NOAA-EPP LMRCSC Master’s Graduate
MS, Marine, Estuarine & Environmental Science
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Rebecca graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2015 with a B.A. in Biology. Her senior thesis focused on a reassessment of management strategies for the Great Barrier Reef, taking a functional group approach. With her advisor, Dr. Bradley Stevens, she assessed the age, density, and extent of damage to essential habitat forming cold-water corals in the DelMarVa region of the Mid-Atlantic Bight from fished vs. unfished sites. This will help determine whether fishing has a negative impact, and uncover potential patterns and/or impacts over larger scales of time and space.
Rebecca graduated in spring 2019, and was hired as a Faculty Assistant with ESSIC/CICS, and working as a data manager for NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) in Silver Spring
NERTO Project Title: Development of alternative search strategy for assessing densities of clumped distribution species within a comprehensive image database
NOAA Mentor: Dr. Vince Guida, NOAA J.J. Howard Sandy Hook Lab, NJ
Academic Advisor: Dr. Bradley Stevens
Publications/Presentations
- Wenker, R.P. & B.G. Stevens. (2019). Sea whip coral (Leptogorgia virgulata) in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Age, colony complexity, and distribution. Oral presentation at the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), Aquatic Sciences Meeting. February 23-March 2, 2019, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- Wenker, R.P. (2019). Sea whip coral (Leptogorgia virgulata) in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Age, colony complexity, and growth. Oral presentation at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society Tidewater Chapter, February 7-9, 2019. Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD.
- Wenker, R. & B. Stevens. (2018). Cold-water corals in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Age, colony complexity, and growth. Poster presentation at the 148th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, Atlantic City, NJ. August 19-23, 2018.
