Faculty

Melanie Riedinger-Whitmore

St. Pete Campus Chair & Professor 

CONTACT

St. Petersburg campus
Office: STG 217
Phone: (727) 873-4834
Email

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Zoology, The Ohio State University, 1983

Teaching 

  • Principles of Ecology
  • Disease Ecology
  • Stream Ecology

Specialty AREAs

Conservation Biology, Aquatic Ecology, Paleolimnology, Phycology, Wetland Ecology

Recent Publications

RESEARCH

I am an aquatic community ecologist, and I use fossil algal and cyanobacterial pigments, and other biological and chemical indicators from lake sediments, to examine historical changes in algal communities in Florida lakes that result from environmental change or anthropogenic activities.

I鈥檝e also assembled fossil diatom records from Amazonian, Andean, and Galapagos lakes, and have used these records to document algal community change in response to natural water-level fluctuations, and to ENSO activity. My areas of specialization include aquatic and wetland ecology, stream ecology, contemporary limnology and paleolimnology.

My research lab is particularly interested in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems, in monitoring the effects of environmental change and anthropogenic impacts on aquatic communities and habitats, and providing data that can be used to protect and restore these ecosystems for the future.

Current projects include the paleolimnology of central Florida lakes, investigating past algal and cyanobacterial blooms using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), and documenting natural variation in contemporary algal communities in freshwater ecosystems.

I teach a variety of ecology courses: conservation biology, restoration ecology, wetland ecology, disease ecology, and urban ecology. I welcome opportunities to conduct research with graduate and undergraduate students interested in limnology, paleolimnology, phycology, or wetland ecology.