoration for the coastal wetlands, and the long- and short-hydroperiod marshes of Everglades Park get on the right track and stay there.
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