|
|
|
Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students |
Cynthia S. Loftin
Assistant Leader-Wildlife, Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Dr. Loftin is the Assistant Unit Leader - Wildlife at the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Her interests in systems, landscape, and wetlands ecology drive her research program involving wetlands restoration issues. Current studies include identifying effects of fish introductions on invertebrate communities in Maine’s naturally fishless ponds, examining distribution and nest site characteristics of four-toed salamanders in Maine, quantifying mercury levels in two-lined salamanders in Maine, developing a spatial vegetation succession and fire behavior model for Okefenokee Swamp, GA, and examining use of Maine’s wetlands by selected waterbird species. Past research involved developing a spatial model of the Okefenokee Swamp, GA, hydrologic environment using Geographical Information Systems, and integrating statistical models of plant-habitat relationships with maps of fire and logging history and the modeled hydrology, to assess patterns and processes of landscape change in the swamp. Earlier research also included mapping seagrass distributions and quantifying relationships of seagrass occurrence with water quality and epiphyte loading in the Laguna Madre, TX, quantifying wintering waterfowl use of wetlands in coastal South Texas, using radio telemetry to study habits of eastern indigo snakes in North Florida, and assessing blackbird damage to agricultural crops. |
