WLRN Environment Editor Jenny Staletovich brought her podcast 'Bright Lit Place' to life for a panel discussion with experts at Florida Atlantic University on Nov. 19, 2024.
You can listen to the full discussion.
Nicholas G. Aumen
Aumen is the regional science advisor for the U.S. Geological Survey and coordinates USGS’s Everglades science program. He also co-chairs the annual Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration science conference, better known as GEER, which annually showcases all the latest Everglades research. Aumen has a PhD in microbiology and specializes in wetlands ecology. He worked for Everglades National Park for 15 years, supervising scientists researching water quality. He was also research director at the South Florida Water Management District overseeing a team of 120 scientists working on restoration.
Erik Stabenau
Stabenau is the branch chief for restoration sciences at the National Park Services' South Florida Natural Resources Center based at Everglades National Park. That means he helps oversee restoration work for Everglades, Biscayne and Dry Tortugas national parks and the Big Cypress National Preserve. He has a PhD in oceanography and has studied both marine and freshwater systems from southern mangroves that bound Florida Bay to how wetlands and the aquifer will respond to climate change. After the 2023 ocean heat wave, he examined historic data, including Manatee Bay where temperatures spiked above 100 degrees Farenheit and found the area is actually warming faster than the Gulf of Mexico, which itself is warming at a faster rate than the global average.
Scott Markwith
Markwith is a professor and ecological biogeographer at Florida Atlantic University, which means he studies plants and animals, and how they react to their surroundings and impacts from humans. He has a PhD in geography. For the last 17 years, his research has stretched from the Kissimmee River to Florida Bay, using field data and remote sensing along with spatial, statistical, and ecosystem modeling to examine impacts from hurricanes and other disturbances, climate change, invasive species, management practices. For Florida Bay, he and his students built a model that combined restoration work with climate change and determined the combined impacts could lead to winners and losers in the ecosystem. A look at invasive species revealed that even once they're removed or managed, restoration can remain complicated.
Jennifer Chastant
Chastant supervises lake ecology in the Applied Science Bureau at the South Florida Water Management District. She completed her PhD at Florida Atlantic University where she studied Everglades restoration and the complicated dynamics between Lake Okeechobees wading birds and marsh fish. Chastant also serves as a regional coordinator for the team of scientists working to assess and validate the affects of Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan on Lake Okeechobee to help guide how the plan is implemented.
Colin Polsky
Polsky is a professor of geosciences and the Associate Vice President for Florida Atlantic University's three Broward campuses. As associate VP, he oversees research, education, and community engagement initiatives, manages daily campus operations, and builds partnerships with both campus and external stakeholders. He has a PhD in geography. As a climate social scientist, he specializes in examining how people respond and perceive climate change and the human dimensions of global warming, including Florida's insurance crisis.
He is leading the launch of the FAU Center for the New American Workforce.
Listen to more: Bright Lit Place Podcast
An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Nicholas Aumen's name.
