Using a rainfall simulator and vegetative strips, Valerie (Jody) Harwood joined two other researchers in demonstrating that fecal contamination from poultry was transported in runoff in a similar manner to Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. bacteria. They used a microbial source tracking (MST) marker for poultry feces/litter (the 16S rRNA gene of Brevibacterium sp. LA35 [LA35] measured by quantitative PCR) and compared this marker with fecal bacteria flushed out in their experimental system. You can read about their findings here.

In a continuation of their research into the effects of the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) on frogs, the Rohr lab, led by senior author Taegan McMahon, working with several outside investigators, discovered that 3 species of frogs can acquire behavioral or immunological resistance to the deadly fungus. Their studies showed that frogs learned to avoid the fungus after just one exposure and temperature-induced clearance. Read more about their study, published in Nature, here.

Philip Motta was interviewed for the June 24 radio broadcast of "People Behind the Science", a 7 day a week radio podcast featuring leading scientists from varied fields of research. The nearly 38 minute interview covered portions of Phil's personal life and upbringing as well as his education and his research work. You can find out more about Phil and listen to the entire engaging broadcast here.

Lynn (Marty) Martin has been invited to come to the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Sante Fe, Argentina, as a Fulbright Specialist, to present a series of lectures and workshops for faculty and students on eco-immunology. He will be presenting classes and field workshops, as well as giving lectures, covering subjects on methods for immunology, host-parasite evolution, behavioral ecology and psychoneuroimmunology, among other topics. You can read more about his upcoming trip to Argentina here.

Survival of enteric bacteria in aquatic habitats varies depending upon species, strain, and environmental pressures. Mechanisms governing their fate are poorly understood. Authors Pauline Wanjugi and Valerie (Jody) Harwood compare the survival of two motile pathogens of fecal origin by culturing Escherichia coli O157 and Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. Each species has a motile and non-motile counterpart and were cultured in out-door microcosms with protozoan predators (Tetrahymena pyriformis) present or absent. Bacteria were studied in both water and sediment environments. Read more about their study here.

Using scanning electron microscopy, authors Jennifer Wortham (Univ. of Tampa, Tampa, FL), Lauren VanMaurik (USF Integrative Biology), and W. Wayne Price (Univ. of Tampa, Tampa, FL) examined the setal structures and their arrangement on the grooming appendages and sensory structures of the commercially important shrimp, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Three male morphotypes and the female shrimp are described in the paper, accompanied with SEM photography of the setae. A literature review of terminology related to the structure of setae and setal types in decapod crustaceans is offered as the usage of various terms is ambiguous and conflicting in the literature. Read more about their study here.

Hosts manage parasitic infections using an array of tactics that develop with time and exposure of generations of a species to the parasite. The authors explore whether coping ability of congeners that differ in host-parasite coevolutionary history differed in response to experimental infections with a coccidian parasite. Using non-native (invasive) house sparrows and native gray-headed sparrows, the authors expose both groups of birds to the parasite, and measured physiological and biochemical responses of the birds to the infection. Read more about their study here.

Earl McCoy, Henry Mushinsky and David Rostal co-published the first comprehensive guide to North American tortoises. The 208 page book covers everything about the long-lived herbivores from paleontology to morphology to diet, behavior and conservation. Read more about their new book here.

Lynn (Marty) Martin was elected Chair of the newly formed Division of Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. The new division was established by SICB in January 2014, formed "to facilitate communication, research, and data sharing among ecoimmunologists and disease ecologists." Read the full story about Marty's new appointment here.

In April, Peter Stiling joined Amanda Maurer and Thomas Juster on a USF-sponsored trip to the Caribbean, where they boarded the sailboat Ocean Star to evaluate classes in seamanship, student leadership, oceanography, and marine biology offered by Sea|mester, an organization that teaches college classes at sea. They joined 11 students and their instructors on the boat at St. Eustatius to observe the rigor of their classes. Read the full story about their trip here.

Kaitlin Deutsch, a junior in the Honors College and CAS with a double major in biology and environmental science and policy, is one of three USF students to be awarded a 2014 Barry Goldwater scholarship. Kaitlin is an undergraduate research assistant in Jason Rohr's lab, studying chytrid fungus. Read the full story about Kaitlin's Goldwater Scholarship here.

Sidney (Skip) Pierce featured on a National Geographic "Invisible Nature" broadcast June 25. The program explored plants and photosynthesis. Skip has been studying sea slugs for years, and their ability to ingest algae chloroplasts, and to maintain photosynthesis as a result of their diet. Read more about Skip's work and watch the video clip about these amazing photosynthetic sea slugs here.

Viviana Penuela received a three year McKnight Doctoral Fellowship award for her proposed studies on the effects of potable or reclaimed water irrigation of urban lawns on soil chemistry. Read the full story about her research project here.

Jamie Gluvna was awarded her second Unruh Book Scholarship from the Fern Garden Club (FGC) of Odessa. Jamie won her first scholarship in 2013. Her research focuses on the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris). Read the full story about her Unruh Scholarship here.

Valerie (Jody) Harwood received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian-based federal government agency for scientific research. They will work to develop a DNA microarray chip to test water quality in aquatic environmental water. Dr. Harwood is a leading expert in fecal source tracking, and will work with researchers at CSIRO to develop and test the technology, comparing the chips with other water testing techniques. Read the full story here.

Jason Rohr was interviewed as an expert researcher for part of a Canadian national television broadcast, for the TV show called Global 16x9, Canada's equivalent of the U. S. show 60 Minutes. The show concerned the use of atrazine, an herbicide which has been shown to cause sex change in frogs along with other deformities, and the battle between industry, government regulatory agencies and environmental science research. Read the full story, and watch the informative TV clip, here.

Christy Foust was awarded her second Unruh Book Scholarship from the Fern Garden Club (FGC) of Odessa. Christy's first Fern Garden Scholarship was awarded in 2011. Her research focuses on the effects of salt stress on the population structure of the salt marsh plants smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) and sea oxeye (Borrichia frutescens). In February, Christy received her second Aylesworth Scholarship from the Florida Sea Grant program. Read the full story about her Unruh here, and the Aylesworth Scholarship here.

Sarah Seabrook , Honors College junior majoring in marine biology and environmental science and policy, has received three national scholarships. Her most recent scholarship is a Udall Foundation Scholarship, to support research related to the environment. Sarah is conducting a research project in the marine ecology lab of Department of Integrative Biology professor Susan Bell, to evaluate the food web dynamics between natural and restored oyster reef systems through stable isotope analysis. Read the full story about Sarah's award here.

Mary Mangiapia, IB graduate student in KT Scott's lab, successfully completed the grueling 300 mile Everglades Challenge small craft race in the first week in March. She participated in this engineless boat race, which took her from Fort Desoto Park to Key Largo, in an 18 foot sea kayak. Her trek went through open Gulf waters, down the Intercoastal waterway, and through the Everglades. Read the fascinating account of her adventure, accompanied with beautiful photos, here.

Valerie (Jody) Harwood has been selected as a distinguished lecturer for the American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer Program, for the Society for 2014 to 2017. The topic of Dr. Harwood’s lectures will be: “The Big Three Vibrio Pathogens: A Study in Contrast,” “Water Quality in the Time of Molecular Biology: New Regulations and Emerging Approaches,” “What’s In Your Water: Microbial Source Tracking,” and “The Life and Times of “Swamp Death” -Vibrio vulnificus Ecology and Virulence.” Dr. Harwood specializes in microbial ecology and public health microbiology, water quality testing and microbial source tracking. Read the full story here.

Integrative Biology professor Lynn (Marty) Martin will host a symposium on "New perspectives on the ecology and evolution of homeostasis" at the Americam Physiology Society. In addition to this, he is presenting at two additional symposia at other upcoming meetings and giving a 3 day workshop in Guanajuato, Mexico. Read the full story here.