Summer Research Experience

At the Guana Tolomato Mantanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Intern Nicole D’Arienzo has started conducting her experiment. Nicole is a Frederik Meijer Honors College undergraduate student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, double majoring in biology (with an emphasis in ecology and evolutionary biology) and biochemistry under the mentorship of GTMNERR’s Research Coordinator Dr. Nikki Dix, Nicole is investigating the ecological associations between mangroves and oyster reefs. Her research primarily focuses on the effects mangroves have on sedimentation rates on oyster reefs. To explore this, she is setting out sediment tiles on oyster reefs with mangroves to measure sediment accretion and deposition.