Jeri Lynn Parrent
"Genetic Diversity Among Populations of Phellinus Swieteniae in Mangroves"
Sponsor: Gregory S. Gilbert, Professor of ESPM, Ecosystem Sciences
Project Description
Through a combination of field-work and laboratory research, Jeri's project promises to make an important contribution to our understanding of-and our efforts to preserve-the planet's extraordinarily rich biological diversity. This summer, Jeri will travel to Panama to collect samples of Phellinus swieteniae, a fungal pathogen of black mangroves from six spatially isolated mangrove forests located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. While in Panama, Jeri will also have the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), one of the leading tropical ecology research institutes in the world, and to meet with leading scientists in the field of biogeography, her intended field of graduate study. During the following academic year, she will complete her research project at UC Berkeley, using modern DNA analysis techniques to determine the amount of genetic diversity that exists within and among the populations of fungi collected.
Scholar's Photo
| Jeri Parrent (left) with fellow Haas Scholar Natalia Glebova at the first annual Haas Scholars Research Retreat. |
Scholar's Journal
To describe the tropics in one word it's MUD!!! It is quite difficult hiking anywhere, in that it takes about three times as long in order to trek through the mud. However, aside from the added work and the myriad insects waiting to welcome foreigners with a nice bite, the trees and forest are spectacular--layer upon layer of green, from the knee high flowering plants to the towering trees and the lianas and vines that drape themselves upon everything. Toucans, hummingbirds, sloths, and poison dart frog top the list of cool vertebrates I met on the first leg of my journey, and hopefully many more lie in store. After a short visit to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, and a day trip to Barro Colorado Island, a research island of mature tropical rainforest where many many a Ph.D. has come from, I'm off to the mangroves to start my own research.
