Nikki Dix, PhD

is the Research Director at the GTM Research Reserve. She grew up in the sunshine state, attended Florida State University for her B.S. degree and the University of Florida for her M.S. and Ph.D. Her research interests involve understanding how ecosystems respond to natural and anthropogenic change with the intent of informing natural resource management. In graduate school she managed the nutrient component of the Research Reserve’s System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) through a contract with the University of Florida. With support from a NOAA Graduate Research Fellowship, Nikki used SWMP data, laboratory-based experiments, and oyster reef sampling to investigate the impacts of hurricanes and eutrophication in the GTM estuary. After graduating, Nikki spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Ft. Pierce, Florida investigating relationships between phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Indian River Lagoon.

Hans Prevost

is the Lead Biologist at the GTM Research Reserve. He is from Lafayette, Louisiana, where he attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL). While at UL, he obtained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s of Science degree. For his master’s, he examined how phytoplankton communities were changing along different environmental gradients within the Gulf of Mexico. He also participated in research that focused on understanding the influence of anthropogenic (barrier island restoration) and environmental impacts (storms, flooding, and vegetation availability) on Brown Pelican nesting populations in coastal Louisiana. His passion for coastal ecosystems lead him to the GTMNERR, where he coordinates the long-term biomonitoring of oyster reefs, salt marsh vegetation, and plankton communities within the GTM estuary.

Jacob Berna

Jacob is a Biologist at the GTM Research Reserve. He attended the University of North Florida and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 2022. In 2023, Jacob started his Master of Science degree. For his project he is studying short-term deposition and accretion rates within varying vegetation communities at the GTM. The goal of the project is to better understand marsh building rates within the Reserve and find potential factors that may influence rates such as elevation and vegetation type. At the Reserve Jacob helps with annual vegetation, oyster and elevation monitoring.  

Katie Petrinec

 is the SWMP Data Specialist at the GTM Research Reserve. She earned her B.S. from Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida. She worked for Tree Hill Nature Center, a small non-profit in the heart of urban Jacksonville for five years before relocating to Madison, Wisconsin to work for two years as a Microbiologist for the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. She worked in the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Laboratory performing multiple stages of diagnostics including analyzing specimens for the presence of prion pathogens. She then relocated back to Florida and began working at the GTM NERR serving as the SWMP Manager until 2013. In 2014, Katie earned her A.S.  in Computer Programming and Analysis and began working as the SWMP Data Specialist.  She now is responsible for data management and analysis of the water quality, weather, and nutrient components of SWMP. She performs the QA/QC reviews and carries out quarterly and annual submissions on all SWMP data collected at the GTM NERR in coordination with standards laid out by the NERRs Centralized Data Management Office. She has also been working on putting together a 10 Year Report on the SWMP data from the GTM NERR.