MEES IN THE NEWS

AUGUST 2025 - national water quality month

NEWS ARCHIVE

MEES RESEARCH CENTER

invasive species management on baltimore’s middle branch ecosystems

isabella molatore (M.S. ‘25)

Isabella Molatore (‘25, M.S.) graduated with her Master’s in MEES from the University of Baltimore County (UMBC) this past Spring 2025. Advised by Dr. Tamra Mendelson, a UMBC MEES faculty member, Isabella’s thesis research focused on investigating the effects of the Reel Rewards Program, an invasive fish removal initiative for Baltimore’s Middle Branch ecosystems and communities. The Middle Branch is an 11+ mile stretch of wetland in South Baltimore and follows the Patapsco River right up to the former Key Bridge. Isabella’s research aimed to establish a baseline for future assessments of the program's effectiveness at the detection of invasive species, assessing fish community composition, and documenting community perceptions of environmental change utilizing various methods including environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling and angler interviews.

Prior to joining the MEES program, Isabella traces her curiosity in science back to the early age of nine, when she took part in a shark dive in Tahiti, and watching science programming and admiring the work of Jane Goodall. These experiences led her to learn more about fisheries biology and zoology at Humboldt State University (HSU), and as an undergraduate Isabella worked at various volunteering positions at aquariums including working at HSU’s marine lab and research vessel studying marine fish and invertebrates.   While at Humboldt, Isabella created a study on Californian mussels used for nitrogen fixation, assisted with hatchery operations and participated in multiple studies on salmonid, aggressive behavior and substrate size, body mass accumulation and temperature, and performed a necropsy.  After graduating with her Bachelor’s in Fisheries Biology in Spring 2015, Isabella worked for four years for government regulatory agencies as a fisheries technician before working with Sonoma Water researching the impacts of drought on river mouth closures on steelhead, or steelhead trout, which is native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and North America.  Isabella captured and handled thousands of fish from the wild using various capture techniques, and performed quality and assurance of data collected in the field. Isabella also summarized and analyzed a 20-year data set and presented her findings in the form of a professional poster at Sonoma Water’s annual poster session.  

These experiences fueled Isabella’s desire for a career as an environmental specialist and joined the MEES Master’s program under the advisement of Dr. Tamra Mendelson, Isabella’s thesis research examined the Reel Rewards Program, an invasive fish removal initiative in Baltimore’s Middle Branch, and aimed to establish a baseline for future assessments of the program’s effectiveness.  The Reel Reward Program is part of the Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative, an urban wetland restoration project.   Utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling, angler interviews to detect invasive species, fish community composition assessments along with documenting community perceptions of environmental change, Isabella’s research aimed to demonstrate eDNA’s usefulness in measuring species richness and relative abundance and also documented angler’s reports of improved water quality overall, though sewage, litter and industrial runoff remain a concern of the community.   For more on Isabella, please click here.

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Dr. fernando miralles-wilhelm

environmental management & sustainability:

the food, water and energy nexus

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm is the president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and also serves as the University System of Maryland’s (USM) vice chancellor for sustainability.  Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm, a recently appointed MEES faculty member, not only formerly served as Dean of the College of Science at George Mason University, but also served as professor and Chair of the Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Science program at the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) where he directed the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS).  At CICS, he directed a multi-institutional proposal to lead the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies.  The successful proposal received the largest award in UMCP’s history – $175 million over five years. Over his 30 year career, Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm has been a principal investigator on more than $300 million in research sponsored by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),  the World Bank, and other organizations working as a researcher and consultant in water resource projects spanning 50 countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe.  His research expertise and interests are in: water resources and watersheds, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, and conservation science.  Dr. Miralles-Wilhem’s interest in water related issues early in his career as a researcher led him to pursue doctoral studies in hydrology and how water connects to different systems on the planet.   Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm’s research in hydrology has evolved over the years into an academic and practitioner career in water as it connects to a myriad of important components of Earth: water and land, water and vegetation, water and climate, water and cities, water and health, water and biodiversity conservation, and the water, food and energy nexus. Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm, affiliated with the Environment, Health and Society (EHS) Foundation, plans to teach several graduate level courses including MEES 698Y: Science for Environmental Management  and AOSC 661: Sustainability Modeling. 

Before joining UMCES, Miralles-Wilhelm’s experience includes serving as Dean of the College of Science at George Mason University, as faculty at Northeastern University, the University of Miami, Florida International University, and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).  Miralles-Wilhelm also spent five years as a civil servant at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington, DC. He has also served as Lead Scientist at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) since 2018. Miralles-Wilhelm is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Massachusetts and Florida.

He earned his PhD in civil and environmental engineering at MIT, an MS in engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and a BS in mechanical engineering at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela. He is fluent in English and Spanish. For more information on Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, please click here.

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MEES RESEARCH CENTER

reducing TMDL’s: studying global change impacts on marsh ecosystems in calvert county, Maryland

julia smeltzer (‘24, Ecol sys)

Julia Smeltzer (‘24, ECOL SYS) is a first year Master’s MEES graduate student from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.  Based at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and advised by Dr. Lora Harris, Julia’s research interests in the Ecological Systems Foundation are focused on the impacts of global change on marsh ecosystems; and her thesis research is currently part of a project which will be using land use data and long term water quality data from Calvert County, Maryland to recommend best management practices for reducing Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a critical tool used to restore and maintain the health of water bodies by setting limits on pollution to meet water quality standards.   Julia’s master’s research will specifically focus on the role wetlands play in this relationship using Calvert County as a test case.

Prior to joining the MEES graduate program, this Washington, D.C. native’s interest in environmental issues was sparked by her childhood experiences growing up along the banks of the Anacostia River, taking bike rides along the Anacostia trail and going for walks in the National Arboretum.  Julia’s fascination developed into a love for research and coastal ecology, asking questions about pollution and learning about the degradation of the river.   During her senior year in high school, Julia conducted an independent research project in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to study the effects of nutrient pollution on seagrass growth from seed. This first exposure to research led Julia to explore more about the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and further explore environmental issues.  In Fall 2019, Julia joined both the Environmental Science and Biology undergraduate programs at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, double majoring in order to learn both the technical and humanitarian side of environmental issues.  In her sophomore year, Julia had the opportunity to join the Mozdzer Lab under Dr. Thomas Mozdzer, Professor and Chair of Biology at Bryn Mawr College. This unique and close partnership between Bryn Mawr and Haverford in the Bi-College Consortium affords students at both colleges access to classes on both campuses and even to major and minor in different departments in both colleges.  Julia’s research at the lab was on the C-EVO project which is assessing how global change impacts carbon cycling in salt marshes. As part of the project, Julia  investigated how anthropogenic carbon and nitrogen pollution affect phenotypic traits of Phragmites australis, a wetland grass known as “the common reed”, and the eco-evolutionary implications.  Julia spent two summers doing field work at The Global Change Research Wetland, a field site part of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), studying plant physical traits and collecting samples for DNA extraction and elemental analysis. Julia’s work on this project culminated in her senior thesis and further sparked her interest in understanding how increased CO2 and sea level rise impacts ecosystem functions like carbon sequestration while also demonstrating the value of and her passion for field work.  Julie credits being able to spend time outside conducting research as a benchmark that further confirmed her environmental science career path.  After earning her Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and in Environmental Science in Spring 2023, Julie had the opportunity to participate in the Scientist in Parks program and spent that summer doing research at Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park working on two projects; one focused on soft-sediment biodiversity in the intertidal zone and the other on flowering time of Eelgrass, the latter a statewide study at better informing restoration efforts.  

Julia’s thesis research currently focuses on using land use data and long term quality data from Calvert County, Maryland to recommend best management practices for reducing TMDLs.  Specifically, Julia has already completed a wetland change and shoreline change analysis and is set to start the next phase of research related to water quality data using different models.  Julia aims to continue learning about how human activity is impacting coastal ecosystems, and through partnerships with essential coastal communities hopes her research will better inform protection and restoration efforts on these vital ecosystems in order to better provide for the people that rely on them.  For more information on Julia, please click here.

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