Of Pools and People

Jared joined UMaine’s vernal pool research team as a PhD student in August of 2013. His research involved using genetic tools to understand how wood frogs and spotted salamanders move among Maine’s vernal pools. Specifically, he was interested in how urban developments such as roadways and residential areas influence the movement of individuals among populations. Improving our knowledge of how vernal pools are intertwined across the landscape and how urbanization influences these connections will inform effective conservation of these unique systems to ensure their presence for future generations. Feel free to contact him to learn more about his research.

What Jared is Doing Now

Of Pools and People alumnus Jared Homola (Ph.D., UMaine 2018) is currently a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Michigan State University. Jared’s current research examines how round gobies, a small invasive fish species, has adapted to a wide range of environments in the Great Lakes in the 30 years since they were introduced. This work is advancing the ecological and evolutionary concepts that Jared studied during his dissertation work with the Of Pools and People team, such as growing our understanding of species’ abilities to rapidly adapt to novel environments.