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Dione W. Swanson B.A. Biology, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN 1992; M.S. Biology, California State University at Northridge 1995. My first experience diving in a marine environment was while I was enrolled in Northeastern University's East/West Marine Biology Program during 1990-1991. As a junior in college, I was introduced to temperate and tropical marine communities. Ever since, I've worked toward a career in marine science. In graduate school, I worked with Dr. Peter Edmunds at California State University, Northridge, and conducted my research at the Wrigley Marine Science Center, on Santa Catalina Island, CA. My Master's research focused on the variation in temperature susceptibility of different clones of the intertidal sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima. During graduate school, I was involved in two projects in the Florida Keys and St. John USVI that focused on various aspects of coral reef ecology. I became interested in how my anemone work could relate to what happens with scleractinian coral colonies. Following graduate school, I worked with Dr. Richard B. Aronson at the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, Dauphin Island, AL, as program manager of a project that investigated the recovery of coral reef communities damaged by ship-groundings in the Florida Keys. My current position is program manager of a coral reef monitoring and ecological assessment program in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) with Dr. Steven Miller at NURC/UNCW. The primary aim of the project is to document benthic community composition and coral reef condition in no-take management zones and references habitats in the FKNMS. We are also investigating patterns of variation in community structure and composition throughout the Florida Keys by addressing differences in benthic community structure at multiple spatial scales. Our Aquarius mission will allow us to revisit permanently marked photographic monitoring stations that were established in 1994, and that were resampled in 1998 as part of an Aquarius mission led by Dr. Gittings. Second, we will expand our rapid assessment monitoring program to multiple sites and depths at Conch Reef, focusing on deep reef habitats that are difficult to study using conventional scuba diving techniques. Combined, these two efforts will produce the most detailed studies ever conducted of deep coral reefs in the Florida Keys. In addition, we will be tagging individual coral colonies to assess growth and mortality in the future. These results will be used to expand my graduate work focusing on the population dynamics of corals in the Florida Keys. This fall I will be entering a Ph.D. program at University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science working with Dr. Jerald Ault. |
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