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Since Oct 22, 2017

Welcome!


Thank you for visiting my homepage.


In my laboratory, we study very small creatures called microorganisms. Microorganisms are the oldest life forms and exist on Earth for billions of years. The long evolutionary history of microorganisms has fostered great phylogenetic and functional diversities that far exceed those of animals and plants.


You will be surprised at the success and strategies of microorganisms to adapt rapidly changing environments.


Let's enjoy science with us!

  

Undergraduate Senior Research is welcome (biology, marine science, and environmental studies)!

Please consult with Dr. Toshi. Let's discuss what you can do!

Our research in the lab

 

The Toshi's Aquatic Ecology Laboratory studies environmental cleanup technology and biodiversity. To clean up environments, we use the power of microbes. We have been working on an oil spill project and aquaculture projects. As a part of conservation biology studies, we use environmental DNA techniques to search endangered species and invasive species in southwest Florida. We also conduct aquatic ecology studies in wetlands, rivers, and the Gulf Coast.

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Toshi Urakawa, Professor of Environmental Science

Toshi Urakawa joined the Department of Marine and Ecological Sciences at FGCU in 2010. His fields of interest are environmental cleanup technology and biodiversity. After completing his doctoral degree with a study of cold-loving (psychrophilic/psychrotolerant) marine microorganisms and systematics of Vibrionaceae at the University of Tokyo, he continued his research as a postdoctoral researcher in Dave Stahl’s lab in Northwestern University and the University of Washington. In these places, he studied molecular microbial ecology. In his early professional carriers, he studied the nitrogen cycle and the problem of eutrophication and dead zone (i.e. oxygen depletion) at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japanese EPA) and the University of Tokyo in Japan. Before joining FGCU, he studied ammonia-oxidizing archaea and genomics in Dave Stahl’s lab at UW for a better understanding of the nitrogen cycle. At FGCU, he studies biogeochemical cycles in southwest Florida and biological and engineering water qualification technology as reducing means of human disturbance of aquatic environments. Recently he initiated conservation biology studies. Toshi teaches marine science classes, general ecology, and microbial ecology at FGCU.

hurakawa@fgcu.edu

Taylor Hancock, Post-Graduate Laboratory Assistant

Taylor graduated FGCU with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in Fall 2016 and then with a Environmental Science Master’s degree in Spring of 2019 receiving distinction as FGCU's Graduate Student of the Year. His thesis work involved studying the feeding behavior and diet of smalltooth sawfish through genetic analysis to identify prey items at the species-level in hopes of furthering conservation efforts of this endangered ray. His current projects involve examining fish foragers of the Microcystis aeruginosa harmful algal bloom in the Caloosahatchee River using traditional and molecular methods as well as sequencing the genome of M. aeruginosa and other associated algal species. His research interests include molecular genetics, disturbance ecology, and evolutionary biology.

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thancock@fgcu.edu

Elizabeth Dahedl

Currently, Elizabeth studies picocyanobacteria, which are taxonomically identified as Synechococcus and Cyanobium. These cyanobacteria are abundant in our freshwater environments and may play key roles to control healthy phytoplankton communities. 

ekdahedl2130@eagle.fgcu.edu

Michael Kratz

Mike is mainly working on two bacteria source tracking studies. 

makratz5802@eagle.fgcu.edu

Former lab members

 Here is a list of former lab members.

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Graduate students

Megan Feeney (FGCU), Cristina Lopardo (FGCU-high school chemistry teacher, Orange County Public Schools), Alex Kucherenko (FGCU), Juan Garcia (FGCU-Environmental Chemist, Collier County), Irma Sanchez (FGCU), Rachel Smolinski (FGCU)

 

Undergraduates

Jacob Steele (FGCU), Julia Sereda (FGCU), Gabrianna Andrews (FGCU), Gregory Limardi II (FGCU), Jeffrey Mechanics (FGCU), Amy Murray (FGCU), Carissa Flaherty (FGCU), Elizabeth Schroeder (FGCU), Airea Williams (FGCU), Natalie Harvey (FGCU), Carissa Flaherty (FGCU), Max Pettit (FGCU), Irma Sanchez (FGCU), Kendall Karcher (FGCU), Anthony Bonacolta (University of Miami), Kaitlyn Wagner (FGCU), Kelsey Weissenhofer (FGCU), Francia Sanchez (FGCU), Nicole Jensen (FGCU-Environmental Specialist Solid & Hazardous Waste Management Division Collier County Public Utilities Department), Erika Kreuger (FGCU), Emma Fain (FGCU-UF), Leah Gexler (FGCU), Aaron Sipos (FGCU-UF), John Ciocca (FGCU), Derek Borgeson (FGCU), Anna Larson (FGCU), Dustin Chisum (FGCU), Isaac Holowell (FGCU-Algenol), Haruka Urakawa (FGCU -lab manager), Spencer Talmage (FGCU-Duke University), Erika Fulton (FGCU), Jonathan Maile (FGCU)

 

High school students

Natalie Staudacher (Gulf Coast High School &FGCU - Univ. of Michigan), Mariah Couglin (Fort Myers High School-Univ. of Central Florida), Lila Gutstein (Canterbury School-Pennsylvania State Univ.)

 

Middle school student

Esha Shah (Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School-Fort Myers High School) 

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