March-April 2020 | College of Arts and Sciences
Four graduate students at the University of South Carolina are starting research with their sights set on healthier waters, more stable sand dunes, and a stronger food chain.
They are receiving the F. John Vernberg Bicentennial Fellowship, which supports research projects at the university’s Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences. In the coming months, they will collect data to help with further research and natural resource management.
The researchers have unique perspectives driving their curiosity.
The beginning of the food chain
We often overlook these simple and small things that can have a profound impact through the whole ecosystem.
― Nayan Mallick
Originally from Bangladesh, Nayan Mallick remembers seeing many people rely on day-to-day fishing for their economic survival. Now a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences, he is exploring how climate change affects some of the smallest life in the ocean, and how that impacts humans.
Mallick is studying zooplankton, microscopic organisms that float freely in the ocean. Despite their small size, they play a big role in life on earth.
“We often overlook these simple and small things that can have a profound impact through the whole ecosystem,” he says.
Learn more about the F. John Vernberg Bicentennial Fellowship.
Visit the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences online .