Month: December 2022

Biological Technician

B.S. Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology

 

West Sacramento, California

Karyme is a biological technician at the West Sacramento office. She has extensive experience working in the lab, identifying freshwater macroinvertebrates and preparing samples such as tissue, scales, and otoliths for analysis. In previous roles, she assisted with projects regarding invasive plants in California, fire resiliency, coyote behavioral patterns, and turtle spawning. At CFS, she has participated in various data collection surveys such as beach seine, snorkel, steelhead spawning and pit tag mark-recapture.

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Fisheries Biologist

B.S. Biology; M.S. Natural Resource and Ecology Management

 

West Sacramento, California

Maeghen is a fisheries biologist with experience in both freshwater and estuarine fish research including abundance estimation, occupancy relationships, mark-and-recapture, and life history studies. She recently served as an inshore fisheries biologist for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources – Marine Resources Research Institute where she conducted long-term population monitoring of freshwater and estuarine finfish, sharks, turtles, and marine mammals. She has diverse field survey experience including snorkel, eDNA, radio-telemetry tracking, electrofishing, seine net, trammel net, gill net, longline, drumline, and trawl gears. She is an experienced boat operator in rivers, deltas, bays, and nearshore waters. Additionally, she is experienced in laboratory techniques including otolith, fin-ray, microplastics, and histological sample processing and staging. Maeghen also has experience managing and analyzing fisheries abundance, occupancy, life history, and hierarchical data using RStudio, SAS, and JAGS programs. During her graduate career, she developed protocols and led research on Prairie Chub abundance and life history relationships in the Red River basin of Texas and Oklahoma.

Selected Publications

Steffensmeier, Z. D., S. K. Brewer, M. M. Wedgeworth, T. A. Starks, A. W. Rodger, E. Nguyen, and J. S. Perkin. In press. Conservation at the Nexus of Niches: Multidimensional Niche Modelling to Improve Management of Prairie Chub (Machrybopsis australis). North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

 

Steffensmeier, Z. D., M. M. Wedgeworth, L. Yancy, N. Santee, S. K. Brewer, and J. S. Perkin. 2022. Paradigm versus paradox on the prairie: testing competing stream fish movement frameworks using an imperiled Great Plains minnow. Movement ecology 10(1):1-18.

 

Wedgeworth, M. M., R. Mollenhauer, and S. K. Brewer. In press. Variation in Prairie Chub hatch relationships across wet and dry years in the upper Red River basin. North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

 

Steffensmeier, Z.D., M.M. Wedgeworth, L. Yancy, N. Santee, S. K. Brewer, and J. S. Perkin. 2022. Paradigm versus paradox on the prairie: testing competing stream fish movement frameworks using an imperiled Great Plains minnow. Movement ecology 10:1-18.

 

Mollenhauer, R., S. K. Brewer, J. S. Perkin, D. Swedberg, M. M. Wedgeworth, and Z. D. Steffensmeier. 2021. Connectivity and flow regime direct conservation priorities for pelagophil fishes. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 31: 3215-3227.

 

Wedgeworth, M. M., 2021. “Variation in Abundance and Hatch Date of Prairie Chub Machrybopsis australis in the upper Red River Basin.” Thesis dissertation. Oklahoma State University.

 

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