Graduate Students
Jaime Slye
- B.S. Biology, Texas A&M University – Kingsville 2003
- M.S. Biology, Texas A&M University – Kingsville 2005
- Ph.D candidate, Biology, University of North Texas, Advisor: Dr. James H. Kennedy
I developed a passion for ecological field work while pursuing my master’s degree at Texas A&M – Kingsville. The classes were field intensive, bringing taxonomy, behavioral, and ecological surveys to the forefront of the laboratories. My master’s thesis focused on the assemblages of parasites found in Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, from two typical estuaries and a hypersaline bay in south Texas. Parasites are exquisite in nature, from the intricate detail of their small bodies to the acuteness of the relationships they share with their hosts. Their assemblages can be used to assess the health of a particular environment.
My master’s research helped me to pinpoint the areas of biology that I would like to encompass in my future career: ecology, toxicology, and invertebrate life-cycles. For my Ph.D dissertation, I am characterizing the benthic macroinvertebrates found in the Trinity River of the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex from the late 1980’s and the present. Historically, the Trinity River has been a highly effluent based system, with influences from municipal and industrial discharges. A comparison of the populations of benthic organisms from past to present will help identify key elements of water quality, habitat, and land use changes that alter the assemblages of organisms. My goal after completing my doctoral research is to obtain a tenure-track faculty position at a university and to continue conducting research that uses invertebrates to assess the health of aquatic ecosystems.
Publications
Atkinson SF, Johnson DR, Venables BJ, Slye JL, Kennedy JH, Dyer SD, Price BB, Ciarlo M, Stanton K, Sanderson H, Nielsen A. 2009. Use of watershed factors to predict consumer surfactant risk, water quality, and habitat quality in the upper Trinity River, Texas. Science of the Total Environment 407(13): 4028-4037.
Slye JL, Kennedy JH, Johnson DR, Atkinson S, Dyer S, Ciarlo M, Stanton K, Sanderson H, Nielsen AM, Price BB. In Review. Relationships between benthic macroinvertebrate community structure with geospatial, habitat, in-stream water chemistry, and surfactants in the effluent dominated Texas Trinity River. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Slye JL, Kennedy JH, Ortego LS, Holmes CM, Burton GA, and La Point TW. In preparation. A Sediment Recolonization Study to Examine Potential Fipronil Effects on Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Freshwater Ecosystems in the Southern United States.
