Dr. Wiedman has spent nearly 26 years working on and around Andros Island, Bahamas. He is currently working with several USF students on projects to monitor the return of Diadema, the long-spined urchin, after its 25 year hiatus. In 1981 and again in 1983 a virus wiped out the Diadema population throughout the Caribbean. To that point they had been the greatest herbivores on the reef system, keeping the aggressive green algae at bay. With them gone, the much smaller and less mobile rock urchins expanded their populations to fill the niche, but not very efficiently. Now the Diadema are slowly returning naturally and we are monitoring how the reef reacts to their presence. This project will most likely be active for the next 7-10 years.
Also still in progress are several other research projects involving USF students. One is determining the niche differentiation in three small Nerite snails found in the rocky intertidal areas around Andros. The results will be compared to genetic sampling of the three to determine if morphological differences compared with niche partitioning are valid species determiners. There is also a marine archaeology project continuing on English trade goods brought to Andros during the time frame of 1780-1870 and what the significance of them is. Finally, there are a few intermittent, but on-going, projects on Red Mangrove growth rates (now over 10 years in duration), and differing pattern changes in floral zonation covering of one of the small off-shore cays to Andros (now in its 14th year) and a project tbeing used by the Bahamian government to determine the feasibility of sustainable logging on Andros for domestic building use.
Li, X., Harrell, R. A., Handler, A. M., Beam, T., Hennessy, K. & Fraser, M. J. (2005) PiggyBac internal sequences are necessary for efficient transformation of target genomes. Insect Molecular Biology 14 (1), 17-30.
Some results from my work with the local freshwater mussels is available on the website of the Saint Joseph River Watershed Initiative. Follow this link:
http://www.sjrwi.org/
Chalk & Wire Link
Recent presentation and publication:
Obringer AR, Richardson K, Kirchner E & Weldon M. 2005. Determination of the progesterone profile in the captive striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata). Indiana Academy of Sciences, Fall 2005 Meeting Presentation.
Vance CK, Kennedy-Stoskopf S, Obringer AR & Roth TL. 2004. Comparative studies of mitogen- and antigen-induced lymphocyte proliferation in four captive rhinoceros species. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 35(4): 435-446.
