Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Matthew Schumm
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: he/him
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): mschumm@bio.fsu.edu
Position Title: Graduate Student
Faculty Advisor Name: {Empty}
Faculty Advisor's FSU Email: {Empty}
FSU College (if applicable): Arts and Sciences
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Biological Science
Headshot (optional): https://cre.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/urop_project_proposal_portal/8901/IMG_5257.jpg

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above): {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable): Dan Okamoto
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?: Prof.
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): dokamoto@bio.fsu.edu

Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Interacting Effects of Food Variability and Fishing Mortality on Fish Populations and Traits
Project Keywords: Biology, ecology, fish, statistics, food
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: No
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 2
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Biology, computational biology, statistics, environmental science, food and nutrition sciences

Project Location:: At least partly off of FSU Main Campus – 2606 Mission Road, Tallahassee
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: No, there is a public transportation option (Osceola and Azalea buses)
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: In-person
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 7 hrs.
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
We are studying how fish populations change when individuals are removed due to harvest, and how this might depend on the amount of food/prey available to the fish. When fish are removed due to harvest, the fish remaining are often (depending on the type of harvest) younger and smaller, but there is sometimes more food and space left over for fish remaining and they may start to grow more quickly. Over multiple generations, the population gene pool may change as fish with certain genetics survive and breed better in the new conditions, and change in fishes’ traits may occur even without genetic change. To study this, we use the very small (the smallest fish in North America!) and fast-growing fish Heterandria formosa as a model organism. We keep lab-bred populations of hundreds of these fish at the FSU Biology Department’s Mission Road greenhouse near campus (off the Osceola bus route)–however, depending on students’ interests, most of the work for a UROP project can be completed on our lab on campus in the King building. At the greenhouse, we are imposing different types of harvest and levels of food on the different populations to observe what happens to the individuals and populations over time. UROP students in the lab this year will have the opportunity to measure differences in length, size, reproduction, and growth of individual fish between these experimental populations, and to study how population size and demographic characteristics are changing.

Research Tasks:
Details of the work to be completed by a UROP student will depend on the student’s major and interests, but will include care and manipulation of Heterandria formosa fish in tanks in the Mission Road biology research facility greenhouses. Other tasks may include measurement of fish growth (potentially using ImageJ software with photo data of fish), monitoring of tank water quality parameters, measurement of gas and nutrient flux and fish energy use with respirometers and/or diet tracing methods, dissection and measurements of fish embryos, weighing dried fish tissue and extracting and weighing fish tissue fat content, extraction of DNA or RNA and sample preparation for possible future sequencing, data visualization and making plots, and development and coding of analytical or simulation models to analyze or extend data. The student will integrate their work into an ongoing long-term multi-generation harvest experiment and design a test of a hypothesis using this existing experiment, potentially around any traits or outcomes that may be affected by simulated harvest and/or food fluctuations.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
No skills are required in advance – students will learn necessary animal husbandry, data collection, and data analysis techniques in the course of their work.

Mentoring Philosophy:
We (Matthew and Dan) have worked with several UROP and DIS students before and are eager to provide students with the support needed to gain useful and interesting academic and professional experience in ecological research, and specifically to make sure that students are given regular advice, feedback, and training at every step necessary in order to complete a UROP project. We aim to provide a fun, fulfilling, and safe experience with research that is helpful to our students’ goals.

Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://sites.google.com/view/mschumm/research
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
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Roundtable times and Zoom links:
Wednesday, Sept 6, 4:30-5pm (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97895574497)
Thursday, Sept 7, 4:30-5pm (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97659330359)
Link to recorded presentation: https://fsu.zoom.us/rec/share/q7lc5Z3s9zOvX39iuKoI0gg-mFQtKpn9qCUgpQwGVV1ejNe2GfO-L_vzWl-JnOhU.ZzoAheSn25Z9mJ1k?startTime=1694119159000

UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes
Faculty Advisor Confirmation: {Empty}

Are you interested in attending in a UROP Research Mentor Workshop Series?: No
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Year: 2023
update url: https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?element_parents=elements/research_mentor_information/headshot_optional_&ajax_form=1&_wrapper_format=drupal_ajax&token=eSyt6cIv70smQLTzydHaONuI032w79zEvMBuBlyv-P8