Study Abroad: University of Florida in South Africa

Come find out about the University of Florida in South Africa program  at the Study Abroad Fair on Wednesday, January 29 from 10 AM to 3 PM at the Reitz Union North Lawn.

We will also be hosting an informational session on our University of Florida in South Africa program on Wednesday, February 5th from 5-6 PM in Turlington Hall 3018.

University of Florida in South Africa
Summer A: May 26th – June 20th
Students will be in the field on safari in one of Africa’s prime wildlife areas! Imagine earning 6 credits while also gaining an understanding of the challenges, complexities and beauty of National Parks in South Africa. A truly incredible experience!
The program will primarily take place in Kruger National Park where students will go on safari, conduct reserve walks with Rangers, visit animal rescue facilities, and much more! Housing, lodging and food are all included.
Eligibility Requirements:
-Open to ALL majors
-GPA 2.5 or higher; student must be in good standing
-Interest in Africa & Conservation
-Previously taken GEA 3600: Geography of Africa (recommended but not required)
-Email the program director, Dr. Jane Southworth, to meet & discuss further trip details >> jsouthwo@ufl.edu

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 15th, 2020

Spaces are limited to only 14, and fill quickly!
Apply online at: www.internationalcenter.ufl.edu

Geography Colloquium: Impacts, Recovery, and Ongoing Stressors in the Apalachicola River, Florida

Image courtesy Dr. Joann MossaImpacts, Recovery, and Ongoing Stressors in the Apalachicola River, Florida

Speaker: Dr. Joann Mossa

Professor, Department of Geography, University of Florida

Thursday, January 23, 2019

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

The Apalachicola River has experienced impacts because of dredging for navigation and hydrologic droughts exacerbated by upstream water consumption. We review these impacts and discuss how the river is recovering following the end of dredging and the application of floodplain inundation models. Sand bars are stabilizing with vegetation since dredging ended, but ongoing impacts include erosion of dredge spoil mounds altering the adjacent channel and reduced water inputs affecting the floodplain and bay.

Geography Colloquium: Decisions will be made – modeling vector borne disease at multiple scales for different purposes and use

Image courtesy Dr. Sadie Ryan

Speaker: Dr. Sadie Ryan

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Florida

Thursday, January 16, 2020

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

Forecasting the impacts of climate change on vector-borne diseases (VBDs)—especially those under current public scrutiny and concern, such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika—is a key component of global public health preparedness, and a key component of the ongoing issue of climate change preparedness. In this talk, I will showcase a strategy for applying ecophysiological models of temperature-dependent transmission to current and future climate models at large scales. I will demonstrate how our collaborative team have used these models to explore future scenarios for malaria, and for Aedes spp transmitted diseases, and how we can use mapping approaches as useful visualization tools, and how we tackle describing the multiple potential outcomes. I will also describe some local-scale, city and province level approaches to understanding vectorborne disease dynamics and management, and explore issues of how these two scales come together (or don’t) for decision making on the ground and in the boardroom.

Bio: Sadie J. Ryan is an Associate Professor of Medical Geography in the Department of Geography and in the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) at the University of Florida, and PI of the Quantitative Disease Ecology and Conservation (QDEC) Lab group (www.sadieryan.net).

Ryan’s training is in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (BA, Princeton), with an emphasis on conservation biology, quantitative ecology, and particularly, disease ecology. Ryan’s PhD work (UC Berkeley) centered on African buffalo spatial ecology in their savanna environment, in the context of an epidemic of Bovine Tuberculosis. Ryan’s postdoctoral work in Anthropological Science (Stanford, McGill), Ecology (NCEAS) and Geography (UCSB), launched her interdisciplinary work looking at the anthropogenic impacts of land use change, climate change, and conservation management goals in African parks landscapes, and the role of socioecological systems in disease transmission in Africa and Latin America.

This research continues today, investigating the multiscale issues of climate-health relationships in and on landscapes, and interactions with livelihoods, sustainability, parks management goals, the urban environment, and local perceptions. QDEC Lab is home to multiple projects in ecology at the human interface, spanning socioecological systems of vector borne and environmental disease ecology, climate-health modeling, insecticide resistance, and wildlife conservation, from Florida to the Old and New World tropics.

 

Announcing The Navi-Gator, Issue 3!

University of Florida Department of Geography
The Navi-Gator
January 2020, ISSUE 3 (Download PDF)

Evening of excellence

John & Fawn Dunkle Award for Graduate Student Travel: Ryan Good & Guoqian Yan
David L. Niddrie Excellence Fund: Tierney Shimansky & Shreejana Bhattarai
Little Family Student Fellowship Award: Caroline Parks
Ryan Poehling Award for Top Graduate Student: Michael Dillen (Top Master’s Student) & Cat Lippi (Top PhD Student)

Congratulations to our winners! We loved having you all for a night of celebration, reward and remembrance!

A Survey of Tick-Borne Bacterial Pathogens in Florida
Investigating diseases across mainland Florida!
A team from the University of Florida – including Geography’s Dr. Gregory Glass – has examined the distribution and presence of tick-bourne bacterial pathogens in Florida. Ticks were collected at 41 sites across Florida. DNA was extracted from 1,600 ticks – determining further investigation should be done to identify regional hotspots of tick-borne pathogens. Read more on the Geography website under “Recent Publications.”

Colloquium
12/5 Terry J. Doonan
Conserving Imperiled Mammal Species in Florida Across a Changing Landscape
Dr. Robert McCleery
Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho
Dr. Robert Walker
Where Are they now?
Our recent grads have found themselves in some interesting places!
Morgan Walker, class of 2019, works with Jason Blackburn as a Master’s research assistant.

Geography Colloquium: Conserving Imperiled Mammal Species in Florida Across a Changing Landscape

Conserving Imperiled Mammal Species in Florida Across a Changing Landscape

Speaker: Terry J. Doonan

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Thursday, December 5, 2019

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

Although many people know about the large, charismatic, endangered mammal species in Florida, few people are familiar with other listed mammals here. To conserve these species, we are developing solutions to address the challenges they face as conditions change across Florida’s landscape.

Geography Colloquium: Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes – Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century

Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes – Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century

Speaker: Dr. Robert Walker

Professor, Department of Geography, University of Florida

Thursday, March 14, 2019

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

New infrastructure threats confront the Amazon. Resulting development could push its forest past a “tipping point,” replacing it with tropical savanna. This would degrade biodiversity, reduce carbon storage, and harm continental agriculture. Environmental policy in Brazil has weakened over time. Luckily, indigenous peoples are capable of resisting development forces.

Third Annual Evening of Excellence in Geography

We will be hosting our Third Annual Evening of Excellence in Geography, on Tuesday November 19th from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Keene Faculty Center. As usual we will have finger foods and desserts available, along with soft drinks and a cash bar for beer and wine.

This is a fun night of celebration of the accomplishments of our students and is open to all faculty, students, staff, as well as family and friends. We hope you plan to join us and share in the announcement of the winners of this year’s Geography Awards.

In order to have an idea of numbers please send a quick email to Crystal (cwilmoth@ufl.edu) or drop by and sign up on the sign-up sheet in her office, with your name, and number attending.

Geography Colloquium: Amazons Within The Amazon – A Multiscale Assessment of Urbanization

Image courtesy Ms. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho

Amazons Within The Amazon – A Multiscale Assessment of Urbanization

Speaker: Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho

PhD Alumna, Department of Geography, University of Florida

Thursday, November 14, 2019

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

Urbanization in the Brazilian Amazon has reached 80%. This is a recent and rather intensive process. At the same we see population increase, we see the fortification of the hydropower system. But how and where this urbanization is reshaping the profile of the rainforest? And what is the role of hydropower in stimulating urbanization?

Announcing The Navi-Gator, Issue 2!

 

University of Florida Department of Geography
The Navi-Gator
OCTOBER 2019, ISSUE 2

So many new and exciting things have happened…
Check out our amazing new grad lab in 1215!
Come visit us in the geography office– lounge around in reclining chairs and grab some new GeoGator merch. We have T-shirts and sweatshirts for sale, along with other complementary goodies.

Now Accepting Applications for 2019 Graduate Student Awards!
* Top Published Student Research Article
* Little Family Student Fellowship Award
* John & Fawn Dunkle Award for Graduate Student Travel
* Evan Coe Award in Medical Geography
* David L. Niddrie Excellence Fund
* Anderson Award for International Travel
Submissions are due by 5 pm on November 15th via email to Crystal: cwilmoth@ufl.edu with award name in the subject header [required

UF Researchers Lead future GIS Project in Ghana on Deforestation and City Growth
Funded by SERVIR!
A team from the University of Florida – including Geography’s Dr. Olivier Walther – has received funding from SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development for their Linking Deforestation, Urbanization, and Agricultural Expansion for Land-Use Decisions in Ghana project. The team will use Geospatial Information System (GIS) tools to assess deforestation, urbanization, and agricultural expansion to improve land use planning in Ghana.

Colloquium
Upcoming: (Dates TBA)
Dr. Robert McCleery
Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho
Dr. Robert Walker
Ryan Good
Past:
Dr. Kim Valenta (October 3rd): The Mad Dog Initiative – Identifying and Mitigating Invasive Species Threats in Madagascar
Dr. Bo Yang (October 10th): Drone Mapping for Coastal Seagrass Monitoring and Citizen Science
Dr. Danielle Jake-Schoffman (October 16th): Technology-Based Interventions to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating
Dr. Michael Gavin (October 24th): The Geography and Conservation of Biocultural Diversity
Dr. Seth Cavello (October 31st): Rust Belt Renaissance? The Experience of Refugees from Burma in Buffalo, NY

Kim Valenta (October 3rd): The Mad Dog Initiative – Identifying and Mitigating Invasive Species Threats in Madagascar
Dr. Bo Yang (October 10th): Drone Mapping for Coastal Seagrass Monitoring and Citizen Science
Dr. Danielle Jake-Schoffman (October 16th): Technology-Based Interventions to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating
Dr. Michael Gavin (October 24th): The Geography and Conservation of Biocultural Diversity
Dr. Seth Cavello (October 31st): Rust Belt Renaissance? The Experience of Refugees from Burma in Buffalo, NY

Where Are they now?
Our recent grads have found themselves in some interesting places!
Chia Yu (Charles) Wu, class of 2019, graduated with his Doctorate in Geography. He is currently researching River-Coastal Science and Engineering as a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University.

Geography Colloquium: Maintaining Diverse Wildlife in Africa’s Rapidly Changing Savannas

Image courtesy Dr. Robert McCleery

Maintaining Diverse Wildlife in Africa’s Rapidly Changing Savannas

Speaker: Dr. Robert McCleery 

Associate Professor, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation , University of Florida

Thursday, November 7, 2019

2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8)

Turlington Hall Room 3018

University of Florida

All are welcome to attend.

With a full complement of large herbivores and predators the wildlife of Africa savannas are unique but face an increasingly trouble suite of challenges. In this talk, we will explore some of the challenges and opportunity to maintaining wildlife on the rapidly developing continent.