Jennifer Bernatis
Email: bernatis@ufl.edu
Jenn Bernatis grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. After high school
she moved to Hays, Kansas and received a B.S. in Exercise Science
(1994), and an M.S. in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition (1996), both
from Fort Hays State University. During the next several years she
lived in Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada working in Corporate Wellness and
teaching high school Physical Education.
In the summer of 2002, Jenn went back to school part-time to pursue a
lifelong interest in marine biology, and began work as a volunteer on
corrosion casting of the circulatory system of Dungeness crabs. In the
Spring of 2003, Jenn was admitted as a M.S. student at the University
of Nevada and started work on the effects of hypoxia during feeding
and digestion in Dungeness crabs. This work looked at feeding rates,
movement, and other behaviors, in both laboratory settings and in the
field (sonar tracking tags). This work was published in Marine Biology
in 2007(Click
here to read the full document - 490KB .pdf). Several months of
research (and fishing) at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, located on
the west coast of Vancouver Island, allowed her the opportunity to
observe a range of ecosystems, and develop a keen interest in
ecophysiology, and tolerances of organisms to a wide range of
environmental stressors. Jenn received her M.S. in July 2005. Having
been away from Florida for 15 years, Jenn wanted to return to Florida
to pursue a Ph.D. in marine invertebrate ecophysiology.
Jenn became a student at UF in August 2005, was awarded an Alumni
Fellowship, and began work on a Ph.D. During her first semester, Jenn
was introduced to the freshwater invasive channeled apple snails,
Pomacea insularum and Pomacea canaliculata. After observing
the snails in tanks, seeing the ecological impacts the snails were
accused of having on aquatic vegetation, and their apparent ability to
tolerate almost any Florida freshwater environment she began a
research project focusing on the ecophysiology and impacts of these
invasive snails. Jenn also works part time for the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission and is involved in additional
research projects with Pomacea (i.e. eradication methods). She
is part of the Freshwater Invertebrate Laboratory in Gainesville, and
assists in the collection and identification of freshwater
invertebrates from locations throughout the state, her favorite being
Lake Okeechobee.